The most mysterious paintings by Russian artists. The most mysterious paintings of the world Mystical paintings by contemporary artists
These paintings are known even to those who are far from the world of art, because they are true masterpieces. And each of them hides some secret that cannot be seen with the naked eye.
And it seems that every stroke has already been studied inside and out, nevertheless, scientists are constantly discovering something new in these ancient paintings. Their authors left their descendants with unusual riddles that they managed to solve!
The editors of InPlanet have prepared a list of 12 legendary paintings that have kept secrets for many years and even centuries!
Portrait of the Arnolfini couple / Jan van Eyck (1434)
This portrait was the first in European history to depict a couple. It is an excellent example of the early Renaissance. Historians are still arguing about who is depicted on the canvas and what is happening there. Many are sure that this is a wedding, as indicated by some signs in the picture.
But the most interesting fragment is practically hidden from view - in the reflection of the mirror on the wall you can see the outlines of four people. It is vaguely clear that there is a man and a woman, and the signature is “Jan van Eyck was here.” Art critics believe that the artist depicted himself and his wife.
The Last Supper / Leonardo da Vinci (1495-1498)
This fresco is one of the most famous works of Leonardo da Vinci and also conceals many secrets. The most interesting mystery is hidden on the surface - in the images of Jesus and Judas.
The artist painted the rest of the images with ease, but these two faces were the most difficult for him. For the face of Jesus, he was looking for the embodiment of goodness, and he was lucky - in the church choir he met a young singer. But the last unwritten stain remained Judas, and da Vinci sat for hours in eateries to select the ideal embodiment of evil. And finally, he was lucky - in a ditch he found a drunkard who could barely stand on his feet. He painted the image of Judas from it, but in the end he was surprised.
This man approached him and said that they had already met. Several years ago he was a singer in the choir and had already posed for Leonardo for this picture. So, one man began to personify good and evil.
Portrait of Lady Lisa del Giocondo / Leonardo da Vinci (1503-1505)
Perhaps the most mysterious painting ever painted is the Mona Lisa. For several centuries now, it has haunted art critics and historians, giving rise to increasingly wild and intriguing ideas for its creation.
Who is this woman with a mysterious smile and no eyebrows? It is traditionally believed that this is the wife of the merchant Francesco Giocondo. But there are several other theories that have a right to exist. For example, that the Mona Lisa is a self-portrait of Leonardo himself. There is also a possibility that this painting was painted by da Vinci for himself, and the real painting was discovered in Aizerloot 100 years ago. This Mona Lisa more closely matches the description of the painting by Leonardo's contemporaries.
And more recently, scientists have suggested that the mysterious smile of the girl on the canvas is due to the fact that she had no teeth. By the way, the x-ray showed that she had eyebrows, but the restorations had significantly damaged them.
Creation of Adam / Michelangelo (1511)
Another Renaissance genius, Michelangelo, created his fresco for the Sistine Chapel, where it remains to this day. The subject for this part of the painting was a scene from Genesis called the creation of Adam. And there are many encrypted symbols on the fresco.
For example, if you look closely at the Creator who creates Adam, you can see... the human brain. Experts believe that in this way the artist drew an analogy of the Creator with the source of intelligence, or simply the brain. This theory is confirmed by the fact that Michelangelo was fond of anatomy and constantly conducted experiments on corpses.
Sistine Madonna / Raphael (1513-1514)
This huge canvas, painted by Raphael, is an example of the highest art of the Renaissance. The painting was commissioned by Pope Julius II and was located in the Piacenza monastery. Some art historians believe that this masterpiece was painted for the funeral of the pope.
Raphael encrypted many signs on the canvas, which historians were able to uncover. One of the obvious secrets of the Sistine Madonna is that in the background the artist depicted the faces of the cloud in the form of the faces of angels. Some historians believe that these are unborn souls.
Shore Scene / Hendrik van Antonissen (1641)
The painting by the famous Dutch marine painter Hendrik van Antonissen has long attracted the attention of art critics. This 17th century painting depicts a seemingly ordinary seascape. But the experts were confused by the large number of people who had gathered on the shore for no apparent reason.
The truth was established with the help of an x-ray study, which established that in reality the painting depicted a whale. But the artist decided that people would be bored looking at the dead whale carcass, so he remade the painting. And with a whale, the canvas looks much more impressive!
The last day of Pompeii / Karl Bryullov (1830-1833)
Russian artist Karl Bryullov was impressed by the history of Pompeii while visiting Vesuvius in 1828. He was a very reserved person by nature, but then Karl was simply overwhelmed by emotions, he stayed in the destroyed city for four days and a couple of years later began to paint his famous painting.
There is a special secret on the canvas - if you look closely, in the left corner you can see a self-portrait of the artist himself. He also captured his beloved, Countess Yulia Samoilova, with whom he had a long relationship at least three times, possibly more. She can be seen as a mother holding her daughters to her chest, as a girl with a jug on her head, and as a girl lying on the ground.
Self-Portrait with a Pipe / Vincent van Gogh (1889)
Everyone knows the story of the cut off ear of the extravagant artist Vincent van Gogh. He even painted his self-portrait with a bandaged ear, which caused heated debate among art critics. It is still not known for certain whether he cut off his ear completely or injured it.
For a long time, experts were confused by the fact that in the painting Van Gogh is depicted with a bandage on his right ear, but he injured his left. But the secret was revealed - the Dutch artist painted self-portraits while looking in the mirror, so there was confusion in the picture due to the mirror image.
Blue Room / Pablo Picasso (1901)
Now the names of these artists are known to everyone, but at the beginning of their careers they had to paint several paintings on one canvas - they could not afford to buy fabric. That is why many masterpieces have a so-called double bottom, for example, Pablo Picasso’s painting “The Blue Room”.
Using X-rays, it was possible to find out that a portrait of a man was drawn under the image. Art historians determine who this person was. According to one version, Picasso painted a self-portrait.
The Old Fisherman / Tivadar Kostka Chontvari (1902)
The Hungarian artist Tivadar Kostka Csontvary created many paintings during his life, but was little known. He suffered from bouts of schizophrenia, but still dreamed of Raphael's fame. Tivadar became famous after his death when the painting “The Old Fisherman” was deciphered, which has now become very popular. It was created in 1902 and is considered one of the artist’s most mysterious works.
At first glance, the canvas depicts an old man, as was believed for many years. Until one day it occurred to someone to look at the mirror image of the two halves of the old man’s face. Then the main secret of this canvas was revealed - on it the master depicted God and the Devil, which exist in every person.
Portrait of Adele Bloch-Gower / Gustav Klimt (1907)
This painting is one of the most famous works of Gustav Klimt. In 2006, the Golden Adele was bought for a fabulous sum - $135 million. The beautiful woman depicted on it was actually painted for the sake of... revenge.
In 1904, the whole of Vienna, including her husband Ferdinand, was talking about the novel between Adele Bloch-Gower and Gustav Klimt. He came up with an unusual revenge and commissioned the artist to paint a portrait of his beloved wife. Ferdinand was very picky, and Klimt made more than 100 sketches. During this time, the artist became bored with his mistress, whose portrayal was so difficult, and their romance ended.
Black Square / Kazimir Malevich (1915)
One of the most famous and controversial Russian paintings is “Black Square” by Kazemir Malevich. Few understand the hidden meaning of this provocative painting. But perhaps it’s worth starting with the fact that the square is not square at all and not even black!
X-ray helped determine that under the “Black Square” there was another work by Malevich, on top of which he painted his masterpiece. For him, he prepared a special composition of matte and glossy paints, among which, by the way, there was no black shade. And, despite the fact that the sides of the so-called square are 79.5 cm long, the figure does not have a single right angle.
One way or another, the Mona Lisa remains one of the most mysterious paintings of our time. Perhaps we will never know what this or that artist wanted to tell us, or maybe even all the signs are just a coincidence...
When it comes to painting, the imagination tends to draw pastoral scenes and majestic portraits. But in fact, fine art is multifaceted. It happened that even from the brush of great artists very controversial paintings came out, which hardly anyone would want to hang in their home. In our review of the 10 most terrible paintings by famous artists.
1. The Great Red Dragon and the Beast from the Sea. William Blake
William Blake is known today for his prints and romantic poetry, but was largely unappreciated during his lifetime. Blake's prints and illustrations are classics of the Romantic style, but today we'll look at a series of Blake's watercolor paintings that depict the great red dragon from the Book of Revelation. This painting depicts a large red dragon, the embodiment of the devil, standing on a seven-headed beast in the sea.
2. Study of the portrait of Innocent X by Velazquez. Francis Bacon
Francis Bacon was one of the most influential artists of the 20th century. His paintings, striking in their boldness and darkness, sell for millions of dollars. During his lifetime, Bacon often painted his own interpretations of the portrait of Pope Innocent X. In the original work by Velazquez, Pope Innocent X looks thoughtfully from the canvas, and Bacon depicted him screaming.
3. Dante and Virgil in Hell. Adolphe William Bouguereau
Dante's Inferno, with its depictions of terrible torture, has inspired artists since the publication of this work. Bouguereau is best known for his realistic depictions of classical scenes, but in this painting he depicted the circle of hell where imposters continually fight to steal each other's identities through biting.
4. Death of Marat. Edvard Munch
Edvard Munch is Norway's most famous artist. His famous painting “The Scream,” which personifies melancholy, is firmly ingrained in the consciousness of any person who cares about art. Marat was one of the leading political leaders of the French Revolution. Since Marat suffered from a skin disease, he spent most of the day in the bathroom, where he worked on his works. It was there that Marat was killed by Charlotte Corday. More than one artist has depicted the death of Marat, but Munch’s painting is especially realistic and cruel.
5. Severed heads. Theodore Gericault
Géricault's most famous work is "The Raft of the Medusa" - a huge painting in the romantic style. Before creating major works, Géricault painted “warm-up” paintings like “Severed Heads,” for which he used real limbs and severed heads. The artist took similar material from morgues.
6. Temptation of Saint Anthony. Matthias Grunewald
Grunewald often painted religious images in a medieval style, although he lived during the Renaissance. Saint Anthony went through several tests of his faith while living in the desert. According to one legend, Saint Anthony was killed by demons living in a cave, but was later reborn and destroyed them. This painting depicts Saint Anthony, who was attacked by demons.
7. Still life of masks. Emil Nolde
Emil Nolde was one of the first Expressionist artists, although his fame was soon eclipsed by a number of other Expressionists such as Munch. The essence of this movement is the distortion of reality to show a subjective point of view. This painting was made by the artist after researching masks in the Berlin Museum.
8. Saturn devouring his son. Francisco Goya
In Roman myths, which are largely based on Greek mythology, the father of the gods devoured his own children so that they would never dethrone him. It was this act of killing children that Goya depicted. The painting was not intended for public viewing, but was painted on the wall of the artist's home along with several other dark paintings collectively known as "Black Painting."
9. Judith and Holofernes. Caravaggio
In the Old Testament there is a story about the brave widow Judith. Judea was attacked by an army led by the general Holofernes. Judith left the city walls and headed to the camp of the army besieging the city. There she seduced Holofernes with the help of her beauty. When the commander slept drunk at night, Judith cut off his head. This scene is quite popular among artists, but Caravaggio's version is especially creepy.
10. Garden of earthly delights. Hieronymus Bosch
Usually Hieronymus Bosch is associated with fantastic and religious paintings. "The Garden of Earthly Delights" is a triptych. The three panels of the painting respectively depict the Garden of Eden and the creation of humanity, the Garden of Earthly Delights and the Punishment for sins that occur in the earthly garden. Bosch's works are among the most gruesome yet most beautiful works in the history of Western art.
One of the most famous “cursed” paintings is “The Crying Boy” - a reproduction of a painting by the Spanish artist Giovanni Bragolin. The story of its creation is as follows: the artist wanted to paint a portrait of a crying child and took his little son as a sitter. But, since the baby could not cry on demand, the father deliberately brought him to tears by lighting matches in front of his face.
The artist knew that his son was terrified of fire, but art was dearer to him than the nerves of his own child, and he continued to mock him. One day, driven to the point of hysteria, the baby could not stand it and shouted, shedding tears: “Burn yourself!” This curse did not take long to come true - two weeks later the boy died of pneumonia, and soon his father also burned alive in his own house... This is the backstory. The painting, or rather its reproduction, gained its ominous fame in 1985 in England.
This happened thanks to a series of strange coincidences - fires in residential buildings began to occur one after another in Northern England. There were human casualties. Some victims mentioned that of all the property, only a cheap reproduction depicting a crying child miraculously survived. And such reports became more and more numerous, until, finally, one of the fire inspectors publicly announced that in all the burned houses, without exception, the “Crying Boy” was found intact.
Immediately, the newspapers were overwhelmed by a wave of letters reporting various accidents, deaths and fires that occurred after the owners bought this painting. Of course, “The Crying Boy” immediately began to be considered cursed, the story of its creation surfaced and became overgrown with rumors and fiction... As a result, one of the newspapers published an official statement that everyone who has this reproduction must immediately get rid of it, and the authorities From now on it is forbidden to purchase and keep it at home.
To this day, “The Crying Boy” is haunted by notoriety, especially in Northern England. By the way, the original has not yet been found. True, some doubters (especially here in Russia) deliberately hung this portrait on their wall, and, it seems, no one was burned. But still there are very few people who want to test the legend in practice.
Another famous “fiery masterpiece” is “Water Lilies” by the impressionist Monet. The artist himself was the first to suffer from it - his workshop almost burned down for unknown reasons.
Then the new owners of “Water Lilies” burned down - a cabaret in Montmartre, the house of a French philanthropist, and even the New York Museum of Modern Art. Currently, the painting is in the Mormoton Museum, in France, and does not exhibit its “fire hazardous” properties. Bye.
Another, less well-known and outwardly unremarkable painting, the “arsonist,” hangs in the Royal Museum of Edinburgh. This is a portrait of an elderly man with his arm outstretched. According to legend, sometimes the fingers on the hand of an old man painted in oil begin to move. And anyone who saw this unusual phenomenon will certainly die from fire in the very near future.
Two famous victims of the portrait are Lord Seymour and sea captain Belfast. They both claimed to have seen the old man move his fingers, and both subsequently died in the fire. Superstitious townspeople even demanded that the director of the museum remove the dangerous painting out of harm's way, but he, of course, did not agree - it is this nondescript portrait of no particular value that attracts most visitors.
The famous “La Gioconda” by Leonardo da Vinci not only delights, but also frightens people. In addition to assumptions, fiction, legends about the work itself and about the smile of Mona Lisa, there is a theory that this most famous portrait in the world has an extremely negative effect on the beholder. For example, more than a hundred cases have been officially registered in which visitors who looked at the painting for a long time lost consciousness.
The most famous case occurred with the French writer Stendhal, who fainted while admiring a masterpiece. It is known that Mona Lisa herself, who posed for the artist, died young, at the age of 28. And the great master Leonardo himself did not work on any of his creations as long and carefully as on La Gioconda. For six years, until his death, Leonardo rewrote and corrected the painting, but he never fully achieved what he wanted.
Velazquez’s painting “Venus with a Mirror” also deservedly enjoyed disrepute. Everyone who bought it either went bankrupt or died a violent death. Even museums did not really want to include its main composition, and the painting constantly changed its “registration”. It ended with the fact that one day a crazy visitor attacked the canvas and cut it with a knife.
Another “cursed” painting that is widely known is the work of Californian surrealist artist “Hands Resist Him” by Bill Stoneham. The artist painted it in 1972 from a photograph in which he and his younger sister stand in front of their home.
In the painting, a boy with unclear facial features and a doll the size of a living girl froze in front of a glass door, to which the small hands of children are pressed from the inside. There are many creepy stories associated with this picture. It all started with the fact that the first art critic who saw and appreciated the work died suddenly.
Then the picture was acquired by an American actor, who also did not live long. After his death, the work disappeared for a short time, but then it was accidentally found in a trash heap. The family who picked up the nightmare masterpiece thought of hanging it in the nursery. As a result, the little daughter began to run into her parents’ bedroom every night and scream that the children in the picture were fighting and changing their location. My father installed a motion-sensing camera in the room, and it went off several times during the night.
Of course, the family hastened to get rid of such a gift of fate, and soon Hands Resist Him was put up for online auction. And then numerous letters poured in to the organizers with complaints that while viewing the film, people felt sick, and some even had heart attacks. It was bought by the owner of a private art gallery, and now complaints have begun to come to him. Two American exorcists even approached him with offers of their services. And psychics who have seen the picture unanimously claim that evil emanates from it.
Photo – prototype of the painting “Hands Resist Him”:
There are several masterpieces of Russian painting that also have sad stories. For example, the painting “Troika” by Perov, known to everyone since school. This touching and sad picture depicts three peasant children from poor families who are pulling a heavy load, harnessed to it in the manner of draft horses.
In the center is a blond little boy. Perov was looking for a child for the picture until he met a woman with a 12-year-old son named Vasya, who were walking through Moscow on a pilgrimage.
Vasya remained the only consolation of his mother, who buried her husband and other children. At first she did not want her son to pose for the painter, but then she agreed. However, soon after the painting was completed, the boy died... It is known that after the death of her son, a poor woman came to Perov, begging him to sell her a portrait of her beloved child, but the painting was already hanging in the Tretyakov Gallery. True, Perov responded to his mother’s grief and painted a portrait of Vasya separately especially for her.
One of the brightest and most extraordinary geniuses of Russian painting, Mikhail Vrubel, has works that are also associated with the personal tragedies of the artist himself. Thus, the portrait of his beloved son Savva was painted by him shortly before the child’s death. Moreover, the boy fell ill unexpectedly and died suddenly. And “The Defeated Demon” had a detrimental effect on the psyche and health of Vrubel himself.
The artist could not tear himself away from the picture, he continued to add to the face of the defeated Spirit, and also change the color. “The Defeated Demon” was already hanging at the exhibition, and Vrubel kept coming into the hall, not paying attention to the visitors, sat down in front of the painting and continued to work, as if possessed.
Those close to him became concerned about his condition, and he was examined by the famous Russian psychiatrist Bekhterev. The diagnosis was terrible - tabes spinal cord, near madness and death. Vrubel was admitted to the hospital, but the treatment did not help, and he soon died.
An interesting story is connected with the painting “Maslenitsa”, which for a long time adorned the hall of the Ukraine Hotel. It hung and hung, no one really looked at it, until it suddenly became clear that the author of this work was a mentally ill person named Kuplin, who in his own way copied the painting by the artist Antonov. Actually, there is nothing particularly terrible or outstanding in the picture of a mentally ill person, but for six months it excited the vastness of the Runet.
Antonov's painting
Kuplin's painting
One student wrote a blog post about her in 2006. Its essence boiled down to the fact that, according to a professor at one of the Moscow universities, there is one hundred percent, but not obvious sign in the picture, by which it is immediately clear that the artist is crazy. And even supposedly based on this sign, you can immediately make a correct diagnosis.
But, as the student wrote, the cunning professor did not discover the sign, but only gave vague hints. And so, they say, people, help whoever can, because I can’t find it myself, I’m exhausted and tired. It’s not hard to imagine what started here.
The post spread throughout the network, many users rushed to look for the answer and scold the professor. The picture gained wild popularity, as did the student’s blog and the professor’s name. No one was able to solve the riddle, and in the end, when everyone was tired of this story, they decided:
1. There is no sign, and the professor deliberately “misdirected” the students so that they would not skip lectures.
2. The professor is a psycho himself (even facts were cited that he was actually treated abroad).
3. Kuplin associated himself with the snowman who looms in the background of the picture, and this is the main solution to the mystery.
4. There was no professor, and the whole story was a brilliant flash mob.
By the way, many original guesses for this sign were also given, but none of them was recognized as correct. The story gradually faded away, although even now you can sometimes come across echoes of it on the RuNet. As for the picture, for some it really makes an eerie impression and causes unpleasant sensations.
During Pushkin’s time, the portrait of Maria Lopukhina was one of the main “horror stories”. The girl lived a short and unhappy life, and after painting the portrait she died of consumption. Her father Ivan Lopukhin was a famous mystic and master of the Masonic lodge.
That is why rumors spread that he had managed to lure the spirit of his deceased daughter into this portrait. And that if young girls look at the picture, they will soon die. According to the salon gossips, the portrait of Maria destroyed at least ten noblewomen of marriageable age...
The rumors were put to rest by the philanthropist Tretyakov, who in 1880 bought the portrait for his gallery. There was no significant mortality among female visitors. The conversations died down. But the residue remained.
Dozens of people who in one way or another came into contact with Edvard Munch’s painting “The Scream,” whose value experts estimate at $70 million, were exposed to evil fate: they fell ill, quarreled with loved ones, fell into severe depression, or even suddenly died. All this gave the painting a bad reputation, so that museum visitors looked at it with caution, remembering the terrible stories that were told about the masterpiece.
One day, a museum employee accidentally dropped a painting. After some time, he began to have terrible headaches. It must be said that before this incident he had no idea what a headache was. The migraine attacks became more and more frequent and severe, and it ended with the poor man committing suicide.
Another time, a museum worker dropped a painting while it was being hung from one wall to another. A week later, he was in a horrific car accident that left him with broken legs, arms, several ribs, a fractured pelvis, and a severe concussion.
One of the museum visitors tried to touch the painting with his finger. A few days later, a fire started at his house, in which the man burned to death.
The life of Edvard Munch himself, born in 1863, was a series of endless tragedies and upheavals. Illness, death of relatives, madness. His mother died of tuberculosis when the child was 5 years old. Nine years later, Edward’s beloved sister Sophia died from a serious illness. Then brother Andreas died, and doctors diagnosed his younger sister with schizophrenia.
In the early 90s, Munch suffered a severe nervous breakdown and underwent electroshock treatment for a long time. He never married because the thought of sex terrified him. He died at the age of 81, leaving a huge creative legacy to the city of Oslo: 1200 paintings, 4500 sketches and 18 thousand graphic works. But the pinnacle of his work remains, of course, “The Scream.”
Dutch artist Pieter Bruegel the Elder painted “The Adoration of the Magi” over two years. He “copied” the Virgin Mary from his cousin. She was a barren woman, for which she received constant blows from her husband. It was she who, as simple medieval Dutch gossiped, “infected” the picture. “The Magi” was bought by private collectors four times. And each time the same story was repeated: no children were born in the family for 10-12 years...
Finally, in 1637, the architect Jacob van Kampen bought the painting. By that time he already had three children, so the curse did not particularly frighten him.
Probably the most famous bad picture of the Internet space with the following story: A certain schoolgirl (Japanese is often mentioned) drew this picture before cutting her veins (throwing herself out of a window, taking pills, hanging herself, drowning herself in a bathtub).
If you look at her for 5 minutes in a row, the girl will change (her eyes will turn red, her hair will turn black, fangs will appear). In fact, it is clear that the picture was clearly not drawn by hand, as many people like to claim. Although no one gives clear answers to how this picture appeared.
The following painting hangs modestly without a frame in one of the shops in Vinnitsa. “Rain Woman” is the most expensive of all works: it costs $500. According to the sellers, the painting has already been bought three times and then returned. Clients explain that they dream about her. And someone even says that they know this lady, but they don’t remember where. And everyone who has ever looked into her white eyes will forever remember the feeling of a rainy day, silence, anxiety and fear.
Its author, Vinnytsia artist Svetlana Telets, told where the unusual painting came from. “In 1996, I graduated from Odessa Art University. Grekova,” recalls Svetlana. “And six months before the birth of “Woman,” it always seemed to me that someone was constantly watching me.
I drove such thoughts away from myself, and then one day, by the way, not at all rainy, I sat in front of a blank canvas and thought about what to draw. And suddenly I clearly saw the contours of a woman, her face, colors, shades. In an instant I noticed all the details of the image. I wrote the main thing quickly - I finished it in about five hours.
It seemed as if someone was guiding my hand. And then I finished painting for another month.”
Arriving in Vinnitsa, Svetlana exhibited the painting in a local art salon. Art connoisseurs came up to her every now and then and shared the same thoughts that she herself had during her work.
“It was interesting to observe,” says the artist, “how subtly a thing can materialize a thought and inspire it in other people.”
A few years ago the first customer appeared. A lonely businesswoman walked around the halls for a long time, looking closely. Having bought “Woman”, I hung it in my bedroom.
Two weeks later, a night call rang in Svetlana’s apartment: “Please pick her up. I can't sleep. It seems that there is someone in the apartment besides me. I even took it off the wall and hid it behind the closet, but I still can’t.”
Then a second buyer appeared. Then a young man bought the painting. And I also couldn’t stand it for long. He brought it to the artist himself. And he didn’t even take the money back. “I dream about her,” he complained. - Every night he appears and walks around me like a shadow. I'm starting to go crazy. I'm afraid of this picture!
The third buyer, having learned about the notoriety of the “Woman,” simply waved it off. He even said that he thought the sinister lady’s face was cute. And she will probably get along with him. Didn't get along.
“At first I didn’t notice how white her eyes were,” he recalled. “And then they started appearing everywhere.” Headaches began, causeless worries. Do I need it?!
So “Rain Woman” returned to the artist again. Rumor spread throughout the city that this painting was cursed. It can drive you crazy in one night. The artist herself is no longer happy that she painted such horror.
However, Sveta does not lose optimism yet:
- Each painting is born for a specific person. I believe that there will be someone for whom “Woman” was written. Someone is looking for her - just like she is looking for him.
Italian scientists say they have found remains that may belong to Lisa del Giocondo. Perhaps the secret of the Mona Lisa will be revealed. In honor of this, let's remember the most mysterious paintings in history.
1. Gioconda
The first thing that comes to mind when it comes to mysterious paintings or mystery paintings is the “Mona Lisa”, painted by Leonardo da Vinci in 1503-1505. Gruye wrote that this picture can drive anyone crazy who, having looked at it enough, begins to talk about it.
There are many “mysteries” in this work of da Vinci. Art critics write dissertations on the tilt of the Mona Lisa's hand, medical specialists make diagnoses (from the fact that Mona Lisa has no front teeth to the fact that Mona Lisa is a man). There is even a version that Gioconda is a self-portrait of the artist.
By the way, the painting gained particular popularity only in 1911, when it was stolen by the Italian Vincenzo Peruggio. They found him using his fingerprint. So “Mona Lisa” also became the first success of fingerprinting, and a huge success in marketing the art market.
2. Black square
Everyone knows that the “Black Square” is not actually black, nor is it a square. It's really not a square. In the catalog for the exhibition, it was stated by Malevich as a “quadrangle”. And really not black. The artist did not use black paint.
It is less known that Malevich considered “Black Square” his best work. When the artist was buried, “Black Square” (1923) stood at the head of the coffin, Malevich’s body was covered with a white canvas with a sewn square, a black square was also painted on the lid of the coffin. Even the train and the back of the truck had black squares on them.
3. Scream
What is mysterious about the painting “The Scream” is not that it supposedly has a heavy influence on people, forcing them to almost commit suicide, but that this painting is essentially realism for Edvard Munch, who at the time of writing this masterpiece suffered from manic depression. depressive psychosis. He even recalled exactly how he saw what he wrote.
“I was walking along a path with two friends - the sun was setting - suddenly the sky turned blood red, I paused, feeling exhausted, and leaned against the fence - I looked at the blood and flames over the bluish-black fiord and the city - my friends moved on, and I stood trembling with excitement, feeling an endless cry piercing nature.”
4. Guernica
Picasso painted Guernica in 1937. The painting is dedicated to the bombing of the city of Guernica. They say that when Picasso was called to the Gestapo in 1940 and asked about Guernica: “Did you do this?”, the artist replied: “No, you did this.”
Picasso painted a huge fresco in no more than a month, working 10-12 hours a day. “Guernica” is considered a reflection of the horror of fascism and inhuman cruelty. Those who have seen the picture with their own eyes claim that it creates anxiety and sometimes panic.
5. Ivan the Terrible and his son Ivan
We all know the painting “Ivan the Terrible and his son Ivan,” usually calling it “Ivan the Terrible kills his son.”
Meanwhile, Ivan Vasilyevich’s murder of his heir is a very controversial fact. So, in 1963, the tombs of Ivan the Terrible and his son were opened in the Archangel Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin. Research has made it possible to claim that Tsarevich John was poisoned.
The poison content in his remains is many times higher than the permissible limit. Interestingly, the same poison was found in the bones of Ivan Vasilyevich. Scientists have concluded that the royal family was the victim of poisoners for several decades.
Ivan the Terrible did not kill his son. This is precisely the version adhered to, for example, by the Chief Prosecutor of the Holy Synod, Konstantin Pobedonostsev. Seeing Repin’s famous painting at the exhibition, he was outraged and wrote to Emperor Alexander III: “The painting cannot be called historical, since this moment... is purely fantastic.” The version of the murder was based on the stories of the papal legate Antonio Possevino, who can hardly be called a disinterested person.
There was once a real assassination attempt on the painting.
On January 16, 1913, twenty-nine-year-old Old Believer icon painter Abram Balashov stabbed her three times, after which Ilya Repin had to virtually paint the faces of the Ivanovs depicted in the painting anew. After the incident, the then curator of the Tretyakov Gallery Khruslov, having learned about the vandalism, threw himself under the train.
6. Hands resist him
The painting by Bill Stoneham, painted in 1972, has, frankly, not the best reputation. According to information on E-bay, the painting was found in a landfill some time after its purchase. On the very first night that the painting ended up in the house of the family that found it, the daughter ran to her parents in tears, complaining that “the children in the painting are fighting.”
Since that time, the painting has had a very bad reputation. Kim Smith, who bought it in 2000, constantly receives angry letters demanding that he burn the painting. The newspapers also wrote that ghosts sometimes appear in the hills of California, like two peas in a pod like the children from Stoneham’s painting.
7. Portrait of Lopukhina
Finally, the “bad picture” - the portrait of Lopukhina, painted by Vladimir Borovikovsky in 1797, after some time began to have a bad reputation. The portrait depicted Maria Lopukhina, who died shortly after the portrait was painted. People began to say that the picture “takes away one’s youth” and even “takes one to the grave.”
It is not known for certain who started such a rumor, but after Pavel Tretyakov “fearlessly” acquired the portrait for his gallery, talk about the “mystery of the painting” subsided.
2005) we were talking about works in which, in addition to the main plot, there is another one - a hidden one. It appears when you approach the painting, move away from it, or look at it from a certain angle. Now you will learn about the most truthful paintings, which are nevertheless called “decoys”, about ghostly silhouettes, “double-eyed”, “triple-eyed”, as well as about a rare type of icons.
G. Teplov. Still life fake. 1737 State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg.
P. Drozhdin. "Portrait of the artist A.P. Antropov with his son in front of the portrait of his wife." 1776 Russian Museum, St. Petersburg.
R. Magritte. "Human destiny." 1933 National Gallery of Art, Washington.
Unknown artist. "Lilies of France" (six silhouettes of the Bourbon family). 1815
O. Kanyu. "Corporal of Violets (silhouettes of Bonaparte, his wife and son)." 1815 The title of the painting contains a reminder that Napoleon began his military service with the rank of corporal.
S. Del Prete. "The Secret Between the Autumn Leaves" 1991 Gallery in Bern, Switzerland.
V. Bregeda. "Prophecy". 1994
N. Zamyatina. "Dreams about Greece." 2004
The words are “two-eyed”: sharks - crooks, murmurs - don’t murmur, peace - Moscow State University, durable - accurate. Authors: Olga and Sergey Fedina.
Postal card. "My wife and my mother-in-law." Beginning of the twentieth century. Russia.
Ya. Botvinik. "My husband and my father-in-law." First half of the twentieth century. USA.
G. Fischer. "Mom, dad and daughter." 1968 USA.
S. Orlov. "A rose for two." 2004 Moscow.
S. Dali. "The Vanishing Bust of Voltaire." 1940 Dali Museum, St. Petersburg, USA.
Two paintings by Salvador Dali: on the left - "Head of a woman in the form of a battle." 1936; on the right is "Spain". 1938
V. Koval. "Kovalland (self-portrait of the artist)". 1994
Triple icon "Deesis order". XIX century. Russia.
Science and life // Illustrations
Icon with the faces of Jesus and Mary Magdalene. First half of the 17th century. Melheim, Germany.
Portrait of Alexander III with his wife and son. End of the 19th century. Church Museum at the Church of St. Mitrophan of Voronezh, Moscow.
Gabriel von Max. "Scarf of Saint Veronica" 1870s. Germany.
"Savior Not Made by Hands." Photo from the 1970s from a painting by an unknown artist, Russia.
TRUE DECEPTIONS
Two artists argued - Zeuxis and Parrhasius: which of them is better. Zeuxis painted a bunch of grapes and placed the picture near the open window. Birds flying by saw the grapes, sat down and tried to peck the painted berries. It was Parrhasius's turn. "So where is your job?" - “There, behind the curtain.” Zeuxis walked up to the curtain and tried to pull it aside. And it turned out to be painted. The legend was born in Ancient Greece, approximately 500 BC.
It is more truthful than it might seem at first glance. The fact is that many birds do not have stereoscopic vision, since their eyes are located on both sides of their heads. What one eye sees, the other does not see. Due to the lack of a general field of view, the brain cannot form a three-dimensional image. And experienced hunters know that a primitive, unpainted model of a duck attracts a flying drake no worse than a living decoy bird.
What is important for us in the Greek legend is that the painting deceived not the birds, but the eye of the master painter. The 19th century Russian artist Fyodor Tolstoy has paintings that echo the plot of the ancient Greek legend. On one of them there is a still life, “covered” with a sheet of tracing paper. One of its corners is bent. And this part of the still life looks so authentic that you involuntarily feel the desire to move the tracing paper lower to see the image in full. Paintings of this type are called “false”, although we are talking about perhaps the most truthful of all genres of painting.
The appearance of this kind of painting became possible only after the invention of perspective, chiaroscuro and... oil paints. Recipes for their preparation are found in books of the 13th century. But only at the beginning of the 15th century, the Dutch artist Jan van Eyck (1390-1441) improved the technology of preparing paints so much that he is often called the inventor of the oil painting technique. He was the first to apply it in a new way, applying thin transparent layers of paint one on top of the other, achieving exceptional depth and richness of color, as well as the subtlety of light and shadow and color transitions. After Jan van Eyck, artists were able to achieve an image that could easily be confused with the original.
The founder of the trompe l'oeil genre in Russia is Grigory Teplov, artist, poet, musician, philosopher, statesman of the 18th century. One of his works is on the previous page. It is a pity that reproductions of trompe l’oeil images in magazines and books are unable to convey the feeling that appears when looking at the original. By the way, this is why you rarely see decoys in art books. This is largely due to the difference in size between the painting and its printed reproduction, and the fact that the desired effect usually occurs depending on the distance between the image and the viewer.
There is another type of deception. In the Russian Museum in St. Petersburg, for example, there is a painting by Pyotr Drozhdin, an 18th-century artist. On it the author depicted the family of his teacher, artist Antropov. Looking closely, you notice that the father and son are standing next not to their wife and mother, but to her portrait. The edge of the easel, which at first seemed like a bright opening in the wall, separates those standing from the image.
The 20th century Belgian artist Rene Magritte also used the “easels” technique. Their edges are almost invisible, and the drawings imperceptibly pass into the main plot of the picture, merging with it. In one landscape, the forest, starting outside the window, continues on the painted easel; in the other, the sea from the easel flows into the “real” sea.
Magritte is a master of paradox paintings. On one canvas he combined objects and phenomena that were incompatible in life; for example, the daytime sky and a house immersed in the darkness of the night, or a person looking in the mirror in front of him sees only the back of his head in it. He also used the principle of paradox in the titles of his paintings. When, by the artist’s own admission, he lacked imagination, he gathered friends and asked for help in finding a name. A landscape with an easel, for example, is called “Human Lot.”
GHOST SILHOUETTES
There is a special technique for creating a hidden image: when artists use the contours of drawn objects. For the first time, paintings with “hidden silhouettes” appeared, apparently, in medieval France. Their main heroes were, of course, the kings. We know well that the lily is a symbol of the Bourbon dynasty, at least from the costumes of the main characters from the films based on the novel by Alexandre Dumas “The Three Musketeers”. Two hundred years ago, when painting bouquets of royal lilies, artists turned the curves of the stems, contours of the leaves and petals into human faces. When you guess the secret, the bouquet turns into a portrait of the royal family. After the Bourbon dynasty was overthrown, artists began to paint Emperor Napoleon with his wife and son. But Josephine loved violets, so they replaced lilies.
Over the past centuries, artists, of course, have expanded the themes of such works. One example is a painting where you first see some dry leaves flying in the air. There is also a piece of paper painted on the canvas with the inscription in French: “A dream carried away by the wind and time.” Typically, artists do not write its name on the front side of the painting. Here in the lower left corner of the canvas it is written in German: “The secret between the autumn leaves.” This is not only the title of the painting, but also the key that reveals the artist's intention - Sandro Del Prete. His name is known all over the world today. And he started as an amateur (I’m telling you this especially for the participants in the mystery painting competition). In his youth, Del Prete studied drawing for only six months; until the age of 44, he did not consider himself a professional artist and worked for an insurance company in his hometown of Bern, Switzerland, where he still lives.
In the painting by Taganrog artist Victor Bregeda, who was also attracted by this technique, kneeling figures bow in prayer against the backdrop of a deserted mountain landscape. This is only part of the plot that you see right away, but the title - "Prophecy" - suggests that the main content is not so obvious and has not yet been revealed. Invisible at the first moment, in the picture there are those before whom the pilgrims bowed: God the Father, God the Son and the winged horseman - an angel who descended from heaven.
Muscovite Natalia Zamyatina's painting "Dreams of Greece" looks like an ordinary still life with a porcelain vase and fruit. The title doesn't seem to quite match the image. But take a closer look at the drapery. What do the folds of the fabric and the contours of the vase hide (or reveal)?
DOUBLE VIEWS
The term that gave the title to this section of the article was coined by Sergei Fedin, a writer and author of many publications in the journal Science and Life. He called two-eyed texts that can be read in two ways. Let's take the word "sharks" as an example. The first two letters "ak" can also be written as one letter "zh". And “y” can easily be depicted as similar to “ye”. Let's leave the letters in the middle unchanged and get a word that can be easily read in two ways: "sharks" and "crooks". Several examples of such inscriptions are given here.
The word "double-minded" corresponds to the English "ambigram" - dual. We talk about verbal double vision here because using their example it is easier to understand the perception of dual images in painting.
What are we looking for when moving our gaze along the lines of double vision? Some familiar letter. The same thing happens in paintings. The brain looks for familiar images that are already in memory, which is completely different from the storage of photographic images. Memory is a kind of “encoder” that captures the properties of an image, for example, the presence of straight and curved sections of lines, boundaries of changes in brightness, color, and the like.
Looking at the two eyes more closely, we find letters that we did not notice initially, and add the second word from them. The same thing happens with the hidden image.
No one has yet come up with the word “three-eyes,” that is, the image of three words with different meanings in one entry. If you succeed, be sure to send your work to the mystery painting competition. But the picturesque three-viewers have already been created, and we will now tell you about them.
TWO-FACED AND THREE-FACED PAINTING
In the previous issue of the magazine, in the article “Invisible-Visible,” you came across an image of a woman’s head, which looks either young or old, depending on the position of the picture. Now let's get acquainted with a portrait that does not need to be turned over. To the question: “Is it depicting a young or old woman?” - different people give opposite answers. Some say - a girl, others - an old woman. The picture has long become a classic. But those who see her for the first time each time have to explain how to see the second image: “The lady’s eye is the girl’s ear, and the nose is the oval of a young face.” According to physiologists, the viewer, looking at a portrait, pays the greatest attention to the eyes and nose. Therefore, the first impression usually depends on which part of the picture your gaze falls on at the first moment. After a little training, you can learn to order yourself who you want to see.
In terms of the number of publications in books and magazines, the plot with a young and old woman is far ahead of all other illusionary pictures. Its author is sometimes called the American cartoonist W. Hill, who published the work in 1915 in the magazine "Puck" (translated into Russian as "Puck" - elf, fairy-tale spirit). The image is sometimes attributed to psychiatrist E. Boring, who used the portrait in the 1930s to illustrate his work. In the scientific community, “Two Ladies” are still called “Boring figure”. In fact, back in the first years of the 20th century, a postcard with the same picture and the inscription: “My wife and my mother-in-law” was put into circulation in Russia. The prototype for it was a German postcard from 1880 (author unknown).
The picture of the two ladies is regularly reproduced in psychology books. But it is still largely unknown how the human mind perceives dual images. Artists just continue to develop an already known technique. In the first half of the 20th century, a similar portrait of an elderly and young man appeared. Then, in 1968, the artist G. Fischer gave both ladies a new hairstyle and received a third character. In fact, he added just one element, and the picture became known as “Mom, Dad and Daughter.” The woman's hair turned into the man's profile, resulting in three people in the portrait.
In a modern painting by Moscow artist Sergei Orlov (see page 132) there are not only two different faces, but also two female figures, belonging simultaneously to both a girl and an old woman. The old lady looks at the flower she is holding in her hand. The young woman sits with her back to us, straightening her hair and turning her head to the left.
The works of Sergei Orlov, Victor Bregeda and other artists working in this manner can be seen on the Internet. There is a special project “Duality” http://hiero.ru/project/Dubl of the site “Hieroglyph”, where the authors exhibit works for discussion.
Not a single book about illusory paintings is complete without a story about the work of the Spaniard Salvador Dali. 300 years after Arcimboldo, he revived the direction of illusory paintings.
In the first picture, the viewer sees two richly dressed women. A man in a turban leads them into the gallery. The artist transforms this scene into a second plot. From the arch of the gallery, the outline of a human head is formed - an image of a sculptural portrait of the French philosopher Voltaire by Houdon.
The plot of Voltaire appears repeatedly in Dali's works. Twice he also used the plot of the painting “The Head of a Woman in the Form of a Battle” (above left), where the figures of galloping horsemen and people rushing across a yellow field form the face of a woman. But then “Head of a Woman in the Form of a Battle” was included as a detail of another canvas: “Spain”. This fact demonstrates how difficult it is to find a new, original solution for a two-faced picture.
If I were to organize an exhibition of the best dual paintings, then next to Dali’s works I would place paintings by the contemporary Volgograd artist Vladislav Koval. And of course - the “Stalingrad Madonna”, in which the image of a woman with a baby in her arms is woven from birch branches. In the painting “Waying Ashore”, the distant coastal cliffs visible on the horizon turn into a lonely, drooping figure of a sailor. In the painting "Icarus" its hero is seen either flying or falling. In the next painting, a freezing soldier wrapped in a raincoat turns into a Madonna and Child. In the work “Pyramid”, V. Koval, for the first time in the history of art, combined several dual images into a complete work of art. Moreover, he used almost all the painting techniques that I talked about. This includes the construction of new images from landscape details, and paintings, the content of which depends on the viewing angle or distance. Today Koval is one of the most famous artists in Russia. His fame has a curious beginning. While studying in Moscow, he sent letters to his relatives in Volgograd and did not paste stamps on the envelopes, but drew them. All sent letters reached their recipients without additional payment. When the Ministry of Press announced a competition among artists, student Vladislav Koval brought a stack of envelopes to the organizers. And he became the winner, the youngest among the participants.
UNUSUAL ICONS
Examples of mysterious paintings are found even in such a strict and canonical form of art as icons. The icon “Jesus in Prison” was once brought to the Museum of Ancient Russian Art in Moscow. On its front part there is a depiction of Jesus with shackles on his feet, and around are the instruments of the Passion, that is, torture. The name is indicated next to each one. Based on the peculiarities of the spelling of the words, art historians determined that the author was an Old Believer. The uniqueness of the icon was that the image was crossed by narrow vertical stripes. It was suggested that these are traces of the grating that once covered the image of Christ. However, the solution to the dark stripes turned out to be much more interesting, and it belongs to the head of the Canon icon-painting workshop, art critic and artist Alexander Renzhin.
It turns out that the icon once contained not one, but three images. The stripes are nothing more than traces from vertical plates that were attached to the frame (frame) of the icon. They were close to its surface and therefore left marks. On both sides of each plate were drawn (usually written) parts of two more icons. Standing opposite the icon, you could see one image, moving to the left - another, to the right - a third. The plates of the icon were lost, but Renzhin managed to find exactly the same complete icon. It turned out that on 12 plates, parts of the images of the Mother of God and John the Baptist were written on both sides. When you look at the icon from the side, the parts of the image fit together into a single whole.
The storerooms of the Museum of the History of Religions in St. Petersburg contain icons of a similar type, but with a different subject. On one of them in the foreground there is a dove, a symbol of the Holy Spirit. But as soon as you move to the right, the image of God the Father appears, and to the left - the face of God the Son. It is difficult for a modern viewer, spoiled by lighting effects, to imagine the power of the impression of the triple icons on the believers of past centuries, and even in the twilight of a church illuminated only by candles. In addition, in the 20th century, a similar technique was used in advertising, and therefore it lost its unusualness.
There are icons whose surface is not flat, but profiled, with vertical grooves of a triangular cross-section. On one side of each groove is written the image visible on the left, and on the other side the image visible on the right. When you look from the front, you see a “mixture” of two images. Therefore, in the church they placed a large candlestick in front of such an icon so that it could be seen only from two sides.
There is a church museum at the Church of St. Mitrofan of Voronezh in Moscow on 2nd Khutorskaya Street. There, among other interesting exhibits, you can see a triple image. This is not an icon, but a portrait of the royal family. Standing opposite the portrait, you see Emperor Alexander III. Move to the right - the image of Empress Maria Feodorovna appears. Spectators standing on the left see the young heir, the future Emperor Nicholas II. A curious feature of the image helped to establish the time of its creation. A bloody stain is visible on Nikolai’s right temple. This is a trace of a Japanese sword. In 1890-1891, the heir traveled around the world, and an attempt was made on his life in Japan. A Japanese policeman struck Nicholas with his sword, but the young heir deflected and was only slightly wounded. The attacker did not have time to strike a second time; he was knocked down, but not by the hosts who were receiving the distinguished guest, but by the Greek prince George, who accompanied Nicholas.
THE LEGEND OF SAINT VERONICA
In 1879, an exhibition of German artists was held in St. Petersburg. One of them, Gabriel von Max, presented the painting "The Handkerchief of Saint Veronica" with the image of a piece of rough canvas nailed to the wall with the face of Christ in the center. The unusualness of the picture was that viewers could see the Savior’s eyes either closed or open. Newspapers of that time wrote that the organizers had to put chairs in the hall, as some ladies fainted, exclaiming: “Looking! Looking!”
Of course, the mysterious painting attracted the attention of metropolitan artists who tried to unravel the secret, and the artist Ivan Kramskoy wrote an article about it for the magazine “New Time”, where he revealed the technique with which the German author achieved the desired effect.
The legend of Saint Veronica spread throughout Europe during the Middle Ages. Later it became the official Church Tradition, that is, it was recognized as true as those recorded in the Gospel. When Jesus Christ was led to Mount Golgotha to be crucified there, a certain compassionate woman named Veronica wiped the sweat that had covered his eyes with a handkerchief. At the same time, the face of the Savior in the crown of thorns was miraculously imprinted on the scarf. The legend formed the basis of the Orthodox icon “Savior Not Made by Hands.” The easiest way for us, non-specialists, to recognize this icon is by the image of a scarf on which the face of Jesus is written, although the scarf itself (more often they say “plat”) is drawn in different and rather conventional ways. Western Christians call a similar image the “Scarf of St. Veronica.”
From a connoisseur of Russian art, priest Valentin Dronov, I heard a story, which I quote here verbatim: “Two or three times in my life I had to see the icon of the “Savior Not Made by Hands,” which displayed a miraculous property. The eyes of Jesus on it seemed either open or closed. It depended on the spiritual state of the person praying. If he was calm, the Savior seemed to be sleeping. If he was agitated, his eyes opened." At home, Valentin’s father kept a photograph of this image, which is given here.
I have not yet been able to find anything similar in our museums. The guide to Bethlehem, the city where, according to legend, Christ was born, says that one of the frescoes on the column in the Church of the Nativity has the same property: “the face on the icon opens and closes its eyes.”
The icon that is described is very rare, so any evidence from people who have seen or at least heard about such images is important. We ask readers to be sure to report this to the editor of the magazine.
