Perhaps you didn’t know some of this. Take a look at the topic, I hope it will be interesting and tireless to read.
1. Repin based Tsarevich Ivan on Vsevolod Garshin, who was nervous and impressionable from childhood. During the war with the Turks, he volunteered to serve in the army and, after being wounded, took up literary activity. We all remember his fairy tale “The Frog Traveler” (and the cartoon!). Repin believed that he could not find a better candidate for the role of the murdered Ivan: “I was struck by doom in Garshin’s face: he had the face of a man doomed to die.” Soon after finishing work on the canvas, Garshin committed suicide - he jumped from the fifth floor down a flight of stairs...
2. Kiprensky’s painting “Girl in a Poppy Wreath” (“Mariuccia”) depicts ten-year-old Anna-Maria Falkucci, the model’s daughter. The artist became very attached to her. The girl had poor health and grew up in extreme poverty. The artist took care of the girl and enrolled her in a school at the monastery. This was in 1819. Many years later, he returned to Italy, converted to Catholicism and secretly married Mariuccia. They did not live together for long. Four months after the wedding, Orest Kiprensky died, and a few months later Mariuccia gave birth to a daughter, Clotilde Kiprensky, whose trace, unfortunately, was hopelessly lost... 
3. For his painting “Ophelia,” John Millais persuaded Elizabeth Siddal, the lover of another artist, Rosetti, to pose while lying in the bath. It was cold in the workshop, so the water in the bathtub was heated with the help of candles standing under its bottom. Elizabeth lay in the water for hours. The water cooled quickly and was freezing cold by the end of the session. The girl fell ill with pneumonia, and later developed tuberculosis. Rosseti she gave birth to a stillborn child. She began to experience severe pain, from which she saved herself with opium; she died from an overdose at the age of 32. 
4. Amadeo Modigliani was poor, very sick and suffered from alcoholism and opium addiction. At 33 he met Jeanne Hebuterne, his greatest and last love, she was 17. The happiness was short-lived. Modigliani died 2 years later. And a day later, unable to bear the loss, Zhanna, who was 9 months pregnant, committed suicide. The artist was buried in a modest grave without a monument in the Jewish section of the Père Lachaise cemetery. 
Fame came to Modigliani only after his death. The merchant Louis Libod, sensing the imminent death of the genius, bought his paintings. And later he boasted to his friends: “Aren’t I lucky? After all, just yesterday I bought them for next to nothing!” The artist did not have time to be buried, but his paintings had already increased in price. 
5. I came up with the riddle of Gioconda’s smile French poet Théophile Gautier (1811-1872), who enthusiastically exclaimed: “La Gioconda! This word immediately brings to mind the Sphinx of Beauty, who smiles so mysteriously from Leonardo’s painting... It is dangerous to fall under the spell of this ghost... Her smile promises unknown pleasures, it is so divinely ironic...” and so on and so forth. Before Gaultier, viewers did not see anything mysterious in Mona Lisa’s smile.
The theft of the painting from the Louvre in 1912 added to the popularity of the painting. The scandal in the press was enormous! During the 3 years that they were looking for it, 6 copies were sold, which were considered the original, and each of them cost a lot of money. 
6. “Black Square” was first shown at a futurist exhibition in Petrograd in 1915. The canvas hung in the “red corner” - under the ceiling, where icons were hung in Russian houses. The First World War was going on and many saw it in the “Square” ominous symbol future disaster. At first, Malevich himself did not know how to feel about his “work.” When he was told about the meaning of the square in Buddhism (the symbol of infinity), he only opened his eyes wide. And then the intense pumping of the square with symbolic overtones began...
And then even the artist’s funeral was turned into a farce - the artist’s body with outstretched arms was transported on a truck platform in a coffin in the shape of a cross, and a “Black Square” was mounted on the hood as a mourning sign. 
And this is a painting called “Battle of Negroes in a Deep Cave” dark night"(1893). It was created twenty years before the birth of Malevich’s masterpiece (or “masterpiece”?) (1915). The author is a Frenchman from the banks of la Manche, a very eccentric person, humorist writer and artist Alphonse Allais. 
7. Van Gogh did not cut off his entire ear, but only a piece of his earlobe; this happened during a quarrel with Gauguin. However, there is still a widespread legend that the artist amputated his entire ear. This legend was even reflected in the behavior of a patient who operates on himself or insists on a certain operation - it was called Van Gogh syndrome. 
8. A terrible disease - addiction to alcohol destroyed greatest artist Alexey Savrasov. His wife left him and he was fired from the art school, where Korovin and Levitan were among his students. IN last years he spent the night wherever he had to, drank around the clock and painted taverns with a copy of his masterpiece “The Rooks Have Arrived” - for vodka and lunch. Out of pity, his acquaintances gave him a few coins, otherwise he would have drunk even his clothes. Ultimately, at the age of 67, the artist died of delirium tremens in a hospital for the poor. 
9. This may be a legend, but when Leonardo da Vinci wrote “ last supper", he attached special meaning two figures: Christ and Judas. For a very long time he could not find models from whom to paint these figures. Finally, he managed to find a model for the image of Christ among the young singers. Leonardo was unable to find a model for Judas for three years. Until one day he came across a drunkard on the street who was lying in a gutter. He was a young man who had been aged by heavy drinking. Leonardo invited him to a tavern, where he immediately began to paint Judas from him. When the drunkard came to his senses, he told the artist that he had already posed for him once. It was several years ago, when he sang in the church choir, Leonardo painted Christ from him. 
10. In the program “What? Where? When?" connoisseurs were presented with two of Polenov’s paintings – “Grandma’s Garden” and “Moscow Courtyard” with the question: “What do they have in common?” The experts didn't guess. The answer is simple - the paintings depict the same old noble mansion, but with different angles. The address of this unique house has survived to this day - the Baumgarten house, the corner of Trubnikovsky and Durnovsky lanes on Arbat. 
11.A talented artist is not necessarily talented in everything. Levitan, for example, produced magnificent landscapes, but had a hard time depicting people. So the artist Nikolai Chekhov helped his friend - he drew on his “ Autumn day"lady in black. 
And the bears in the famous painting by Shishkin belong not to the brush of Ivan Ivanovich, but to the artist Savitsky, a friend of the artist, who later became his former friend. Tretyakov purchased this painting from Shishkin for 4 thousand rubles. Having learned about such an impressive sum, Konstantin Apollonovich, who had seven shops, came to Ivan Ivanovich for his share.
Ivan Ivanovich offered him a thousand rubles. Savitsky was seriously offended. The artist’s pride was hurt - how come his work was valued at a quarter of the cost of the painting! Konstantin Apollonovich even declared in his hearts that the main thing in the picture was the bears, which he invented and embodied on canvas, and Shishkin only painted the background.
Now Ivan Ivanovich was offended; he considered the picture to be complete without the bears. an independent work. And besides, Shishkin drew the sketches of the bear family himself. How the matter ended is not known for certain, but the friends did not paint any more joint pictures. 
12. Ivanov worked on the painting “The Appearance of Christ to the People” for 20 years from 1837 to 1857 in Italy. He did great amount sketches, studied history, Assyrian antiquities and especially the Bible. In order to find the desired landscape, he spent months in the swamps and deserts of Italy. But it was much more difficult to depict the moment of turning to God on people’s faces. To do this, the artist studied Jewish faces, looked closely at the faces of all the people he met, sat for hours in the church and watched those praying. All this delayed the work, he was reproached for being lazy. The money he was allocated for his work has run out. He led a miserable existence. The painstaking work on the painting led to the fact that the artist damaged his eyes and was forced to undergo long-term treatment. Upon arrival in Russia, the fate of the painting was not clear. After it was exhibited, it appeared in print critical article, which greatly upset Ivanov. He fell ill and soon died. On the day of his death, an official message came that the emperor was purchasing the painting for 15 thousand silver rubles (huge money at that time). 
13. While on a retirement trip to Italy, Ivan Konstantinovich Aivazovsky painted the painting “Chaos. The Creation of the World” based on a story from the Bible, which became a real sensation in Rome. Pope Gregory XVI bought it, awarding the artist a gold medal. N.V. Gogol wrote to Aivazovsky: “Vanya! You came small man, from the banks of the Neva to Rome and immediately raised “Chaos” in the Vatican.” 
14. Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov was not only a brilliant poet, but the most talented artist. There are 13 known oil paintings on canvas, cardboard and wood, more than 40 watercolors, more than 300 drawings and sketches. But his temper, to put it mildly, was not very good. Due to his complex character, the writer had to short life attend 3 duels. The writer’s contemporaries were not very fond of him, the premature death of Mikhail Yuryevich in a duel did not upset anyone, and Tsar Nicholas I generally said: “A dog’s death is a dog’s death.” 
15. Picasso created his first masterpiece at the age of 15 - a painting depicting his relatives at the altar. 
In 2006, American tycoon Steve Wynn agreed to sell Pablo Picasso's The Dream for $139 million, which would have been one of the highest prices in history for a work of art. However, when demonstrating the painting, Winn waved his arms too much and tore the canvas with his elbow. The owner regarded this as a sign from above and decided not to sell the painting after restoration. 
16. Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec was an invalid with bad legs (he broke them several times in childhood and their growth stopped, most likely due to a hereditary disease, Henri’s grandmothers were sisters to each other). 
He was unlucky in love, his short height (152 cm) and his appearance as a dwarf caused ridicule, and all his serious romances ended unsuccessfully. Toulouse-Lautrec was a famous connoisseur of alcohol and popularized cocktails. Lautrec is credited with inventing the Earthquake cocktail, which mixes half and half cognac with absinthe. He died of alcoholism and syphilis in the family castle in the arms of his mother, before reaching the age of 37. 
17. Salvador Dali created the Chupa Chups logo.
And his nickname was “Avida Dollars,” which translated means “passionate for dollars.” 
18. Vermeer never painted children, although he had 11 of them. 
Watch the movie "Girl with a Pearl Earring" starring Scarlett Johansson, you will like it. 
19. "Pieta" -The only job Michelangelo, which he signed. He was also a poet and over 300 of his poems are still available. 
20. "Venus before a Mirror" is the only surviving nude Venus of Diego Rodriguez de Silva Velazquez (1599-1660). Perhaps the artist painted other nude models, but at that time in Spain such paintings were considered obscene. Therefore, the painting occupies a unique place in his legacy. In addition, it is completely unlike anything that came out of the artist’s hand. In 1914, this painting, exhibited at the National Gallery in London, was cut up by a suffragette. 
According to legend, Velazquez was buried, so to speak, in the funerary catacombs of the Capuchins in Palermo (“Museum of the Dead”). Look on the internet, it's very scary. 
The great masterpieces of painting that you encounter every day in museums, books, games, movies and even advertising are not just Nice picture, but also a code with a lot of details and semantic interpretations.
Therefore, it is not surprising that pictures that everyone has already seen a million times can test your logic, attention, intelligence and knowledge of history more than once. Look for picturesque scenes, expose homegrown myths. This is not just mental training, but also good way to outshine all the annoying smart guys in the next conversation. And impress a pretty person with a faint glimmer of thought in her bottomless eyes.
BOTTICELLIAN MOOD
Botticelli Sandro. Birth of Venus, 1482-1486.
Uffizi, Florence
Style: early Renaissance
At first sight Venus, just born from the foam of the sea, chastely covering her breasts and womb, swims to the shore on a shell. On the left, Zephyr and his wife Chloris are blowing roses at her. On the shore, the nymph Ora for some reason hurries to cover the nakedness of Venus with a purple cloak. But the naked shameless woman feels great and in what her mother gave birth to, she does not pay attention to worries and looks forward, through the viewer. A light sadness froze in the eyes of the goddess, as if she was going into earthly life to earn money... sorry, she was going to suffer torment.
In fact The painting illustrates the myth of the birth of Venus. Main role played by Simonetta Vespucci - the first beauty of Florence, the lover of Giuliano Medici and, according to rumors, the secret passion of Botticelli himself. Need I say that the most noble Simonetta was married to a third, stranger? The gestures and proportions of Venus's body are written in accordance with the canons of classical greek sculpture. The mantle in Ora’s hands symbolizes the border between two worlds, and the shell symbolizes purity and purity, but as soon as she steps ashore...
That's it! Thanks to the fact that Botticelli poured a protective layer of egg yolk over the painting, The Birth of Venus has been preserved much better than many masterpieces.
CHEESE HOUR
Dali Salvador. The Persistence of Memory, 1931.
Museum contemporary art, NY.
Style: surrealism.
At first sight The clock melts against the sultry backdrop of the landscape from Port Ligat.
In fact The molten clock is an image of the relativity and gluttony of time, which devours itself and everything else, and the clock covered with ants symbolizes death. On the deserted shore, personifying the inner emptiness, sleeps the head of Dali himself, who is the main prisoner of all-consuming time.
That's it! Inspired by melted Camembert cheese, Dali decided to melt a clock on his canvas. The artist often gave funny explanations for his paintings in order to deliberately mislead people. And this is no exception.
MAGICAL REALISM
Rene Magritte. Son of Man, 1964.
Private collection
Style: surrealism.
At first sight A neatly dressed yuppie is about to get hit in the face with an apple... but he doesn't.
In fact In Magritte’s paintings, the most interesting thing is always, as luck would have it, hidden by some simple object. IN in this case this is an apple symbolizing temptation. It persistently levitates in the face of a reserved businessman, in whose face the artist depicted the “son of Adam” and himself. Therefore, we are not so offended, because we know what Magritte’s face looks like.
EYES, LIPS, AND MOST IMPORTANTLY, HANDS
Mona Lisa, 1503-1505.
Louvre, Paris
Style: High Renaissance
At first sight A curvaceous woman with shaved eyebrows and sparse breasts, turning half-turn, sits in a chair against the backdrop of a mysterious landscape. In fact, the miracle of the picture is in the technique called sfumato: thanks to the smooth transitions from light to shadow and the light shading of the eye sockets, corners of the lips and graceful hands, a contradictory image of a bashful girl and a voluptuous mistress is formed. The second advantage of the picture is the contrast of the fantastic landscape and a very real figure. Plucked eyebrows and a shaved forehead are not a sign of extremism, but just a tribute to the fashion of the Quattrocento era.
That's it! Contrary to the abyss of nonsense written by art critics, Da Vinci's main task was to revive the model's face.
REVELATION OF THE "PROFESSOR OF NIGHTMARES"
Bosch Jerome. Garden earthly pleasures, 1500-1510.
Prado Museum, Madrid
Style: Northern Renaissance
At first sight Triptych on biblical themes, reminiscent huge collection kinder surprises.
In fact On the left, in Paradise, God introduces Eve to the stunned Adam. Peaceful life animals are disrupted by the lion's meal, and an owl, a messenger of misfortune, sticks out from the source of Life (the building in the center). In the center there is a prototype of hippie erotic parties - a garden of pleasures, where everyone lets out divine instructions through the forest: they play, eat and indulge carnal pleasures. According to psychoanalysis: cherries, strawberries, strawberries and grapes, which are eaten here, mean sinful sexuality, fish - lust, and birds - lust and debauchery. On the right, as an inevitable result, are monsters led by Satan the Eggshell and torture machines. Bosch shows us the corrupting influence of lust. And it all started so well!
That's it! Despite the BDSM bacchanalia depicted here, this painting fully complies with strict biblical canons and is liked by church authorities.
Style: Baroque.
At first sight A stylish young man with a crowd of boys flew in on a winged horse to flirt with a naked fetishist.
In fact The beautiful Andromeda, chained to a rock, was planning to be eaten by a sea monster. But while it was rummaging around with seasonings, young Perseus, wearing winged sandals in the latest fashion, turned the monster to stone. Here we see all the trendy attributes of the ancient Greek hipster: an invisibility helmet, a mirror shield with the head of the Gorgon Medusa and the winged horse Pegasus. But ancient myths Rubens served more as a pretext for depicting naked female charms. It is not for nothing that Andromeda’s light, slightly overweight body is the dominant part of the picture, to which the viewer first of all pays attention. Is not it so?
That's it! Despite Rubens's great contribution to the depiction of naked beauties, he also has his share of ill-wishers who accuse him of being overly enthusiastic about the blooming beauty of the nude. female body. Isn't it stupid?
CHAIROSHADOW MARTYR...
Rembrandt van Rijn. Night Watch, 1642.
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.
Style: Baroque
At first sight Captain Cock (center) gave the order to march to Lieutenant Reitenburg (right), and everyone immediately began to fuss.
In fact Even the details of the shooters’ clothing move in the picture. Notice the masterful play of light and shadow: the contrast of the dark alley (behind) and the illuminated square. A girl in a bright golden dress compensates for Reitenburg's bright camisole, and his halberd sets the direction of movement for the entire canvas.
That's it! Because of the soot that covered the picture, for a long time no one realized that the action was taking place during the day - look at the shadow of Captain Kok's left hand.
NORTHERN MONA LISA
Vermeer Jan. Girl with a Pearl Earring, ca. 1565.
Mauritshuis, The Hague.
Style: Baroque
At first sight An ordinary face of an ordinary girl.
In fact The artist sought to convey the moment of spontaneous movement when the girl turns her head, noticing our presence. According to the name and statements of art critics, the viewer's attention is primarily attracted by the pearl earring. In our opinion, captivated by the attractive gaze and sensual lips, which have remained mysteriously silent for more than three hundred years, the discerning viewer is unlikely to remember the earring.
That's it! This painting has a modern, very indecent “reproduction”, but we didn’t tell you about it!
ANCIENT ROMAN DISASTER WITH A HEAP OF MALOA
Bryullov Karl. The last day of Pompeii, 1830-1833.
State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg.
Style: romanticism
At first sight The city is in a sea of fire, chaos reigns all around. In the center of the composition lies the body of a rich woman, who fell to her death from a chariot, which the horses carry into the depths of the picture. On the right, two brothers save their elderly father. Everyone is panicking.
In fact In the distance, the volcano Vesuvius, the culprit of the disaster, is burning. But the main scene is illuminated not by his flame, but by Bryullov’s remarkable find - a second flash of lightning. The color scheme of the painting is blue, red and yellow colors, illuminated by white light, was very brave for its time.
That's it! Bryullov conceived “Pompeii” as quick way to become famous and did not fail - the painting became the object of universal worship of the Russians, Italians and French.
Even those masterpieces of painting that seem familiar to us have their secrets.
Recently, a strange and unusual discovery was made in art history - an American student deciphered the musical notation depicted on the buttocks of a sinner from a painting by Bosch. The resulting tune has become one of the Internet sensations of recent times.
We believe that in almost every significant work art is a mystery, a “double bottom” or secret history, which I want to reveal. Today we will share a few of them.
Music on the buttocks
Hieronymus Bosch, "The Garden of Earthly Delights", 1500-1510.
Fragment of the right side of the triptych.
Disputes about meanings and hidden meanings most famous work Dutch artist have not subsided since its appearance. The right wing of the triptych called “Musical Hell” depicts sinners who are tortured in the underworld with the help of musical instruments. One of them has music notes stamped on his buttocks. Oklahoma Christian University student Amelia Hamrick, who studied the painting, translated the 16th-century notation into modern style and recorded “the 500-year-old ass song from hell.”
Nude Mona Lisa
The famous “La Gioconda” exists in two versions: the nude version is called “Monna Vanna”, it was written by little-known artist Salai, who was a student and model of the great Leonardo da Vinci. Many art historians are sure that it was he who was the model for Leonardo’s paintings “John the Baptist” and “Bacchus”. There are also versions that Salai, dressed in a woman’s dress, served as the image of the Mona Lisa herself.
Old Fisherman
In 1902, the Hungarian artist Tivadar Kostka Csontvary painted the painting “The Old Fisherman”. It would seem that there is nothing unusual in the picture, but Tivadar put into it a subtext that was never revealed during the artist’s lifetime.
Few people thought of placing a mirror in the middle of the picture. In each person there can be both God (the Old Man's right shoulder is duplicated) and the Devil (the Old Man's left shoulder is duplicated).
Doubles at the Last Supper
Leonardo da Vinci, "The Last Supper", 1495-1498.
When Leonardo da Vinci wrote The Last Supper, he attached particular importance to two figures: Christ and Judas. He spent a very long time looking for models for them. Finally, he managed to find a model for the image of Christ among the young singers. Leonardo was unable to find a model for Judas for three years. But one day he came across a drunkard on the street who was lying in a gutter. He was a young man who had been aged by heavy drinking. Leonardo invited him to a tavern, where he immediately began to paint Judas from him. When the drunkard came to his senses, he told the artist that he had already posed for him once. It was several years ago, when he sang in the church choir, Leonardo painted Christ from him.
The innocent history of "Gothic"
Grant Wood, American Gothic, 1930.
Grant Wood's work is considered one of the most strange and depressing in the history of American painting. The picture with the gloomy father and daughter is filled with details that indicate the severity, puritanism and retrograde nature of the people depicted. In fact, the artist did not intend to depict any horrors: during a trip to Iowa, he noticed a small house in gothic style and decided to portray those people who, in his opinion, would be ideal as inhabitants. Grant's sister and his dentist are immortalized as the characters Iowans were so offended by.
"Night Watch" or "Day Watch"?
Rembrandt, "Night Watch", 1642.
One of the most famous paintings Rembrandt’s “Performance of the Rifle Company of Captain Frans Banning Cock and Lieutenant Willem van Ruytenburg” hung in different rooms for about two hundred years and was discovered by art historians only in the 19th century. Since the figures seemed to appear against a dark background, it was called “Night Watch,” and under this name it entered the treasury of world art. And only during the restoration carried out in 1947, it was discovered that in the hall the painting had managed to become covered with a layer of soot, which distorted its color. After clearing the original painting, it was finally revealed that the scene represented by Rembrandt actually takes place during the day. The position of the shadow from Captain Kok's left hand shows that the duration of action is no more than 14 hours.
Overturned boat
Henri Matisse, "The Boat", 1937.
Henri Matisse's painting "The Boat" was exhibited at the New York Museum of Modern Art in 1961. Only after 47 days did someone notice that the painting was hanging upside down. The canvas depicts 10 purple lines and two blue sails on a white background. The artist painted two sails for a reason; the second sail is a reflection of the first on the surface of the water. In order not to make a mistake in how the picture should hang, you need to pay attention to the details. The larger sail should be the top of the painting, and the peak of the painting's sail should be toward the top right corner.
Deception in self-portrait
Vincent van Gogh, Self-Portrait with a Pipe, 1889.
There are legends that Van Gogh allegedly cut off his own ear. Now the most reliable version is that van Gogh damaged his ear in a small brawl involving another artist, Paul Gauguin. The self-portrait is interesting because it reflects reality in a distorted form: the artist is depicted with his right ear bandaged because he used a mirror when working. In fact, it was the left ear that was affected.
Two "Breakfasts on the Grass"
Edouard Manet, Luncheon on the Grass, 1863.
Claude Monet, Luncheon on the Grass, 1865.
The artists Edouard Manet and Claude Monet are sometimes confused - after all, they were both French, lived at the same time and worked in the style of impressionism. Monet even borrowed the title of one of Manet’s most famous paintings, “Luncheon on the Grass,” and wrote his own “Luncheon on the Grass.”
Alien bears
Ivan Shishkin, “Morning in the Pine Forest”, 1889.
The famous painting belongs not only to Shishkin. Many artists who were friends with each other often resorted to “the help of a friend,” and Ivan Ivanovich, who painted landscapes all his life, was afraid that his touching bears would not turn out the way he needed. Therefore, Shishkin turned to his friend, the animal artist Konstantin Savitsky.
Savitsky drew perhaps the best bears in history Russian painting, and Tretyakov ordered his name to be washed off the canvas, since everything in the painting “from the concept to the execution, everything speaks about the manner of painting, about creative method, characteristic of Shishkin."
The idea to depict a flowing clock came to Salvador Dali during dinner when he noticed Camembert melting in the sun.
It was later that Dali was asked whether Einstein’s theory of relativity was encrypted on the canvas, and he answered with a smart look: “Rather, Heraclitus’ theory that time is measured by the flow of thought. That’s why I called the painting “The Persistence of Memory.” And first there was cheese, processed cheese.”"The Last Supper"
When Leonardo da Vinci wrote The Last Supper, Special attention he devoted two figures: Christ and Judas. Leonardo found a model for the face of Jesus relatively quickly - a young man who sang in a church choir took his role. But Leonardo searched for a face capable of expressing the vice of Judas for three years. One day, while walking down the street, the master saw a drunkard in a gutter. Da Vinci brought the drunkard to a tavern, where he immediately began to paint Judas from him.
When the drunk sobered up, he remembered that several years ago he had already posed for an artist. This was the same singer. In Leonardo's great fresco, Jesus and Judas have the same face.
"Ivan the Terrible and his son Ivan"
In 1913, a mentally ill artist slashed Repin’s painting “Ivan the Terrible and His Son Ivan” with a knife. It was only thanks to the masterful work of restorers that the painting was restored. Ilya Repin himself came to Moscow and redrew Grozny’s head in a strange purple color - over two decades, the artist’s ideas about painting have changed greatly. Restorers removed these edits and returned the painting to an exact match of its museum photographs. Repin, seeing the restored canvas later, did not notice the corrections.
"Dream"
In 2006, American collector Steve Wynn agreed to sell Pablo Picasso's "The Dream" for $139 million, which would be one of the highest prices in history. But when talking about the painting, he waved his arms too expressively and tore the art with his elbow. Wynn regarded this as a sign from above and decided not to sell the painting after the restoration, which, by the way, cost a pretty penny.
"Boat"
A less destructive, but no less curious incident happened with a painting by Henri Matisse. In 1961, the Museum of Modern Art in New York presented the master’s painting “The Boat” to the audience. The exhibition was a success. But only seven weeks later, a casual art connoisseur noticed that the masterpiece was hanging upside down. During this time, 115 thousand people managed to see the art, and the review book was replenished with hundreds of admiring comments. The embarrassment spread across all the newspapers.
"Battle of Negroes in a Cave in the Dead of Night"
The famous “Black Square” was not the first painting of its kind. 22 years before Malevich, in 1893 French artist and the writer Alle Alphonse exhibited his masterpiece “The Battle of Negroes in a Cave in the Dead of Night” - an all-black rectangular canvas - at the Vivien Gallery.
"Feast of the Gods on Olympus"
In the 1960s one of them was found in Prague the most famous paintings Peter Paul Rubens "The Feast of the Gods on Olympus". For a long time, the date of its writing remained a mystery. The answer was found in the picture itself, moreover, by astronomers. They guessed that the positions of the planets were subtly encrypted on the canvas. For example, the Duke of Mantua Gonzaga in the image of the god Jupiter, Poseidon with the Sun and the goddess Venus with Cupid reflect the position of Jupiter, Venus and the Sun in the Zodiac.
In addition, it is clear that Venus is heading towards the constellation Pisces. Meticulous stargazers calculated that such a rare position of the planets in the sky was observed on the days of the winter solstice in 1602. Thus, a fairly accurate dating of the picture was carried out.
"Breakfast on the Grass"
Edouard Manet, "Luncheon on the Grass"
Claude Monet, "Luncheon on the Grass"
Edouard Manet and Claude Monet are confused not only by current applicants art schools– even their contemporaries confused them. Both lived in Paris at the end of the 19th century, communicated with each other and were almost namesakes. Thus, in the film “Ocean’s Eleven” the following dialogue takes place between the characters of George Clooney and Julia Roberts:
- I always confuse Monet and Manet. I only remember that one of them married his mistress.
- Monet.
- So Mane had syphilis.
- And they both wrote from time to time.
But the artists had little confusion with names; in addition, they actively borrowed ideas from each other. After Manet presented the painting “Luncheon on the Grass” to the public, Monet, without thinking twice, painted his own with the same name. As usual, there was some confusion.
"Sistine Madonna"
When looking at Raphael’s painting “The Sistine Madonna,” it is clearly visible that Pope Sixtus II has six fingers on his hand. Among other things, the name Sixtus translates as “sixth,” which ultimately gave rise to a lot of theories. In fact, the “lower little finger” is not a finger at all, but part of the palm. It's noticeable if you look closely. No mysticism and secret harbingers of the Apocalypse for you, it’s a pity.
"Morning in a pine forest"
Bear cubs from the painting “Morning in pine forest“Shishkina is not the work of Shishkin at all. Ivan was an excellent landscape painter, he brilliantly knew how to convey the play of light and shadow in the forest, but he was not good at people and animals. So, at the artist’s request, the cute bear cubs were painted by Konstantin Savitsky, and the picture itself was signed with two names. But Pavel Tretyakov, after purchasing the landscape for his collection, erased Savitsky’s signature, and all the laurels went to Shishkin.