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5 masterpieces of painting, which depict much more than the audience sees
Considering the masterpieces of world painting, few people think that behind an idyllic landscape a portrait of a person can be hidden, and behind a drawn wave – a huge whale. Modern technologies and research methods allow us to find out what the artists portrayed initially. This review presents famous paintings that hide much more than the audience sees.
The Black Square K. Malevich
A sensational discovery was made a couple of years ago. On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the creation of the famous “Black Square” by Kazimir Malevich, a series of manipulations were carried out on the painting, among which was the use of X-rays. The result of screening the canvas with UV rays surprised the researchers very much. It turns out that behind the black square hid two color images. One of them is a cubofuturistic composition, and the other is supermatic. Continue reading
3 curious facts about famous works of art
Different people perceive works of art differently, and the viewer’s point of view can radically differ from what the artist himself put into his work. And many famous paintings have interesting stories that allow you to look at a picture or sculpture from a completely new perspective.
1. Manneken Pis
Those who have ever been to Brussels must have seen one of Belgium’s most notable attractions – the Manneken Pis sculpture. As the name suggests, she portrays a little boy pissing in a fountain. Archival records show that the original sculpture was installed in 1388. Then it was a stone statue that served as a public fountain, but it was either destroyed or stolen at some point. The “Manneken Pis” in its current form was designed and installed by the Flemish sculptor Jerome Duchenoy in 1619. Continue reading
Secrets of the Four Seasons
This year marks almost 430 years since the death of Giuseppe Arcimboldo, an Italian artist known for his original portraits of fruits, vegetables, flowers and fish. Giuseppe so skillfully portrayed these objects on canvas, that their entire combination forms a recognizable similarity of portrait subjects. The art of Arcimboldo, as the most radical and extravagant representative of the mannerism style, is also noteworthy in that he pushed the theme of the parallel between humanity and the natural world beyond new boundaries.
The genre of portraiture has been one of the dominant for many centuries. However, in the 16th century, Giuseppe Archimboldo provided his own vision of this genre, combining it with a still life and surprising his contemporaries with his extraordinary compositional solutions. Continue reading
