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It turns out that other images are hidden under the paintings of some famous artists. Sometimes, if you look closely, they are visible to the naked eye. But more often they are found by art historians while studying the paintings of famous masters or restorers working on the restoration of paintings. In our review, there are six most interesting cases when paintings were fraught with hidden images.
Answering the question about hidden paintings, scientists note that the reasons for their appearance on known canvases are different. Sometimes the artist simply did not like the original version, sometimes the picture had to be redrawn due to public opinion, and it also happened that the artists found themselves in financial distress, could not afford to buy a new canvas, and used old ones for their new works.
1. Bust of the monarch in the painting by Jean Auguste Ingres
On the left side of the painting by the French neoclassical artist Ingres "Portrait of Jacques Marquet, Baron de Montbreton de Norvin" (1811-12), which depicts the chief of police in Rome after the conquest of the city by Napoleon, even with the naked eye you can see the bust of a child's head. It is believed that this is a bust of the head of the son of Napoleon, whom his father proclaimed the king of Rome. In 1814, when Napoleon was finally defeated and abdicated, Ingres painted over the painting for political reasons and painted a new one on top of it.
2. Woman in Picasso's "Old Guitarist"
Pablo Picasso had a difficult period in 1901-1904, when he did not even have money to buy new materials for work. He often primed old canvases and used them to create new paintings. One of the most famous examples of pentimento in the works of Picasso is the painting "The Old Guitarist", in which a painted figure of a woman was discovered.
Art critics have previously noticed a fuzzy contour behind the guitarist's curved neck, but only by illuminating the picture with X-rays did they reveal an old image of a woman who feeds a small child, and next to them are a bull and a sheep.
3. The bearded man in Picasso's Blue Room
Picasso's painting The Blue Room, painted in 1901, also contains a secret recently revealed by infrared optical tomography. If you put the picture vertically, a certain bearded man with many rings on his fingers is found under a layer of paint.
4. Shoulder strap in John Singer Sargent's "Portrait of Madame X"
"Portrait of Madame X", which is exhibited in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, is considered an icon of style due to the simple black clothes of the lady depicted on it, her stately figure and haughty facial expression. However, at one time this portrait was considered a scandalous insult to decency and had a very negative impact on the artist's career in Europe.
The woman in the portrait is the famous Parisian socialite Virginie Gautreau. The pallor of her skin, which was considered the epitome of beauty at the time, led one contemporary critic to describe Gautreau's skin tone as "cadaverous". This effect was achieved through the use of arsenic. Gautreau also tinted her hair with henna for greater contrast. To emphasize the unusual beauty of Gautreau, Sargent depicted her in a black dress, one of the straps of which coquettishly fell over her shoulder.
When the portrait was first exhibited at the Paris Salon, the public exploded with indignation, as the half-dropped shoulder strap was found to be very obscene. As a result, Sargent rewrote this detail of the dress, lifting it over his shoulder.
5. Woman at the window
In the National Gallery in London, in the process of restoring a canvas from the 1500s by an unknown artist, an unusual "make-up" was discovered. It turned out that the blonde in the picture is actually a brunette, and her hair color was rewritten by the artist over the original. Today, the painting has been restored to its original state and is housed in the National Gallery.
6. Whale in Hendrick van Antonissen's "Beach Scene"
When this seventeenth-century Dutch painting was donated to the Fitzwilliam Museum, it simply depicted a beach scene. However, art historians have been puzzled as to why the painting depicts a crowd gathered near the water for no apparent reason. After restoration, under a layer of paint, an image of a whale washed ashore was discovered. The whale is believed to have been painted over for aesthetic reasons in the 18th or 19th century.
Art connoisseurs will be interested to learn about.
Today we present to your attention twenty paintings that are worthy of attention and recognition. These paintings were painted by famous artists, and they should be known not only by the person who is engaged in art, but also by ordinary mortal people, since art paints our life, aesthetics deepens our view of the world. Give art its due place in your life...
1. "The Last Supper". Leonardo Da Vinci, 1495 - 1498
Monumental painting by Leonardo da Vinci depicting the scene of the last meal of Christ with his disciples. Created in the years 1495-1498 in the Dominican monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan.
The painting was commissioned by Leonardo from his patron, Duke Lodovico Sforza and his wife Beatrice d'Este. The coat of arms of Sforza is painted on the lunettes above the painting, formed by a ceiling with three arches. The painting was begun in 1495 and completed in 1498; work was intermittent. The date of commencement of work is not exact, because "the archives of the monastery were destroyed, and an insignificant part of the documents that we have dated 1497, when the painting was almost completed."
The painting became a milestone in the history of the Renaissance: the correctly reproduced depth of perspective changed the direction of development of Western painting.
It is believed that many secrets and hints are hidden in this picture - for example, there is an assumption that the images of Jesus and Judas are written off from one person. When Da Vinci painted the picture, in his vision, Jesus personified goodness, while Judas was pure evil. And when the master found “his Judas” (a drunkard from the street), it turned out that, according to historians, this drunkard had served as a prototype for painting the image of Jesus a few years before. Thus, we can say that this picture captured a person in different periods of his life.
2. "Sunflowers". Vincent van Gogh, 1887
Name of two cycles of paintings by the Dutch artist Vincent van Gogh. The first series was made in Paris in 1887. It is dedicated to lying flowers. The second series was completed a year later, in Arles. She depicts a bouquet of sunflowers in a vase. Two Parisian paintings were acquired by van Gogh's friend Paul Gauguin.
The artist painted sunflowers eleven times. The first four paintings were created in Paris in August-September 1887. Large cut flowers lie like some strange creatures dying before our eyes.
3. "The ninth wave". Ivan Konstantinovich Aivazovsky?, 1850.
One of the most famous paintings by the Russian marine painter Ivan Aivazovsky is kept in the Russian Museum.
The painter depicts the sea after the strongest night storm and people who were shipwrecked. The rays of the sun illuminate the huge waves. The largest of them - the ninth shaft - is ready to fall on people trying to escape on the wreckage of the mast.
Despite the fact that the ship is destroyed and only the mast remains, the people on the mast are alive and continue to fight against the elements. The warm tones of the picture make the sea not so harsh and give the viewer hope that people will be saved.
Created in 1850, the painting "The Ninth Wave" immediately became the most famous of all his marinas and was acquired by Nicholas I.
4. "Nude Maja". Francisco Goya, 1797-1800
Painting by Spanish artist Francisco Goya, painted around 1797-1800. Pairs with the painting "Maja dressed" (La maja vestida). The paintings depict maja - a Spanish townswoman of the 18th-19th centuries, one of the artist's favorite objects of the image. Maja Nude is one of the early works of Western art depicting a completely naked woman without mythological or negative connotations.
5. "Flight of lovers." Marc Chagall, 1914-1918
Work on the painting “Above the City” began in 1914, and the master applied the finishing touches only in 1918. During this time, Bella turned from a beloved not only into an adored spouse, but also the mother of their daughter Ida, forever becoming the main muse of the painter. The union of a rich daughter of a hereditary jeweler and a simple Jewish youth, whose father made a living by unloading herring, can only be called a misalliance, but love was stronger and overcame all conventions. It was this love that inspired them, lifting them to heaven.
Karina depicts Chagall's two loves at once - Bella and dear Vitebsk. The streets are presented in the form of houses, separated by a high dark fence. The viewer will not immediately notice a goat grazing to the left of the center of the picture, and a simple man with his pants down in the foreground - a humor from the painter, breaking out of the general context and romantic mood of the work, but this is the whole Chagall ...
6. "The face of war." Salvador Dali, 1940
Painting by Spanish artist Salvador Dali, painted in 1940.
The painting was created on the way to the USA. Impressed by the tragedy that broke out in the world, the bloodthirstiness of politicians, the master starts work on the ship. Located in the Boijmans-van Beuningen Museum in Rotterdam.
Having lost all hope for a normal life in Europe, the artist leaves his beloved Paris for America. War covers the Old World and seeks to take over the rest of the world. The master does not yet know that staying in the New World for eight years will make him truly famous, and his works - masterpieces of world art.
7. "Scream". Edvard Munch, 1893
The Scream (Norwegian Skrik) is a series of paintings created between 1893 and 1910 by the Norwegian Expressionist painter Edvard Munch. They depict a human figure screaming in despair against a blood-red sky and a highly generalized landscape background. In 1895, Munch created a lithograph on the same subject.
The red, fiery hot sky covered the cold fjord, which, in turn, gives rise to a fantastic shadow, similar to some kind of sea monster. Tension distorts space, lines break, colors don't match, perspective is destroyed.
Many critics believe that the plot of the picture is the fruit of a sick fantasy of a mentally ill person. Someone sees in the work a premonition of an ecological catastrophe, someone solves the question of what kind of mummy inspired the author to do this work.
8. "Girl with a pearl earring." Jan Vermeer, 1665
The painting "Girl with a Pearl Earring" (Dutch. "Het meisje met de parel") was written around 1665. Currently stored in the Mauritshuis Museum, The Hague, the Netherlands, and is the hallmark of the museum. The painting, nicknamed the Dutch Mona Lisa, or Mona Lisa of the North, is written in the Tronie genre.
Thanks to the 2003 film Girl with a Pearl Earring by Peter Webber, a huge number of people who are far from painting have learned about the wonderful Dutch artist Jan Vermeer, as well as his most famous painting, Girl with a Pearl Earring.
9. "Tower of Babel". Pieter Brueghel, 1563
Famous painting by Pieter Brueghel. The artist created at least two paintings on this subject.
The painting is in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.
There is a story in the Bible about how the inhabitants of Babylon tried to build a high tower in order to reach the sky, but God made them speak different languages, ceased to understand each other, and the tower remained unfinished.
10. "Algerian women." Pablo Picasso, 1955
"Women of Algeria" - a series of 15 paintings created by Picasso in 1954-1955 based on the paintings of Eugene Delacroix; the paintings are distinguished by the letters assigned by the artist from A to O. "Version O" was written on February 14, 1955; for some time it belonged to the famous American art collector of the 20th century, Victor Ganz.
Pablo Picasso's "Women of Algiers (version O)" was sold for $180 million.
11. "New planet". Konstantin Yuon, 1921
Russian Soviet painter, master of landscape, theater artist, art theorist. Academician of the Academy of Arts of the USSR. People's Artist of the USSR. Laureate of the Stalin Prize of the first degree. Member of the CPSU since 1951.
This amazing, created in 1921 and not at all characteristic of the realist artist Yuon, the painting “New Planet” is one of the brightest works that embodied the image of the changes that the October Revolution became in the second decade of the 20th century. A new system, a new way and a new way of thinking of the newly born Soviet society. What awaits humanity now? Bright future? This was not yet thought about then, but the fact that Soviet Russia and the whole world is entering an era of change is obvious, as is the rapid birth of a new planet.
12. "Sistine Madonna". Raphael Santi, 1754
Painting by Raphael, which has been in the Old Masters Gallery in Dresden since 1754. Belongs to the generally recognized peaks of the High Renaissance.
Huge in size (265 × 196 cm, as the size of the painting is indicated in the catalog of the Dresden Gallery) the canvas was created by Raphael for the altar of the church of the monastery of St. Sixtus in Piacenza, commissioned by Pope Julius II. There is a hypothesis that the painting was painted in 1512-1513 in honor of the victory over the French, who invaded Lombardy during the Italian Wars, and the subsequent incorporation of Piacenza into the Papal States.
13. "Penitent Mary Magdalene". Titian (Tiziano Vecellio), painted around 1565
A painting painted around 1565 by the Italian artist Titian Vecellio. Belongs to the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg. Sometimes the date of creation is given as "1560s".
The model of the painting was Giulia Festina, who struck the artist with a shock of golden hair. The finished canvas greatly impressed the Duke of Gonzaga, and he decided to order a copy of it. Later, Titian, changing the background and posing of the woman, painted a couple more similar works.
14. Mona Lisa. Leonardo Da Vinci, 1503-1505
Portrait of Mrs. Lisa del Giocondo, (ital. Ritratto di Monna Lisa del Giocondo) - a painting by Leonardo da Vinci, located in the Louvre (Paris, France), one of the most famous paintings in the world, which is believed to be a portrait of Lisa Gherardini, the wife of a silk merchant from Florence, Francesco del Giocondo, painted around 1503-1505 .
According to one of the put forward versions, "Mona Lisa" is a self-portrait of the artist.
15. “Morning in a pine forest”, Shishkin Ivan Ivanovich, 1889.
Painting by Russian artists Ivan Shishkin and Konstantin Savitsky. Savitsky painted the bears, but the collector Pavel Tretyakov erased his signature, so one painting is often listed as the author.
The idea for the painting was suggested to Shishkin by Savitsky, who later acted as a co-author and depicted the figures of cubs. These bears, with some differences in posture and number (at first there were two of them), appear in preparatory drawings and sketches. The animals turned out so well for Savitsky that he even signed the painting together with Shishkin.
16. "We didn't wait." Ilya Repin, 1884-1888
Painting by Russian artist Ilya Repin (1844-1930), painted in 1884-1888. It is part of the collection of the State Tretyakov Gallery.
The painting shown at the 12th traveling exhibition is part of a narrative cycle dedicated to the fate of the Russian populist revolutionary.
17. Ball at the Moulin de la Galette, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, 1876.
Painting painted by French artist Pierre-Auguste Renoir in 1876.
The place where the painting is located is the Musée d'Orsay. The Moulin de la Galette is an inexpensive tavern in Montmartre where the students and working youth of Paris gathered.
18. Starry night. Vincent van Gogh, 1889
De sterrennacht- a painting by the Dutch artist Vincent van Gogh, written in June 1889, with a view of the predawn sky over a fictional town from the east window of the artist's dwelling in Saint-Remy-de-Provence. Since 1941 it has been kept at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. It is considered one of Van Gogh's best works and one of the most significant works of Western painting.
19. "Creation of Adam". Michelangelo, 1511.
Fresco by Michelangelo, painted around 1511. The fresco is the fourth of nine central compositions on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.
The Creation of Adam is one of the most outstanding mural compositions in the Sistine Chapel. In endless space, God the Father flies, surrounded by wingless angels, with a fluttering white tunic. The right hand is extended towards Adam's hand and almost touches it. Lying on a green rock, Adam's body gradually begins to move, awakens to life. The whole composition is concentrated on the gesture of two hands. The hand of God gives the impulse, and the hand of Adam receives it, giving life energy to the whole body. By the fact that their hands do not touch, Michelangelo emphasized the impossibility of connecting the divine and the human. In the image of God, according to the artist, not a miraculous principle prevails, but a gigantic creative energy. In the image of Adam, Michelangelo sings of the strength and beauty of the human body. In fact, it is not the very creation of man that appears before us, but the moment at which he receives a soul, a passionate search for the divine, a thirst for knowledge.
20. "Kiss in the starry sky." Gustav Klimt, 1905-1907
Painting by Austrian artist Gustav Klimt, painted in 1907-1908. The canvas belongs to the period of Klimt's work, called "golden", the last work of the author in his "golden period".
On a rock, on the edge of a flower meadow, in a golden aura, lovers stand completely immersed in each other, fenced off from the whole world. Due to the uncertainty of the place of what is happening, it seems that the couple depicted in the picture is moving into a cosmic state that is not subject to time and space, beyond all historical and social stereotypes and cataclysms. Complete solitude and the man's face turned back only emphasize the impression of isolation and detachment in relation to the observer.
Source - Wikipedia, muzei-mira.com, say-hi.me
20 paintings that everyone should know (the history of painting) updated: November 23, 2016 by: website
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High art is a complex and incomprehensible thing for many. Renaissance painting with its ideal image attracts many admirers, but it is not easy for everyone to believe that the works of Picasso and Kandinsky can really cost fabulous money. The abundance of naked people in the picture is another mystery, as well as the paradox that good paintings do not have to be beautiful.
website I learned the answers to several curious questions about painting by looking into the works of art critics and culturologists.
1. Is painting really that expensive?
Every now and then we hear about the crazy sums laid out for this or that picture. But in fact, such money is the lot of very few works. Most artists have never seen huge amounts of money. Art historian Jonathan Binstock believes that there are only about 40 authors in the world whose paintings are valued by a sum with many zeros.
Brands rule art
Here is perhaps the most striking example. You've probably heard of the graffiti artist Banksy. The acute social orientation of the works and the biography, covered with a halo of mystery, did their job. Today, Banksy is an artist whose work is valued at multi-digit sums. His painting "Girl with a Balloon" was sold for £ 1.042 million. And the whole world started talking about the performance to destroy it immediately after the sale.
Banksy is a brand and brands sell well. Thus, The cost of a painting is largely determined by the fame of its author.
The successful sale of one painting is the key to the success of others
An artist may be unlucky for a long time, he will vegetate in poverty and obscurity, unable to profitably sell his work. But as soon as he manages to sell one of his paintings for a lot of money, you can be sure that the price of his other works will skyrocket.
Rarity, scarcity, uniqueness
The Dutch artist Jan Vermeer is called priceless today. Not so many paintings belong to his brush - only 36. The artist wrote quite slowly. Lost in 1990, the Dutchman's painting "Concert" is now estimated at about $ 200 million. Rarity and scarcity canvases affects the fact that their prices are simply sky-high.
The legendary Van Gogh is a super brand. There are few paintings by the artist, and it is obvious that he won't do anything anymore. His work is unique.
10 years ago, Malevich's Suprematist Composition was sold for $60 million. Perhaps, if not for the crisis, it would have sold for $100 million. Paintings by Malevich in private collections without exception, and when the next time a thing of this class appears on the market is unknown. Maybe in 10 years, maybe in 100.
In general, it is obvious: buyers are ready to pay fabulous money for extremely rare items.
Innovation is expensive
One of the works of Richard Prince in the direction of "artistic borrowing".
Painting takes on the function of a landmark
Today, the level of cultural tourism is growing, and painting performs the function attractions. Tourists line up for hours at famous museums. And in order to declare itself and claim world-class fame, the gallery must certainly own the originals of famous and popular painters.
Artificially created centers of cultural tourism are also growing, for example, in the Middle East and in China. Recently the royal family Qatar entered into a private transaction for $ 250 million- all in order for the country to have a picture Cezanne "The Card Players".
When there is everything, art begins to pull
In 2017, billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev sold this painting to Leonardo da Vinci for $450 million. Now this is the most expensive deal in the world of painting.
When you have 4 houses and a G5 plane, what else is there to do? It remains only to invest in painting, because it is one of the strongest currencies».
Painting by Georges Seurat "Canal at Gravelines, Great Fort Philippe".
Fragment of Michelangelo's fresco "Creation of Adam".
Even the ancient Greeks believed that the naked body is incredibly beautiful.
In art, most often nudity - it's a symbol. A symbol of new life, sincerity, the helplessness of a living being, as well as life and death.
Besides, nothing causes such strong emotions the viewer, like nakedness. It could be interest, embarrassment, shame, or admiration.
4. Why is everything so flat and generally unrealistic?
Painting by Czech artist Bohumil Kubishta “The Hypnotist”.
Perhaps one of the most common accusations against modern masters sounds like this: artists have forgotten how to seem to convey reality. Hence the misconception that objects look flat.
But let's look, for example, at the canvases cubists. They break the perspective, but depict objects at the same time from different angles and even at different times. Therefore, it cannot be said that the image on the canvas is two-dimensional.
It is no longer necessary to draw “looks like” - a photograph can do this. Therefore, it is necessary to look for an answer to the question of why the artist in this or that picture depicted reality as flat, it is necessary in the very author's idea. Removing some details of the image, the artist focuses on others. Simplifying the image, he makes it more expressive. The artists of naive painting did not have an academic education. Pirosmani and Rousseau were only self-taught, but their paintings attracted those who had already seen everything and who were bored with traditional painting. Such pictures were like a breath of life-giving simplicity.
But professional avant-garde artists of the 19th–20th centuries had an artistic education and a strong base behind them. They could write any way but at some point decided to do it this way imitating the primitivists. As they say, this was intended, because this is a completely new (and therefore interesting for those who are tired of the old) way of influencing the viewer.
Artists would have done a great job with a painting in the spirit of academic classicism, and that is why it was boring for them. Young Picasso painted touching and rather realistic portraits. But a mature artist has chosen for himself a path that shocks, invigorates the eye, which helps to demonstrate a cool coloristic flair and a sense of form.
Opinion: to say that pictures must certainly be beautiful is the same as saying that real cinema is only a romantic comedy or a melodrama with a happy ending. And psychological dramas, action films, thrillers - this is not a movie at all. Agree, there is logic in this.
Art (including painting) must speak the language of its time. And in order to enjoy any picture, even a realistic one, you need to know what is depicted on it. At exhibitions, we usually read the captions to the canvases and even use the audio guide.
What painting is close to you?
Paintings and painters
Art has always been a way of understanding the world and expressing feelings and emotions. There are many different forms of art and painting is only one of them.
Horace said that a "picture is a poem without words" and indeed it is so. Over the centuries many techniques have developed to allow artists to transform their feelings into images on canvas.
Russian painters represent Russian art which is in many ways unique and has always impressed people around the world. It originates from the world-known icon-painters, the most renowned of whom is Andrey Rublyov.
Many Russian painters praise the beauty of the Russian nature in their works. Ivan Shishkin is especially famous with his canvases representing Russian forest (e.g. "Morning in the Pine Forest") while Isaac Levitan derived inspiration from the Russian autumn.
The Peredvizhniki included artists of the 19th century. One of them was Ilya Repin who is an artist celebrating for his large canvases like "Ivan the Terrible and his Son Ivan" or "Barge Haulers on the Volga". Victor Vasnetsov chose the folk Russian style for his "Bogatyrs" and Mikhail Vrubel is noted for originality of thought. His "Demon" is the fruit of his fantastic imagination.
Ivan Aivazovsky gained a world-wide fame by his romantic paintings representing sea. "The Ninth Wave" is a masterpiece revealing the beauty of the mighty sea on a stormy day.
Russian Art is exhibited in The State Russian Museum in Saint-Petersburg. And in the department of English Art in the Hermitage you can enjoy some of the masterpieces of the British painters.
One of the most famous of them is John Constable - an English Romantic painter who is principally known for his landscape paintings of Dedham Vale, an area near his house in Suffolk which is now known as "Constable Country".
William Turner was a landscape artist whose style can be said to have laid the foundation for Impressionism.
William Hogarth is renowned not only for his portraits but also for the series of paintings with satiric details characterizing English high society, in the 1740s.
Thomas Gainsborough is one of the most famous portrait and landscape painters of 18th century Britain. In the National Gallery, London, you can see colorful painting “Mr. and Mrs. Andrews" which is a combination of family portrait and landscape, and dark portrait of "Mr and Mrs William Hal-lett" that exemplifies Gainsborough's mature style.
William Blake is an English poet and painter. Largely unrecognized during his lifetime today, his works are considered significant in the history of both poetry and the visual arts. His paintings may seem very unusual and fantastic. For example, he depicted Isaac Newton as a divine geometer.
Paintings and artists
Art has always been a way of understanding the world and expressing feelings and emotions. There are many forms of art, and painting is just one of them.
Horace said that "a picture is a verse, only without words" and this is actually so. Over the centuries, different techniques have been developed that allow artists to turn their feelings into images on canvas.
Russian artists represent Russian art, which is unique in many ways and has always amazed people all over the world. It originates from world famous icon painters, the most famous of which is Andrey Rublev.
Many Russian artists sing of the beauty of Russian nature in their works. Ivan Shishkin is especially famous for his Russian forest paintings, such as Morning in a Pine Forest, while Isaac Levitan drew inspiration from Russian autumn.
The Wanderers included artists of the 19th century. One of them was Ilya Repin - an artist famous for his large canvases, such as "Ivan the Terrible and his son Ivan" or "Barge Haulers on the Volga". Viktor Vasnetsov chose the Russian-folk style for his Bogatyrs. Mikhail Vrubel is known for his originality of thought. His "Demon" is a figment of fantastic imagination.
Ivan Aivazovsky gained worldwide fame for his romantic depiction of the sea. The Ninth Wave is a masterpiece that reveals the beauty of sea power in a storm.
Russian art is represented in the State Russian Museum in St. Petersburg. And in the Department of English Art in the Hermitage, you can enjoy some of the masterpieces of British artists.
One of the most famous of these is John Constable, an English Romantic painter known chiefly for his landscapes of Dedham Vale, the area near his home in Suffolk, which is today known as Constable's Land.
William Turner was a landscape painter, we can say that his style laid the foundation for impressionism.
William Hogarth is known not only for his portraits, but also for a series of paintings with satirical details that characterize English high society in the 1740s.
Thomas Gainsborough is one of the most famous portrait and landscape painters in 18th century Britain. In the National Gallery in London, you can see the colorful Mr and Mrs Andrews, which is a combination of family portrait and landscape, and the dark Mr and Mrs William Hallett, which exemplifies Gainsborough's more mature style.
William Blake is an English poet and painter. Unrecognized during his lifetime, today his work is considered important in the history of both poetry and the visual arts. His paintings may seem unusual and fantastic. For example, he depicted Isaac Newton as a divine geometer.
Vocabulary:
canvas - canvas, canvas
celebration - famous
depict - depict
derive inspiration - receive inspiration
divine - divine
evoke - cause, awaken (feelings)
exemplify - serve as an example
folk - folk
fruit of imagination - the fruit of the imagination
Horace - Horace
landscape - landscape
landscape artist - landscape painter
lay foundation (for) - lay the foundation, start
masterpiece
mature - mature
mighty - powerful, mighty
noted - notable, famous
originate - originate
praise - praise
predominate - to dominate
renowned - renowned
reveal - open, expose
unrecognized - unrecognized
visual art - fine art
world-known - world famous
Answer the questions
l.What did Horace say about paintings? How do you understand his words?
2. Who is Andrey Rublyov? What is he famous for?
3. What Russian artists praised the beauty of nature?
4. What artists are called The Peredvizhniki?
5. What paintings by Ilya Repin do you know?
6. What is Ivan Aivazovsky renowned for?
7. In what museums can you see paintings by Russian artists?
8. In what museums can you see paintings by British artists?
9. What is "Constable Country"? Why is it called so?
10. Whose style has laid the foundation for Impressionism?
11. Which painter was also famous for satirical portraying of high society?
12. What is Thomas Gainsborough famous for?
13. What do you know about William Blake?
14. What are your favorite artists and why?
Great artists not only signed their paintings in a sweeping manner, but also painted hidden self-portraits on their creations. Some were so sophisticated that they depicted themselves in a decanter of wine, others simply painted themselves in the crowd, and one of them even painted himself in a female form.
Bacchus by Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio
The painting "Bacchus", written in 1595 by Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, depicts the ancient god of winemaking, inspiration and religious ecstasy. A young guy with leaves and grapes in his hair languidly holds out a shallow glass of wine to the viewer, as if inviting him to join him. Caravaggio, creating this picture, wanted to get away from the idealized image of the ancient god - in order to lower Bacchus to the ground, the artist depicted dirt under his nails, and also placed a plate of rotting fruit next to him.
But the eternal theme of the earthly and the divine is not the only thing that makes this picture so remarkable. After cleaning the canvas, using reflectography, a self-portrait of Caravaggio was found in the reflection on the glass of the decanter, in the lower left corner. The artist depicted himself working at an easel. Also, after the layers of dust were removed, it became possible to see the reflection of the face of Bacchus on the surface of the wine in the bowl.
Adoration of the Magi by Sandro Botticelli
The painting “The Adoration of the Magi” by Sandro Botticelli was written approximately in 1475 by order of the Florentine banker Gaspare di Zanobe del Lama, a member of the guild of arts and crafts of the city of Florence. The creation of Botticelli was intended for the funeral chapel in the Basilica of Santa Maria Novella.
For many art historians, this painting is notable for the fact that it can be found the image of a number of historical characters. For example, the artist depicted his client on the right in a blue robe, pointing at himself and looking directly at the viewer. The eldest of the Magi, who knelt before the baby, is Cosimo de' Medici, founder of the dynasty of rulers of Florence and grandfather of Lorenzo the Magnificent. In the very center, with his back to the viewer, is a man in red clothes, Pietro Medici, son of Cosimo and father of Lorenzo. Lorenzo the Magnificent himself is depicted, according to art historians, in profile, in a black and red robe. On the left, in the foreground, with his arms crossed on the hilt of the sword, stands Giuliano Medici, Lorenzo's brother and lover, the girl who posed for Botticelli during the creation of the painting “The Birth of Venus”. And finally, the young man on the far right, who looks you straight in the eye, is a self-portrait of Botticelli himself.
The painting can be seen in Florence, in the Uffizi Gallery.
The Garden of Earthly Delights by Hieronymus Bosch
The Garden of Earthly Delights is a triptych painted by the grotesque master Hieronymus Bosch (real name Jeroen Antonison van Aken). Some consider the artist a surrealist of the 15th century, others are sure that Bosch wasadherent of the Cathar heresy, and others - that the paintings of the painter reflect the medieval "esoteric disciplines": astrology, black magic, and alchemy. Each canvas is saturated with a huge number of symbols that are hard for our contemporaries to count.
The left wing of the triptych depicts God representing Eve to Adam in serene Paradise. In the middle of the triptych are scenes from the Garden of Delights, where people and fantasy animals indulge in worldly pleasures. Well, on the right side of the picture are complex torture machines, monsters and himself, an artist with a body that looks like a shell, who smiles maliciously at all this Hell.
The painting is kept in the Prado Museum in Madrid.
The Last Judgment by Michelangelo
The Last Judgment by Michelangelo is depicted on the altar wall of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican. The artist worked on the fresco, the main theme of which was the second coming of Christ and the apocalypse, for four years, from 1537 to 1541. Art critics believe that this work ended the Renaissance and opened a new period of disappointment in the philosophy of anthropocentric humanism.
At the feet of Christ, Michelangelo placed Bartholomew, who can be recognized by the knife in his hand. He holds a flayed skin on which, according to art historians, the artist painted his self-portrait. Some are sure that Bartholomew is very similar to Pietro Aretino, the enemy of Michelangelo, who insulted him. So the artist saw his redemption. Others believe that Michelangelo depicted himself on a flayed skin as a sign that he did not want to finish the fresco and carried out this order of the Pope under special duress.
The fresco can be seen in the Sistine Chapel, in the Vatican Museum.
"Mona Lisa" by Leonardo da Vinci
Created by Leonardo da Vinci, "Mona Lisa" is probably the most talked about painting in the whole world. It now hangs under impenetrable glass in the Louvre, and once adorned Napoleon's bathroom. In this creation of da Vinci, there is a secret that art historians cannot unravel in any way: some suggest that the Gioconda's grin is the smile of a pregnant woman who caught the movement of the fetus, others that it is the smile of her beloved Leonardo Giacomo Salai, psychiatrists see schizophrenia in Mona Lisa's facial expression , and dentists are sure that this is the smile of a toothless woman.
Another hypothesis is that the depicted girl with a smirk— Leonardo da Vinci himself. A computer comparison of the anatomical features of the face of the artist and the model showed that geometrically they match perfectly.You can see for yourself by comparing the Mona Lisa and da Vinci's self-portrait, which the artist made in red pencil.
The painting is in the Louvre, Paris.
"School of Athens" Raphael Santi
Rafael Santi, creating the fresco “The School of Athens”, who just did not depict on it: the aforementioned Leonardo da Vinci in the image of Plato, and Michelangelo in the image of Heraclitus, and Socrates, and Alexander the Great. Santi did not forget to draw himself next to the painter Sodoma, who began work on the fresco before him. There are more than 50 people in the picture.
The main idea of the “School of Athens” fresco is the possibility of harmonic harmony between different areas of philosophy and science. By the way, this concept is one of the most important ideas of the humanists. Raphael Santi, under the vaults of the Vatican Palace, depicted an essentially ideal community of thinkers of the classical era. In the center of the composition are Aristotle and Plato, who personify ancient wisdom and represent two schools of philosophy.
The fresco is in the Vatican Palace.
“Portrait of the Arnolfinis” by Jan van Eyck
“Portrait of the Arnolfinis” by Jan van Eyck is another Renaissance painting that is difficult to interpret - disputes about who is depicted on it continue to this day. The most common version is that the artist painted the merchant Giovanni di Nicolao Arnolfini and his wife on the canvas, presumably in their house in Bruges.
But most of all in this work we are not interested in the characters of the foreground, but who is depicted in the mirror on the wall, which is located on the central axis of the composition, right above the hands of the characters. If you look closely, you will see figures from the back in red and blue suits. Judging by the silhouettes of their clothes, they are a man and a woman. Unfortunately, the features of their faces are impossible to make out. Most art critics are sure that the inscription above the mirror, which reads "Jan van Eyck was here," directly indicates that one of those standing on the threshold of the room is the artist himself.
The painting is inLondon National Gallery.
