10 curious facts that led to the creation of famous works of art

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

When it comes to art, most people remember the heyday of a genius of a certain period, often forgetting that it was the environment that shaped the artist's style and vision of the world. Indeed, the appearance of works of art can be influenced by a lot of various factors, sometimes not having anything to do with it.

1. Monet's cataract

Claude Monet is considered the father of impressionism. The entire direction was named after the display of his painting "Impression. Rising Sun" (from the word Impression). The Impressionists appreciate and emphasize light and movement in their works in every possible way. This can often look like washed out paint on the canvas. Some experts believe that this blurry style could have arisen due to the fact that Monet had vision problems.

When he was 85, Monet underwent cataract surgery. Studying his paintings, scientists found that over time, the bright colors on them gradually became cloudy.

2. Vermeer's camera

Art critics have a version that the Dutch artist Vermeer used some kind of device with lenses to create his works. There is no historical evidence for this, but some art historians have concluded that he used pinhole cameras to project images onto canvas. Some of the distortions in his paintings are completely identical to those produced by the lens.

3. Ugly medieval babies

Religious subjects dominated medieval painting, with the theme of Jesus being the most popular. Remarkably, many children in medieval art looked frankly creepy - they had the faces of ugly old people. One of the theories of medieval theologians says that "Jesus should have been born with an ideal body, and his features should not have changed throughout his life."

This baby Jesus theory became known as "homuncular" (from the word "homunculus" or "little man"). This style of children's painting died in the Renaissance, when people wished to see realistic paintings of their own children.

4. Van Gogh's color blindness

Few painters were loved as much as Vincent Van Gogh. The variety of his palette, it would seem, makes it seem absurd to suggest that the artist was color blind. However, Kazunori Asada studied the work of Van Gogh and came to the conclusion that the artist could not distinguish between red shades.

5. Blue cloak of the Virgin Mary

The influence of theology on art is widely known, but economics can also influence art. In Renaissance paintings, the Virgin Mary almost always wore a blue cloak. What was behind this stylistic choice? The answer lies in trade routes to Afghanistan.

Medieval artists had few bright blue pigments. This deficiency was eliminated when lapis lazuli appeared in Europe - a blue mineral that was imported from the Asian mountains, as well as ultramarine, a pigment that was made from it. But the pigment was very expensive and was only used for the most important characters. The Virgin Mary just fell into this cohort. That's how her cloak turned blue.

6. Handprints in rock art

One of the most common motives in ancient caves are handprints. The ancient artist put his hand to the wall and sprayed paint over it, blowing it out of the tube. Thus, the contour handprint remained on the wall. Having studied these drawings, scientists were able to determine how many left-handers and right-handers were in the ancient world (based on which hand was applied to the wall and which one was holding the pipe).

7. Egyptian profiles

Egyptian art is known for portraying people only in profile. One might assume that the Egyptians never looked each other in the eye. But the statues prove the opposite - the Egyptians depicted a human face in full face. So why are only profiles used in paintings and reliefs? The secret is that in Egyptian art, realism was far from the first place. It was necessary to show the essence of a person, to emphasize the recognizable aspects of an object or person. And the profile was perfect for this.

8. Asymmetric testicles in statues

Classical Greek statues showed human forms in an idealized way. Each part of the body had to comply with strict mathematical harmony. To show this perfect body to perfection, most of the statues were nude. This allows modern scientists to scrutinize every detail of this "ideal".

Professor Chris McManus studied testicular asymmetry in ancient Greek statues. Usually in these statues, the right testicle is higher and smaller in size, and the left one is lower and looks larger. The scientist believes that there is a symbolic reason for this. The ancients believed that "one testicle produces male children and the other female." The artists could show by this that the man had only sons.

9. Horns of Moses

The "Vulgate Bible" or "Common Bible" is the Latin text used to this day by the Catholic Church. There is always a risk of gross errors in translations, but in this case the error led to a rather unorthodox image of Moses. In chapter 33 of the Book of Exodus, the Vulgate says: "". That is why Michelangelo's "Moses" statue has two very noticeable horns on its head. Many argue that what the author of Exodus actually meant was that Moses came down the mountain with a radiant face.

10. Saint Christopher with a dog's head

In Eastern Orthodox Christian iconography, something unusual can be noticed in the depiction of St. Christopher. He has … the head of a dog. The most likely reason for this is another incorrect translation. Saint Christopher is described as Cananeus (i.e. Canaanite). It is possible that someone misunderstood this as Canineus (canine).

For anyone interested in art, we have collected 25 fun facts about great artists that weren't told at school.