Mystical secrets of paintings
Who would refuse to have his portrait, and even painted by a famous artist? And yet it can be very risky. The idea of inseparable connection image and original. Therefore, even in the 19th century in Russia, artists were faced with the reluctance and fear on the part of ordinary people to paint their portraits. It was believed that if something happened to the portrait (it burst or burned), then the person would also suffer: he would fall ill or die.
Life suckers
The mystical connection between a person and his portrait has been known since ancient times.
One of the first commandments of God to the Jews, transmitted through Moses, reads:
"Don't make... any image of what is in the sky above, and what is on the earth below, and what is in the water below the earth."
The Jews observed this prohibition for centuries, making an exception only for animals.
Islam also forbids drawing portraits. There was a similar prohibition in a number of primitive cultures. People who are interested in painting have noticed a number of cases when those who were depicted on their canvases by great artists of past centuries ago and in our time died suddenly. Examples? Please.
Rembrandt, one of the greatest masters of the brush. Outlived two wives and all children. Saskia is familiar to everyone from "Flora" and other immortal paintings. She died 8 years after the wedding. Rembrandt also painted a lot of children. Three died in infancy. The fourth - Titus - lived only up to 27 years. The second wife is Hendricke Stoffelds. Favorite model, depicted in many paintings by Rembrandt. She also died quickly.
Modigliani... The master's loudest canvases were inspired by his student Jeanne Hebutien. Three years later, she jumped out of a window and fell to her death.
Roughly the same story happened to the great Flemish painter Rubens. His first wife, the beautiful Isabella, was his constant model. He often wrote to his daughter. Isabella died before reaching the age of thirty-five, her daughter died at the age of twelve.
Soon Elena ... buried her husband. Modern experts claim that she had a very strong biofield that could protect her from being "pulled" vital energy for the canvas. The first wife of this quality was deprived and paid with her life.
The famous model of the artist Vladimir Borovikovsky Lopukhin died three years after painting the portrait for no reason.
The same fate befell the boy Vasya, who posed for Perov's painting Troika. How his mother felt: she forbade her son to pose for the artist.
And there are hundreds of similar examples. But even the experts who refuted these alleged legends admit that some mystical riddle still exists.
Igor Vagin, a leading Russian specialist in thanatology (the science of death), believes that a portrait is a bioenergy-information phantom of a person. Why do people tear up photos of their partners during divorces? Because they want to bring them misfortune. A portrait is a more powerful structure. The mechanism of action, according to Vagin, is simple.
Masses of people go to exhibitions of famous artists. At the same time, talented craftsmen have many colleagues who are ill-wishers. To whom is all envy, hatred, black energy transferred? Of course, on the portraits of loved ones, in which the masters invest their love. And the more talented the portrait is made, the more vulnerable the original. Some of the viewers are simply jealous of the beauty of these women.
"Forbid the show!"
Many of Serov's models died shortly after their posing sessions. The most mysterious was the death of the model depicted on the well-known canvas "The Girl Illuminated by the Sun" (popularly called the "Girl with Peaches").
Literally in a month I burned out from a sudden onset of consumption the only love Konstantin Somova, who posed for him for the painting "The Lady in Blue".
Vrubel painted a portrait of his little son born with cleft lip (from last wife - famous singer Zabela-Vrubel), and the painter depicted his offspring without even trying to hide the congenital deformity. After completing work on the portrait, the boy died. Soon, unable to survive the tragedy, Vrubel himself died.
The famous painting by Leonardo da Vinci "La Gioconda" has gained notoriety. Delight and admiration for the creation of the great Florentine are mixed with riddles and fear. We will not dwell on the famous smile of Mona Lisa, but it is worth talking about the strange (if not terrible) effect of the image on the viewer. We noticed this amazing ability of the canvas to bring impressionable people to fainting states in the 19th century, when the Louvre was opened to the public.
The first such person from the public was the writer Stendhal. He unexpectedly stopped at the Gioconda and admired it for some time. It ended badly famous writer immediately fainted at the picture. To date, more than a hundred such cases have been recorded.
Genius Leonardo? After all great artist never worked so long on an ordinary portrait. It seemed to be a custom item. So no, the artist will not be satisfied with the work until the end of his days and will rewrite the picture for the remaining six years of his life.
All this time he will be haunted by melancholy, weakness, exhaustion. But the main thing is that he does not want to part with the "La Gioconda", he will look at her for hours, and then, with a trembling hand, begin to make amendments again.
Louvre employees, by the way, noted that long breaks in the work of the museum lead to the tarnishing of the Mona Lisa. It gets dark, but as soon as visitors fill the halls of the museum again, Mona Lisa seems to come to life, rich colors appear, the background brightens, the smile is visible more clearly. Vampire and more!
For many months he suffered over his painting "Ivan the Terrible kills his son Ivan ..." and great Ilya Repin. At an early stage of writing the canvas, the artist admitted that he removed the canvas from sight. Repin in different time several sitters posed. Sketches of the prince's head have come down to us, in which the artist V.K. Menk and the famous prose writer Vsevolod Garshin are recognized, who soon after posing threw himself into the flight of stairs and fell to his death. True, Garshin was a mentally ill person, whose illness worsened from time to time. But still...
First, Repin's painting, completed in 1885, was shown in the studio to the artist's friends: Kramskoy, Shishkin, Bryullov. The canvas made a stunning and depressing impression on them.
Then "Ivan the Terrible" was presented at an official exhibition in St. Petersburg, and the reaction of the general public differed little from the reaction of the artist's friends. Realism, bordering on naturalism, frightened many viewers. The President of the Academy of Arts, Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich, told his wife before visiting the exhibition: "Do not be alarmed, get ready, now you will see this terrible picture."
In Moscow, the demonstration of the canvas was initially banned by the emperor Alexander III. And only after some time the ban was lifted with reservations about the undesirability of showing the picture to women and children.
By the way, Repin finished the portraits of the surgeon Pirogov and the composer Mussorgsky literally the day before their death.
Stolypin was shot dead the day after finishing work on his portrait.
premature death comprehended at least eight more models of the artist.
apartment keeper
The question is, how to avoid paintings saturated with strong energy, for those people who still have a tendency to buy antiques in the house? Art historians and parapsychologists usually give the following recommendations. The buyer must remember that the purchase of a painting in the house - responsible step, since almost any picture has its own magnetism, which in a certain way will affect the human psyche. And that is why it is best to purchase landscapes, still lifes, canvases by marine painters. The canvases of the French Impressionists and Expressionists are also absolutely safe for mental health.
Do not order your own portraits. The connection between the portrait and the original always exists. And God forbid something happens to the picture: the connection will somehow manifest itself!
As for the paintings-portraits of strangers, when buying them, you should definitely pay attention to the eyes. If they are well drawn, it is better to choose a picture worse. After all, basically, the portrait magnetizes with the eyes, less often with the hands. This is the ultimate goal of any artist.
Alexey P. is a young businessman from the capital. Recently, he decided to rent an apartment for friendly revels.
“For starters, I turned to one of the real estate agencies, but I was not satisfied with the price,” says Alexey.
- Without choosing anything, he left the "office" and noticed that some suspicious peasant was rubbing near the door. Dressed very untidy. Bum? He offered me an apartment for rent. They called him Dmitry. We talked - it turned out that the stranger was leaving for his homeland, as he had some unpleasant memories associated with the capital.
While we were driving "to the hut", Dmitry said that he used to work at a factory, then he was laid off and now he has been working as a security guard at some warehouse for a year now. Nikolai's apartment was on the first floor, two-room, with old cheap furniture. We agreed on the amount and shook hands. But Dmitry set an unusual condition: I myself must transfer the money for renting an apartment to his hometown. I promised and never saw the owner again...
Having changed the whole situation in the apartment, I left untouched only the picture, on which some kind of forest with huge trees was painted. And I had a strange feeling that someone was hiding behind the trees.
On the next weekend I arranged a housewarming party with friends. We drank and began to talk about commercial matters. And suddenly one of my friends screamed. We shuddered and fell silent - then I clearly heard someone walking in the room where the picture hung! I entered there. The picture hung in the same place, and there was not a soul in the room ... About two weeks later, one night, I woke up from a terrible scream, again in the next room.
Running in there, I saw that a peasant with a face as pale as a sheet was lying at the open balcony door. And in the air, as it seemed to me, the silhouette of a human figure was melting ... The stranger soon came to his senses and admitted that he was a window thief and asked to be released "from this damn apartment", promising a large sum for his anxiety.
According to him, when he climbed into the room from the balcony, he felt that someone was staring at him. His gaze fell on the picture on the wall - from there, without blinking, a pair of red eyes looked at him with hatred! From fear, the "fortochnik" lost his senses.
After this incident, I decided that enough adventure and mysticism was enough for me, and decided to move out of this apartment. I tried to find Dimitri to get some of my money back. A new discovery awaited me at REU. Yes, they confirmed there, Dmitry lived in this apartment, worked as a security guard in a warehouse. There he was killed by bandits at night. His wife, grieving, went with her sons to their mother in the city where I transferred the money. Until she returned. The apartment belongs to them."
Psychic Nikolai Kon commented on this story as follows.
It turns out that there are special spirits - the guardians of the house. They "live" in "security" things - talismans. Apparently, the wife of the deceased hung such a talisman - a picture, so that she guarded the apartment in her absence. Or Dmitry himself from the next world appears through this talisman into the world of the living ...
It has long been noticed that some works of art are endowed with magical powers. This is due, as a rule, to the fact that the artist, creating a picture, puts his whole soul into it, thereby saturating the canvas with enormous energy, which, over many decades and centuries of a kind of "exposure", at some point can reach a critical level and " Fire"...
Death at your fingertip.
Rostov dowsing operator A. Babanov has been studying the influence of works of art on mood and psyche for a long time. He is sure that some paintings can provoke illness and even death of the owner of the room in which they hang. Babanov often comes to the museum fine arts. He brings with him special L-shaped dowsing frames. “By holding them pointed towards a painting, I get information about it on a subconscious level, and then the impulse is transferred to my hands, and the frames rotate clockwise or counterclockwise,” explains the dowsing specialist. “When two frames cross, this means that the energy charge negative, and when they diverge into different sides- positive.
According to Babanov, not all paintings should be kept at home. It is best to hang light sketches, friendly cartoons, light still lifes in the room. Although sometimes even innocent landscapes can disrupt sleep and affect health.
“One of my friends,” says Babanov, “hung a landscape with a church on the bank of a pond at his head. And every morning he began to wake up at five o’clock. I advised him to hang the picture at the other end of the room. He began to sleep normally. I suggested that he could be awakened by a service that began in a painted church early in the morning.
The well-known psychiatrist Professor A. Bukhanovsky is sure that the pictures themselves do not cause a mental disorder. But they can model or enhance psychological condition in which the person is located. For example, if he is depressed, then the picture can strengthen it. This is especially true of works of symbolism or cubism. According to Bukhanovsky, if a picture causes strange sensations, spoils the mood, frightens or even generates ghosts, you should immediately get rid of it.
The Royal Museum of Edinburgh has an old woodcut portrait of an elderly man with his arm outstretched. Sometimes it seems to some museum visitors that the old man barely noticeably moves his fingers. You can take this for an optical illusion or a play of sunlight on a portrait.
However, museum officials claim that the sunbeams have nothing to do with it, and the fingers in the portrait do move from time to time. Moreover, this gesture portends imminent death by fire to those who see it!
An eerie legend invented in order to attract more visitors to the museum halls? Far from it. Once, Lord Seymour, while inspecting the exposition of the Edinburgh Museum, noticed that the old man in the portrait moved his fingers.
The Lord told the director of the museum about this, and he gave him everything he knew about the atom phenomenon. The Lord chuckled and, naturally, did not believe a single word. Several months passed, however, and Lord Seymour tragically died in a fire at his castle, Seatingham.
Another similar incident occurred in 1908. The captain of the ocean liner "Scott" R. Belfast was visiting his parents in Edinburgh. Before a long voyage, he decided to visit the museum and, stopping in front of a mystical picture, he suddenly saw that the fingers of the mysterious old man moved.
Knowing about the museum tradition, one can conjecture what is depicted on the canvas. “I can’t give specific advice on what kind of paintings you can keep at home,” says the professor. “But I know for sure that realistic works like portraits or landscapes are not able to cause depression. Although some patients may associate themselves with what is depicted in the picture - a person or inanimate, the captain began to beware of fire. However, you can't escape fate. Belfast realized this six months later, when the Scott liner, which was in the Indian Ocean 120 miles from Colombo, caught fire. The captain fought the fire on a par with the sailors. As a result, the ship was saved, but Belfast was lost...
Icon for psychics
The management of the Hermitage listened to the opinion of its employees and decided to remove the ancient icon depicting Christ from the exhibition. This step was dictated by the fact that the energy field of the icon kills the museum staff. According to the assurances of the Hermitage employees, a long stay in close proximity to the image of Christ has already caused the death of several employees.
Assumptions regarding the negative impact of the icon on the human body were expressed even under the Soviet regime, but at that time it was simply impossible to officially declare this.
Nevertheless, the caretakers of the hall in which the masterpiece of the ancient artist was exhibited, for no apparent reason, died one after another. But as soon as their chairs were moved to other places, all the troubles stopped.
A specialist invited to study the impact of the icon on people conducted an examination and found that although, most likely, the icon is not directly responsible for the poor health of employees, it nevertheless spreads energy around itself, forcing human brain vibrate at a high frequency, which, according to the expert, not everyone can bear.
In this regard, it was suggested that the icon was painted by a powerful psychic and was originally intended for the elite, with high extrasensory perception. And therefore ordinary people It's dangerous to see her all the time. Taking into account the conclusion of the specialist, the museum management decided to remove the icon to the storerooms and no longer put it on display.
The last portrait of a millionaire
Alfred Higgins was 47 years old when he ordered a painting from a famous artist: he and his wife are standing on the deck of their favorite yacht. The picture turned out to be colorful, but shortly after finishing work on it, Higgins died: he had a brain hemorrhage.
A week after that, his wife was hospitalized with an attack of acute psychosis, and soon she also died.
As "knowledgeable people" stated after this tragedy, the Higgins spouses died because they were depicted on the canvas by Mark Quinn, an artist who allegedly sold his soul to the devil - all the people depicted in his paintings died shortly after posing.
Quinn does not give interviews today, does not comment tragic fates their models. But he regularly calls wealthy people, whose faces often appear in gossip columns and on television, and offers to make their portrait. Mortally frightened millionaires, according to rumors, immediately pay the artist a tidy sum just so that he does not take up the brush ...
Evil spirit of the executed criminal
Paintings with deadly energy are always a lot of antique dealers. Dorothy Jenkins, a resident of London, once bought one of them in a Fulham antique shop.
It was a portrait of a young woman in a red velvet dress. The canvas was four feet square and showed signs of fire. Under the image was a short signature - "Antoine".
The picture immediately brought problems to the house. At first, Dorothy herself felt the attacks of a nervous breakdown. Being a quick-witted person, she suggested that her illness was somehow connected with the portrait hanging in her room. To finally be convinced of this, Dorothy offered her son Edward to hang the painting in his room for a couple of days. The result was not slow to affect:
Edward - a calm, melancholy young man, at times began to feel that waves of uncontrollable anger were rolling over him.
Dorothy turned to her acquaintance, the researcher of occult phenomena, Philip Paul, for advice. He came to a meeting with the famous London medium Anne Quigt. Paul didn't give her all the information about the problem he was investigating, just asked her to "psychometry" some subjects in one of the London districts.
Accompanying the parapsychologists at Dorothy Jenkins's home was Leslie Howard, deputy editor of the Parapsychology News, three newspaper reporters and a photographer to film the entire research process.
To make the results of the experiment more objective, Paul led the medium directly to the strange portrait, saying, naturally deceitful, that she would probably first like to examine the completely "neutral" objects in this house. However, Ann Twigg immediately felt unbearable horror next to the picture, fell into a trance and began to inarticulately talk about some mixed up events, among which were the sound of music, and a vision of blood, and a description of some kind of damp, filled with rats. prison cell, as well as the gallows, a young woman with flowing hair, an executioner and a large crowd of people in the city square.
After the experiment, Ann claimed that as soon as she entered the room, she saw a bright flash of light moving from one place to another. The point at which this outbreak arose was Antoine's painting. It appeared that the picture depicted a portrait of a woman, most likely noble origin, which in the distant 18th century, after being accused of some terrible crime, was publicly hung in the city square.
However, her spirit did not calm down after her death and forever settled in the portrait, negatively affecting the health of the owners of the picture from it. Naturally, Dorothy Jenkins wanted to get rid of the cursed portrait right away.
However, Ann Twig dissuaded her from such a rash step. “The spirit may be offended,” the medium said, “and the consequences of this will be unpredictable. Therefore, the most neutral option would be to move the picture somewhere in the attic or closet and leave it there forever.” Dorothy did just that, and since then, neither her nor her son Edward was disturbed by the evil spirit.
The ghosts raged.
Anyone who watched the tale of Harry Potter probably remembers how the ghosts of long-dead people, constantly living in their portraits, regularly walked around the school for young wizards, and sometimes even played pranks without malice. According to the far from fabulous museum staff, such cases occur in real life. So, in 1996, in the Prado Museum in Madrid, in front of stunned tourists from Japan, an infanta descended from a painting by Velazquez and ... urinated on the floor! Then, of course, she returned to the picture. And in the Musée d'Or-se in Paris, the Renoir beauty shocked a group of schoolchildren and their guide for ten minutes, spreading her legs ... It is noteworthy that in both cases, the frills of the ghosts were seen only by those who were in the immediate vicinity of the paintings. The rest of the visitors did not notice anything special.
As recently reported by many mass media, in one of the museums in New York, almost just before closing, when there were almost no people left in the hall, the ghost of a young man in a hunting suit came out of a painting by an unknown artist of the 19th century and ... strangled a visitor who was standing nearby. The museum curators arrived at the scene of the crime when the ghost had already returned to its place in the portrait...
Do you have at home vintage paintings? Maybe you noticed something strange in them?
G. Fedotov "Interesting newspaper. Psi-factor" No. 1, 2 2008
Cursed painting - Munch E. "Scream"
Dozens of people who somehow came into contact with the picture, the cost of which 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 created a bad reputation for the picture, so museum visitors looked at it with apprehension, remembering the terrible stories that were told about the masterpiece.
One day a museum clerk accidentally dropped a painting. After some time, he began to have terrible headaches. I must say that before this incident, he had no idea what it was. headache. The migraine attacks became more frequent and more acute, and the case ended with the fact that the poor fellow committed suicide.
On another occasion, a museum worker dropped a painting while it was being hung from one wall to another. A week later, he was in a horrendous 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 broke out at his house, in which this man was burned alive.
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. After 9 years, Edward's beloved sister Sophia died of a serious illness. Then brother Andreas died, and doctors diagnosed his younger sister with schizophrenia. In the early 90s, Munch experienced a difficult nervous breakdown and had undergone 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 gift to the city of Oslo creative legacy: 1200 paintings, 4500 sketches and 18 thousand graphic works. But the pinnacle of his work remains, of course, "The Scream".
(****) Perhaps you will consider all the facts a coincidence, a juggling, an accident. There are many things in the world that we do not yet understand.
YOUR RIGHT TO BELIEVE OR NOT THIS STORY
Any true art radiates a strong energy that is impossible not to feel. Most often it is positive. But there are creations with a pronounced negative energy, then it is believed that they bring trouble and even disaster. Musical and literary works, performances and films and, of course, painting.
The Scream by Edvard Munch
Of course, most often, when it comes to mystical paintings, they recall the "Scream" by the Norwegian expressionist artist Edvard Munch. They say that the painting, which costs 70 thousand dollars, takes cruel revenge on anyone who somehow "offends" her. It all started with the fact that one of the employees of the museum in which the painting was exhibited accidentally dropped the canvas, after which he began to have terrible headaches. Doctors could not make a diagnosis, and no medicines could save the unfortunate man from suffering, unable to endure which he committed suicide. Another minister dropped the "Scream" when he was hanging it from one place to another, and soon got into a terrible car accident - he survived, but remained crippled. A visitor who just touched the painting was burned alive in a fire a few days later ...
This vindictiveness of the picture is explained by the plight of the painter himself, who, as a child, lost all his loved ones and suffered from schizophrenia. At first, this canvas was called "Cry of Nature", many believe that the artist captured the end of the world on it. He himself assured that he really saw such a terrible landscape: “I was walking along the path with two friends, the sun was setting, suddenly the sky became blood-red. "black fjord and city. My friends went on, and I stood, trembling with excitement, feeling the endless cry piercing nature." Munch painted four versions of The Scream, two of which can be seen at the Munch Museum and the National Museum of Norway, both in Oslo.
"Hands Protecting Him" door Bill Stoneham
The painting "Hands Resist Him" painted by American artist Bill Stoneham, made a splash at the very first exhibition at which it was presented: many visitors to the vernissage suddenly felt inexplicable weakness and dizziness, they began to sob and even fainted. The first owner of "Hands" died two months after he bought the painting, and his relatives, blaming the painting for everything, threw it into a landfill. There she was picked up by a poor family. "Hands" were hung in the nursery, but the little daughter of the owners asked to remove the canvas from there: she assured that at night the children depicted on it were fighting. The father considered this story a fantasy, but, deciding to check the girl’s words, he hung a camera in the room - it recorded the movement in the picture. Subsequently, "Hands" often changed owners, but the picture was always quickly disposed of. Its last owner was the collector Kim Smith from Chicago, who has not yet sold it to anyone.
"Hands Protecting Him" by Stoneham from a photograph of him at the age of 5 with his younger sister. One could say that the picture is a copy of the photo, if not for a few differences. Stoneham depicted himself with a strange, distorted face, and his sister as a doll with round, empty eyes. But, probably, the most terrible thing on the canvas is the door behind which stands on a bright sunny day. pitch darkness, and children's hands stretching from there to the glass. The artist himself said that behind this door is the entrance to the other world, and the doll is a guide to the world of spirits.
Ancient icon depicting Christ
It would seem that the images of saints should radiate only positive, but the employees of many museums literally unanimously say: it is very difficult to spend the whole day in the hall where the icons are displayed. A very strong - and often negative - energy comes from them. One of these icons, which depicts Christ, is stored in the Hermitage storerooms. It used to be on display, but after several unexplained deaths of museum staff, it was removed from sight. One of the specialists who examined the painting suggested that the artist who painted the icon had powerful psychic abilities and passed them on to his creation. People with a similar energy potential can withstand such tension, the icon will harm everyone else.
But, fortunately, there are also cases when icons saved people's lives. In 1812, the detachment of Prince Eugene, Viceroy of Italy, which was part of Napoleon's army, stopped near one of the monasteries near Zvenigorod. At night, the prince had a vision of a gray-haired old man in long black clothes. He stood next to Eugene for about a minute, and then said: "Do not tell your soldiers to destroy the monastery, and especially not to take anything from the church. If you fulfill my request, God will have mercy on you, and you will return home unharmed."
In the morning, Eugene ordered his army to continue moving towards Moscow, without touching the monastery. Before leaving, he decided to go to the monastery church. There was a tomb in the room, and above it was a portrait of an old man, in which Eugene recognized his night guest. It was the founder of the monastery, St. Sava, and his relics ... Eugene went through many battles, but he was never even slightly wounded. He safely returned to France, while almost all the Napoleonic marshals who came with the emperor to Russia died or were subsequently executed.
"Water Lilies" by Claude Monet
"Water Lilies" by Claude Monet
The painting "Water Lilies" by the impressionist Claude Monet is considered one of the most flammable masterpieces of painting.
Like every mystical painting, "Water Lilies" has its own legend. Having settled in the town of Giverny in Upper Normandy, where Monet had a house with a garden, the artist became interested in flowers: he not only grew them, but also painted them. Later, diverting water from the river, he equipped a pond in the garden, where he began to grow lilies - Monet painted a whole series of paintings (there are about 80 canvases on this topic in museums around the world), combining them common name. Monet decided to celebrate the end of work on one of the paintings with a party to which he invited his friends. The tipsy guests, through negligence, set a fire in the artist's studio, as a result of which the painting itself flared up, which was immediately flooded with wine. Subsequently, "Water Lilies" hung in one of the cabarets in Montmartre, in the house of patron Oscar Schmitz and in the New York Museum contemporary arts and fire started everywhere. Twice the culprit of the "triumph" managed to be saved, but on the third time she was badly charred. It happened half a century ago, and since then scientists have been puzzling over how to restore the masterpiece. They say that NASA specialists who own space technologies will take up this.
"Old man with outstretched hand" unknown author
The cause of the fire several times became the painting by an unknown author "The Old Man with an Outstretched Hand", which is stored in the Royal Museum in Edinburgh. If a person sees how the old man moves his fingers, he is destined to die in the fire. Human rumor ascribes to the canvas two victims - Captain Belfast and Lord Seymour, who were unlucky enough to experience the curse of the painting on themselves. After that, the public was divided into two parts: some asked to remove the ill-fated painting from the museum, while others demanded to leave it to make sure that it really brings misfortune. Curiosity won out, so the "Old Man with an Outstretched Hand" can still be seen in Edinburgh.
"crying boy" Giovanni Bragolina
"Crying Boy" Giovanni Bragolina
History associated with the painting Spanish artist Giovanni Bragolina, at one time made so much noise and was retold so many times in a variety of variations that it is no longer possible to distinguish where it is true and where it is fiction.
According to existing legend, Bragolina really wanted to paint a crying boy, and made his own son a sitter, an agile and cheerful little boy who was not afraid of anything in the world except fire. Therefore, in order to make his son cry, the sadistic father lit matches in front of his face. Once the boy could not stand it and in the heat of the moment he shouted: "So that you burn yourself!" The curse was fulfilled very soon: two weeks later the baby died of pneumonia, and a couple of years later his father died in a fire. The painting itself is considered lost today, but its reproductions were at one time very popular in England. Until one day it turned out that copies of "The Crying Boy" were kept in almost all the houses that had fires, and the reproduction was the only property that was not damaged by fire.
"Mona Lisa" by Leonardo da Vinci
"Mona Lisa" by Leonardo da Vinci
The attraction of the Louvre, the famous "La Gioconda" by Leonardo da Vinci is far from being as harmless as it might seem at first glance. Some researchers of the work of Leonardo da Vinci consider her a portrait, "feeding" on the energy of those who look at her.
According to their version, it is not the Mona Lisa at all, but the black widow Pacifica Brandano. Being an energy vampire, she brought misfortune to everyone with whom her fate confronted. Her lover, the Duke of Medici, who married a French princess, fell ill with consumption shortly after the wedding and died. Pacifica's son was poisoned. Yes, and da Vinci himself suffered greatly from his model: he painted the picture for about three years, and, according to eyewitnesses, during this time he turned from a man full of strength, who, like a strong man in a circus, could easily bend horseshoes, into a decrepit old man. He was seized by fatigue and apathy, right hand. It seemed that life was dropping out of the great artist.
The genius of da Vinci with unique authenticity managed to convey not only appearance its model, but also its energy essence. The portrait continues to live and draw energy from visitors to the Louvre, many of whom come to the French capital just to see this painting. Today, the Mona Lisa, whose image is replicated on calendars and in various advertisements, trademark. Marketing research has shown that nine out of ten people fall for it. It is hypnotically attractive, it is impossible to get rid of it, like an obsession. There are many cases when visitors fainted in front of a portrait - after several centuries, the image of Pacifica continues to feed on the energy of living people. This version is supported by the fact that in those days when the Louvre is closed for some reason for some time, the picture fades, and the woman depicted on it seems to grow old. But as soon as visitors appear in the hall, she begins to shine again.
Adoration of the Magi by Pieter Brueghel-senior
Adoration of the Magi by Pieter Brueghel the Elder
To that biblical story many artists turned, from Leonardo da Vinci to Hieronymus Bosch, but only the painting "The Adoration of the Magi" by the representative Northern Renaissance Pieter Brueghel the Elder (Peasant). The canvas, written in 1564, is in the London Art Gallery. It is believed that women should not look at it for a long time - supposedly it causes infertility. This is explained by the fact that the artist posed for him cousin who could not have children. What strength and energy must have been possessed by the artist's brush in order to convey its barrenness through time and distance. Interestingly, the "Adoration of the Magi" by Pieter Brueghel the Younger, who repeated the picture of his father, has a good reputation - it was not noticed in a bad influence on people.
"Venus with a Mirror" by Diego Velázquez
Another popular plot, especially among Renaissance masters, is Venus with a Mirror, paintings on it were painted by Giorgione, Titian, and Rubens. But only "Venus" by Diego Velasquez, which is located in the London Art Gallery, is considered dangerous. The picture was resold several times at auctions, because its owners, wealthy merchants, as soon as they transferred money for the purchase, immediately went bankrupt, or even died: pirates seized and sank ships with goods from one, warehouses caught fire from another lightning strike and all the property was lost, and the third was completely killed during the robbery. They began to talk about the fact that "Venus" brings misfortune, so for a long time they did not buy it, until in 1906 the canvas was purchased for the London art gallery. Eight years later, the unfortunate painting itself suffered - in 1914, suffragette Mary Richardson attacked it with a knife. After the restoration, "Venus with a Mirror" returned to the gallery in London, where everyone can see it.
Portrait of Alexandra Neburchilova
An interesting story is the portrait of the merchant Alexandra Fedorovna Neburchilova, exhibited at the Burylin Museum of Industry and Art in Ivanovo. It was written by an unknown artist in 1840, and since Neburchilova is depicted in a blue dress, the museum staff call her "the woman in blue." As soon as the portrait was hung out, the museum staff at first began to hear the heavy steps of the merchant's wife. Every year she became bolder and bolder, followed the museum workers one after another, especially up the stairs. It got to the point that they became afraid to walk the halls alone. And only during the excursions the ghost did not appear, but only looked intently at those present from the portrait, pursing his lips. Because of these lips, museum workers considered Neburchilova spiteful and wayward. But it was she who once saved the life of a woman restorer. She, standing on the stairs under the very ceiling, suddenly swayed and began to fall, but suddenly she felt someone's hands supporting her rather strongly and confidently. The ghost of the "woman in blue" calmed down only after the portrait was given for restoration to the Kolomna workshops.
Alexandra Voloshina
In almost every significant work of art there is a mystery, a double bottom or a secret story that you want to uncover.
Music on the buttocks
Hieronymus Bosch, "Garden earthly pleasures", 1500-1510.
Fragment of a triptych
Disputes about the meanings and hidden meanings of the most famous work of the Dutch artist have not subsided since its appearance. On the right wing a triptych called "Musical Hell" depicts sinners who are tortured in the underworld with the help of musical instruments. One of them has notes imprinted on his buttocks. Oklahoma Christian University student Amelia Hamrick, who studied the painting, transposed the 16th-century notation into a modern twist and recorded "a 500-year-old ass song from hell."
Nude Mona Lisa
The famous "Gioconda" exists in two versions: the nude version is called "Monna Vanna", it was painted by the little-known artist Salai, who was a student and sitter of the great Leonardo da Vinci. Many art critics are sure that it was he who was the model for Leonardo's paintings "John the Baptist" and "Bacchus". There are also versions that dressed in a woman's dress, Salai served as the image of the Mona Lisa herself.
Old Fisherman
In 1902, the Hungarian artist Tivadar Kostka Chontvari painted the painting " Old Fisherman". It would seem that there is nothing unusual in the picture, but Tivadar laid a subtext in it, which was never revealed during the life of the artist.
Few people thought of putting a mirror in the middle of the picture. In each person there can be both God (the right shoulder of the Old Man is duplicated) and the Devil (the left shoulder of the old man is duplicated).
Was there a whale?
Hendrik van Antonissen "Scene on the Shore".
It seemed like an ordinary landscape. Boats, people on the shore and the desert sea. And only an X-ray study showed that people gathered on the shore for a reason - in the original, they examined the carcass of a whale washed ashore.
However, the artist decided that no one would want to look at a dead whale and repainted the painting.
Two "Breakfasts on the Grass"
Edouard Manet, Breakfast on the Grass, 1863.
Claude Monet, Breakfast on the Grass, 1865.
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. Even the name of one of Manet's most famous paintings, "Breakfast on the Grass", Monet borrowed and wrote his "Breakfast on the Grass".
Twins at the Last Supper
Leonardo da Vinci, The Last Supper, 1495-1498.
When Leonardo da Vinci wrote The Last Supper, he gave special meaning two figures: Christ and Judas. He was looking for sitters for them for a very long time. Finally, he managed to find a model for the image of Christ among the young singers. Leonardo failed to find a sitter for Judas for three years. But one day he came across a drunkard lying in the gutter on the street. He was a young man who had been aged by heavy drinking. Leonardo invited him to a tavern, where he immediately began to write Judas from him. When the drunkard came to his senses, he told the artist that he had already posed for him once. It was a few years ago, when he sang in the church choir, Leonardo wrote Christ from him.
"Night Watch" or "Day Watch"?
Rembrandt, Night Watch, 1642.
One of Rembrandt’s most famous paintings, “The Performance of the Rifle Company of Captain Frans Banning Cock and Lieutenant Willem van Ruytenbürg,” hung in different halls for about two hundred years and was discovered by art historians only in the 19th century. Since the figures seemed to stand out against a dark background, it was called the Night Watch, and under this name it entered the treasury of world art.
And only during the restoration, carried out in 1947, it turned out that in the hall the picture had managed to become covered with a layer of soot, which distorted its color. After clearing original painting it finally turned out that the scene presented by Rembrandt actually takes place during the day. The position of the shadow from the left hand of Captain Kok shows that the duration of the action is no more than 14 hours.
capsized boat
Henri Matisse, "The Boat", 1937.
In the New York Museum of Modern Art in 1961, Henri Matisse's painting "The Boat" was exhibited. 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 one on the surface of the water.
In order not to be mistaken in how the picture should hang, you need to pay attention to the details. The larger sail should be at the top of the painting, and the peak of the sail of the painting should be directed to the upper right corner.
Deception in a 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's ear was damaged in a small scuffle with the participation of another artist, Paul Gauguin.
The self-portrait is interesting because it reflects reality in a distorted form: the artist is depicted with a bandaged right ear, because he used a mirror when working. In fact, the left ear was damaged.
alien bears
Ivan Shishkin, "Morning in pine forest", 1889.
The famous painting belongs not only to the brush of Shishkin. Many artists who were friends with each other often resorted to "the help of a friend", and Ivan Ivanovich, who had been painting landscapes all his life, was afraid that touching bears would not turn out the way he needed. Therefore, Shishkin turned to a familiar animal painter Konstantin Savitsky.
Savitsky painted perhaps the best bears in the history of Russian painting, and Tretyakov ordered his name to be washed off the canvas, since everything in the picture “beginning from the idea and ending with the execution, everything speaks of the manner of painting, of the creative method peculiar to Shishkin.”
Innocent story "Gothic"
Grant Wood, "American Gothic", 1930.
Grant Wood's work is considered one of the strangest and most depressing in history. American painting. The picture with a gloomy father and daughter is overflowing with details that indicate the severity, puritanism and retrogradeness 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 ideally suited as inhabitants. Grant's sister and his dentist are immortalized in the form of characters that the people of Iowa were so offended by.
Revenge of Salvador Dali
The painting "Figure at the Window" was painted in 1925, when Dali was 21 years old. Then Gala had not yet entered the life of the artist, and his sister Ana Maria was his muse. The relationship between brother and sister deteriorated when he wrote on one of the paintings "sometimes I spit on a portrait of my own mother, and it gives me pleasure." Ana Maria could not forgive such shocking.
In her 1949 book Salvador Dali Through the Eyes of a Sister, she writes about her brother without any praise. The book infuriated El Salvador. For another ten years after that, he angrily remembered her at every opportunity. And so, in 1954, the picture "A young virgin indulging in Sodomy sin with the help of the horns of her own chastity" appears. The pose of the woman, her curls, the landscape outside the window and the color scheme of the painting clearly echo the Figure at the Window. There is a version that this is how Dali took revenge on his sister for her book.
Two-faced Danae
Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn, Danae, 1636-1647.
Many secrets of one of Rembrandt's most famous paintings were revealed only in the 60s of the twentieth century, when the canvas was illuminated with x-rays. For example, the shooting showed that in the early version the face of the princess, who entered into love affair with Zeus, it looked like the face of Saskia, the wife of the painter, who died in 1642. In the final version of the painting, it began to resemble the face of Gertier Dirks, Rembrandt's mistress, with whom the artist lived after the death of his wife.
Van Gogh's yellow bedroom
Vincent van Gogh, "Bedroom in Arles", 1888 - 1889.
In May 1888, Van Gogh acquired a small workshop in Arles, in the south of France, where he fled from the Parisian artists and critics who did not understand him. In one of the four rooms, Vincent sets up a bedroom. In October, everything is ready, and he decides to paint Van Gogh's Bedroom in Arles. For the artist, the color, the comfort of the room was very important: everything had to suggest thoughts of relaxation. At the same time, the picture is sustained in disturbing yellow tones.
Researchers of Van Gogh's creativity explain this by the fact that the artist took foxglove, a remedy for epilepsy, which causes serious changes in the patient's perception of color: all surrounding reality dyed green-yellow.
Toothless perfection
Leonardo da Vinci, "Portrait of Mrs. Lisa del Giocondo", 1503 - 1519.
The generally accepted opinion is that Mona Lisa is perfection and her smile is beautiful in its mysteriousness. However, the American art critic (and part-time dentist) Joseph Borkowski believes that, judging by the expression on her face, the heroine has lost a lot of her teeth. While examining enlarged photographs of the masterpiece, Borkowski also found scars around her mouth. “She smiles so much precisely because of what happened to her,” the expert believes. “Her facial expression is typical of people who have lost their front teeth.”
Major on face control
Pavel Fedotov, Major's Matchmaking, 1848.
The public, who first saw the painting "Major's Matchmaking", laughed heartily: the artist Fedotov filled it with ironic details that were understandable to viewers of that time. For example, the major is clearly not familiar with the rules of noble etiquette: he appeared without the proper bouquets for the bride and her mother. And the bride herself, her merchant parents discharged in the evening ball gown, although it is daytime (all the lamps in the room are extinguished). The girl obviously tried on a low-cut dress for the first time, is embarrassed and tries to run away to her room.
Why Freedom is naked
Ferdinand Victor Eugene Delacroix, Liberty at the Barricades, 1830.
According to the art historian Etienne Julie, Delacroix painted the face of a woman from the famous Parisian revolutionary - the laundress Anna-Charlotte, who went to the barricades after the death of her brother at the hands of royal soldiers and killed nine guards. The artist depicted her bare-chested. According to his plan, this is a symbol of fearlessness and selflessness, as well as the triumph of democracy: naked breasts show that Svoboda, like a commoner, does not wear a corset.
non-square square
Kazimir Malevich, Black Suprematist Square, 1915.
In fact, the "Black Square" is not at all black and not at all square: none of the sides of the quadrangle is parallel to any of its other sides, and none of the sides of the square frame that frames the picture. BUT dark color- This is the result of mixing various colors, among which there was no black. It is believed that this was not the negligence of the author, but a principled position, the desire to create a dynamic, mobile form.
Specialists of the Tretyakov Gallery discovered the author's inscription on famous painting Malevich. The inscription reads: "Battle of the Negroes in a dark cave." This phrase refers to the title of the playful painting. French journalist, writer and artist Alphonse Allais "The Battle of the Negroes in a Dark Cave late at night”, which was a completely black rectangle.
Melodrama of the Austrian Mona Lisa
Gustav Klimt, "Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer", 1907.
One of Klimt's most significant paintings depicts the wife of the Austrian sugar magnate Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer. All Vienna discussed the stormy romance of Adele and famous artist. The wounded husband wanted to take revenge on his lovers, but chose a very unusual way: he decided to order a portrait of Adele for Klimt and make him make hundreds of sketches until the artist starts to turn out of her.
Bloch-Bauer wanted the work to last several years, and the model could see how Klimt's feelings fade away. He made a generous offer to the artist, which he could not refuse, and everything turned out according to the scenario of the deceived husband: the work was completed in 4 years, the lovers had long cooled off towards each other. Adele Bloch-Bauer never found out that her husband was aware of her relationship with Klimt.
The painting that brought Gauguin back to life
Paul Gauguin, "Where do we come from? Who are we? Where are we going?", 1897-1898.
Most famous painting Gauguin has one feature: it is "read" not from left to right, but from right to left, like Kabbalistic texts that the artist was interested in. It is in this order that the allegory of the spiritual and physical life of a person: from the birth of the soul (a sleeping child in the lower right corner) to the inevitability of the hour of death (a bird with a lizard in its claws in the lower left corner).
The painting was painted by Gauguin in Tahiti, where the artist fled from civilization several times. But this time life on the island did not work out: total poverty led him to depression. Having finished the canvas, which was to become his spiritual testament, Gauguin took a box of arsenic and went to the mountains to die. However, he did not calculate the dose, and the suicide failed. The next morning, he staggered to his hut and fell asleep, and when he woke up, he felt a forgotten thirst for life. And in 1898, his affairs went uphill, and a brighter period began in his work.
112 proverbs in one picture
Pieter Brueghel the Elder, "Netherlands Proverbs", 1559
Pieter Brueghel the Elder depicted a land inhabited by literal images of the Dutch proverbs of those days. There are approximately 112 recognizable idioms in the painted picture. Some of them are still used today, such as "swim against the current", "bang your head against the wall", "armed to the teeth" and "big fish eats small ones".
Other proverbs reflect human stupidity.
Subjectivity of art
Paul Gauguin, Breton village under the snow, 1894
Gauguin's painting "Breton Village in the Snow" was sold after the death of the author for only seven francs and, moreover, under the name "Niagara Falls". The auctioneer accidentally hung the painting upside down after seeing a waterfall in it.
hidden picture
Pablo Picasso, The Blue Room, 1901
In 2008, infrared showed that another image was hidden under the "Blue Room" - a portrait of a man dressed in a suit with a butterfly and resting his head on his hand. “As soon as Picasso had a new idea, he took up the brush and embodied it. But he didn't have the opportunity to buy a new canvas every time the muse visited him," explains possible cause this art historian Patricia Favero.
Inaccessible Moroccan women
Zinaida Serebryakova, Naked, 1928
Once Zinaida Serebryakova received tempting offer- go on a creative journey to portray the naked figures of oriental maidens. But it turned out that it was simply impossible to find models in those places. An interpreter for Zinaida came to the rescue - he brought his sisters and his bride to her. No one before and after that was able to capture the closed oriental women naked.
Spontaneous insight
Valentin Serov, "Portrait of Nicholas II in a jacket", 1900
For a long time Serov could not paint a portrait of the king. When the artist completely gave up, he apologized to Nikolai. Nikolai was a little upset, sat down at the table, stretching out his hands in front of him ... And then it dawned on the artist - here he is! A simple military man in an officer's jacket with clear and sad eyes. This portrait is considered the best picture last emperor.
Again deuce
© Fedor Reshetnikov
The famous painting "Again deuce" is just the second part of the artistic trilogy.
The first part is "Arrived for the holidays." Clearly wealthy family winter holiday, a joyful student-excellent student.
The second part is "Again the deuce." A poor family from the working outskirts, the height school year, a downcast stunner, again grabbing a deuce. In the upper left corner you can see the picture "Arrived for the holidays."
The third part is "Re-examination". Rural house, summer, everyone is walking, one malicious ignoramus who failed the annual exam is forced to sit within four walls and cramming. In the upper left corner you can see the picture "Again deuce".
How masterpieces are born
Joseph Turner, Rain, Steam and Speed, 1844
In 1842, Mrs. Simon traveled by train in England. Suddenly, a heavy downpour began. The elderly gentleman sitting across from her got up, opened the window, stuck his head out, and stared like that for about ten minutes. Unable to contain her curiosity, the woman also opened the window and looked ahead. A year later, she discovered the painting “Rain, Steam and Speed” at an exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts and was able to recognize in it the very episode on the train.
Anatomy lesson from Michelangelo
Michelangelo, The Creation of Adam, 1511
A pair of American neuroanatomy experts believe that Michelangelo actually left some anatomical illustrations in one of his most famous works. They believe that a huge brain is depicted on the right side of the picture. Surprisingly, even complex components such as the cerebellum, optic nerves, and pituitary gland can be found. And the catchy green ribbon perfectly matches the location of the vertebral artery.
The Last Supper by Van Gogh
Vincent van Gogh, Café Terrace at Night, 1888
Researcher Jared Baxter believes that Van Gogh's Café Terrace at Night contains a dedication to Leonardo da Vinci's The Last Supper. In the center of the picture is a waiter with long hair and in a white tunic, reminiscent of the clothes of Christ, and around him exactly 12 cafe visitors. Baxter also draws attention to the cross, located directly behind the back of the waiter in white.
Dali's image of memory
Salvador Dali, The Persistence of Memory, 1931
It is no secret that the thoughts that visited Dali during the creation of his masterpieces were always in the form of very realistic images, which the artist then transferred to the canvas. So, according to the author himself, the painting “The Persistence of Memory” was painted as a result of associations that arose at the sight of processed cheese.
What is Munch shouting about
Edvard Munch, "The Scream", 1893.
Munch spoke about the idea of one of the most mysterious paintings in world painting: "I was walking along the path with two friends - the sun was setting - suddenly the sky turned blood red, I paused, feeling exhausted, and leaned on the fence - I looked at blood and flames over the bluish-black fjord and the city - my friends went on, and I stood, trembling with excitement, feeling the endless scream piercing nature. But what kind of sunset could scare the artist so?
There is a version that the idea of "Scream" was born by Munch in 1883, when there were several strongest eruptions of the Krakatoa volcano - so powerful that they changed the temperature of the Earth's atmosphere by one degree. A copious amount of dust and ash spread throughout the globe even reaching Norway. For several evenings in a row, the sunsets looked as if the apocalypse was about to come - one of them became a source of inspiration for the artist.
Writer among the people
Alexander Ivanov, "The Appearance of Christ to the People", 1837-1857.
Dozens of sitters posed for Alexander Ivanov for his main picture. One of them is known no less than the artist himself. In the background, among travelers and Roman horsemen who have not yet heard the sermon of John the Baptist, one can notice a character in a brown tunic. His Ivanov wrote with Nikolai Gogol. The writer closely communicated with the artist in Italy, in particular on religious issues, and gave him advice in the process of painting. Gogol believed that Ivanov "had long since died for the whole world, except for his work."
Michelangelo's gout
Rafael Santi, " Athenian school", 1511.
Creating the famous fresco "The School of Athens", Raphael immortalized his friends and acquaintances in images ancient Greek philosophers. One of them was Michelangelo Buonarroti "in the role" of Heraclitus. For several centuries, the fresco kept the secrets of Michelangelo's personal life, and modern researchers have suggested that the artist's strangely angular knee indicates that he has a joint disease.
This is quite likely, given the peculiarities of the lifestyle and working conditions of Renaissance artists and Michelangelo's chronic workaholism.
Mirror of the Arnolfinis
Jan van Eyck, "Portrait of the Arnolfinis", 1434
In the mirror behind the Arnolfinis, you can see the reflection of two more people in the room. Most likely, these are witnesses present at the conclusion of the contract. One of them is van Eyck, as evidenced by the Latin inscription placed, contrary to tradition, above the mirror in the center of the composition: "Jan van Eyck was here." This is how the contracts were usually sealed.
How a flaw turned into a talent
Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn, Self-portrait at the age of 63, 1669.
The researcher Margaret Livingston studied all Rembrandt's self-portraits and found that the artist suffered from strabismus: in the images his eyes look in different directions, which is not observed in the portraits of other people by the master. The disease led to the fact that the artist could better perceive reality in two dimensions than people with normal vision. This phenomenon is called "stereo blindness" - the inability to see the world in 3D. But since the painter has to work with a two-dimensional image, it was precisely this shortcoming of Rembrandt that could be one of the explanations for his phenomenal talent.
Sinless Venus
Sandro Botticelli, The Birth of Venus, 1482-1486.
Before the advent of The Birth of Venus, the image of a naked female body in painting symbolized only the idea of original sin. Sandro Botticelli was the first European painter not to find anything sinful in him. Moreover, art historians believe that pagan goddess love symbolizes on the fresco christian image: her appearance is an allegory of the rebirth of the soul that has passed the rite of baptism.
Lute player or lute player?
Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, The Lute Player, 1596.
For a long time, the painting was exhibited in the Hermitage under the title "Lute Player". Only at the beginning of the 20th century, art historians agreed that the canvas still depicts a young man (probably, Caravaggio was posed by his friend artist Mario Minniti): on the notes in front of the musician, a recording of the bass part of the madrigal by Jacob Arcadelt “You know that I love you” is visible . A woman could hardly make such a choice - it's just hard for the throat. In addition, the lute, like the violin at the very edge of the picture, was considered a male instrument in the era of Caravaggio.
Legend has it that the artist painted The Crying Boy from his own son. And since the baby could not cry on order, the father lit matches in front of his face - the boy was terribly afraid of fire. Allegedly, one day the child could not stand it and shouted: “You yourself burn!” And the curse worked: the picture was finished, and two weeks later the child literally “burned out” from pneumonia. After some time, the artist's workshop burned down. Together with the artist himself.
In fact, there is no historical evidence for this legend. Bruno Amadio, known under the pseudonym Bragolin, died peacefully on September 22, 1981 at the age of 70. About who exactly posed for the artist for this picture, nothing is known. But it is known that in houses decorated with reproductions of this picture, fires often occur. In this case, the reproductions themselves do not burn. In the mid-80s, the British newspaper The Sun began investigating this mystery: an article was published about a family of fire victims who claimed that not a single thing survived in a terrible fire, except for a reproduction of this picture. Readers began to send stories about similar cases to the paper. Maybe this story would have remained an urban legend if another fire had not happened soon. Another Crying Boy was found on the ashes - completely intact. After that, the editors announced an action of mass burning of reproductions - to get rid of the curse. Apparently it helped. In any case, there has been no more news of the fiery tears of the crying boy since then.
Claude Monet. Water lilies
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But the water lilies of the brush french impressionist Claude Monet is really a fire hazard, this is not a legend. The painting "set fire" to several houses and museums. The painter himself was the first victim - shortly after finishing work on the painting, Monet's workshop caught fire for inexplicable reasons. The "Lilies" themselves were not affected. Later, the painting was purchased for a famous cabaret in Montmartre - a few weeks later it burned to the ground. The painting was again not damaged, and the French collector Otto Schmidts became its new owner. A year later, a fire started in his house, and, despite the efforts of firefighters, only one wall survived. The one on which the "Lilies" hung. The painting began to be considered cursed, and it migrated from private collections to the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Shortly thereafter, in 1958, a fire broke out in the museum. One of the employees of the museum died in the fire.
Bill Stoneham. Hands resist him
American surrealist artist Bill Stoneham painted this picture from a not very successful, but completely innocent photo, which depicts himself with his younger sister. There was absolutely nothing sinister in the photograph, but in the picture the girl turned into a doll, and the peaceful landscape behind the children turned into a glass door, to which children's palms were pressed. According to the artist, the glass door is a barrier separating real world and the world of dreams, and the doll is a guide to the world of dreams. Maybe the idea was such, but in the end the picture itself turned out to be a guide to the world of madness.
The first person to see the painting, and at the same time its first victim, was an art historian and owner of the Los Angeles Times: almost immediately after seeing the painting, the man died. Then the picture was acquired by actor John Marley - and soon after that he died during heart surgery. After that, the picture in a completely incomprehensible way ended up in a landfill, where a certain man found it and decided to decorate his house with this canvas. The very first night after that, his four-year-old daughter ran into her parents' bedroom in tears: according to her, the children in the picture were fighting. The next night, everything happened again, only now the children were standing outside the door. New owner hurried to get rid of the painting, and it was sold on eBay for a thousand dollars. The new owner placed the painting in his art gallery, but soon began to receive letters demanding that it be destroyed. Visitors complained that the picture brings them to panic attacks, confusion and even heart attacks.
Pieter Brueghel the Elder. Adoration of the Magi
Brueghel painted the Virgin Mary from his cousin. Alas, the artist's model in life was nothing like the Virgin Mary - the unfortunate woman was barren, and therefore was often beaten by her husband. And she was also accused of “infecting” the painting: in the house into which this canvas fell, children ceased to be born. Four times the picture fell into private collections, and four times made its owners barren. In 1637, the painting was bought by the architect Jacob van Kampen, a happy father of three children, who, of course, was not afraid of the curse of the painting.
Diego Velasquez. Venus with a mirror
This sinister canvas brought misfortune to its owners for centuries and calmed down only after it was pierced with a knife. The first victim was a Spanish merchant - shortly after buying the painting, he went bankrupt and was forced to sell all his property. new owner paintings owned rich warehouses in the port, and nothing threatened his well-being. Except for lightning, which one night struck directly into the warehouses, and the resulting fire burned them to the ground. And again the owner of the painting is ruined, and again the canvas is put up for auction. The picture was bought by another wealthy gentleman, but, unfortunately, he did not go bankrupt: three days later robbers entered his house and stabbed the owner. And only in 1906 the picture stopped killing: “Venus with a Mirror” was purchased for the London Gallery, but the picture was shown for a short time. Suffragette Mary Richardson felt that the "cursed canvas" should not be shown in the gallery, because it degrades the dignity of women, and cut the painting with a knife. The restored "Venus" seems to have lost its evil temper after this incident.
Ivan Kramskoy. unknown
The picture itself is a mystery: none of Kramskoy's contemporaries guessed who the artist painted - the woman in the picture seemed vaguely familiar to everyone, but no one could remember where he met the "Unknown". The artist answered all questions with a mysterious smile. But the picture, if it smiled at its owners, was perhaps ominously. Tretyakov refused to buy the painting for his gallery, and the painting passed to a private owner. Soon his wife left him, and the abandoned husband hastened to get rid of the portrait. The second owner of the painting did not lose his wife, but the house - the building burned down, but the painting survived and passed to the third owner. Soon he went bankrupt. Misfortune did not bypass Kramskoy himself: a year after painting the picture, the artist lost two sons. The picture was taken away from the country, but even there the new owners were haunted by misfortunes. Only in 1925 did the canvas finally take its place in Tretyakov Gallery and has since ceased to bring misfortune.
Edvard Munch. scream
The artist himself spoke of his own famous painting So:
I was walking along the 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 fjord and the city. My friends went on, and I stood, trembling with excitement, feeling the endless scream piercing nature.
But the figure of the screamer and the horror on his face are more suggestive of death agony, and not of nature. The picture frightens with its appearance alone, but, alas, its curse is not exhausted by this.
One of the employees of the museum, which houses the Scream, once dropped the painting. Soon after this, the unfortunate began to suffer from severe headaches. Unbearable migraines soon drove him to suicide. Another museum worker dropped the painting during a change of display. Soon after, he was in a terrible car accident. A visitor to the museum, who decided to discreetly touch the painting, burned alive in his own house a week later. The cursed canvas did not spare even its own creator: Edvard Munch suffered a severe nervous breakdown, as a result of which he had to undergo electric shock treatment. The artist died at the age of 81, leaving as a gift hometown several thousand paintings, drawings, engravings and manuscripts. But The Scream eclipsed them all.
Mystical stories and mysteries are associated with many works of painting. Moreover, some experts believe that dark and secret forces are involved in the creation of a number of canvases. There are grounds for such an assertion. Too often these fateful masterpieces have happened amazing facts and unexplained events- fires, deaths, madness of the authors... One of the most famous "cursed" canvases is "The Crying Boy" - a reproduction of a painting by the Spanish artist Giovanni Bragolin. The history 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 to order, the father deliberately brought him to tears, lighting matches in front of his face.
If you look at her for 5 minutes in a row, the girl will change (eyes will turn red, hair will turn black, fangs will appear). In fact, it is clear that the picture is clearly not drawn by hand, as many like to say. Although no one gives clear answers how this picture appeared. The next picture 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 are dreaming about her. And someone even says that he knows this lady, but does not 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.
