Great mistakes of great artists. The most famous mistakes in works of art Mistakes in art

“The essence of a historical picture is guessing. If only the spirit of the times is observed, you can make any mistakes in the details, ”Vasily Ivanovich Surikov argued to critics of his masterpiece“ Boyar Morozova ”, who blamed the painter that he was hacking: there was little room for the coachman, the boyar’s arm was too long and unnaturally twisted ... And how many more such mistakes were made by great artists? "Secrets of the 20th century" offer a closer look at famous paintings and look at the work of great artists in a new way...

I don't recognize you in makeup!

Let's start the story with one of the greatest masters of the brush - Leonardo da Vinci. He made an involuntary mistake in the process of creating the famous "Last Supper": if you look at it more closely, you can see that Christ and Judas are the same person.

Leonardo da Vinci, The Last Supper

The fact is that da Vinci quickly found a sitter for the role of Jesus - he became a church choir singer, but the search for Judas dragged on for three years. In the end, Leonardo stumbled upon a suitable drunkard, wallowing in the mud of an Italian street.

The artist took the tramp to the nearest tavern and began to sketch the appearance of Judas. When the drawing was completed, it turned out that in front of da Vinci ... the same singer who posed for him several years ago.

Another mistake (if you can call it that) was made by da Vinci in the painting “The Annunciation”, where the archangel Gabriel received such small wings from the artist that he could hardly have descended to sinful earth on them without injury.

Leonardo da Vinci, "The Annunciation"

Leonardo justified himself by saying that his wings are anatomically correct, because they were written off from birds, but an unknown author later added solidity and width to the wings of the archangel. True, as a result, the composition in the picture was broken, and the wings began to look bulky and somewhat grotesque.

Left! Left!

The semi-anecdotal story with the monument to Lenin, where the leader of the world proletariat poses with two caps - one on his head, the other in his hand - turns out to have a historical prototype.

Fragment of Rembrandt's painting "The Night Watch".

Harmensz van Rijn Rembrandt in his painting “The Performance of the Rifle Company of Captain Frans Banning Cock and Lieutenant Willem van Ruytenbürg” (better known as “The Night Watch”) depicted the watch commander Cock with two right gloves: one on his hand and the other in the same hand .

And the famous Baroque painter Peter Paul Rubens, when creating the canvas “The Union of Earth and Water”, for some reason endowed Venus with two right hands - the depicted left, lying on Neptune’s hand, does not look like the left at all.

Peter Paul Rubens, Union of Earth and Water.

Another Baroque artist, the Italian Caravaggio, in the painting “Supper at Emmaus” also feigned and depicted a basket full of fruits and denying the laws of physics - standing on the edge of the table, it does not turn over. Perhaps because Jesus himself is sitting at the table?

Caravaggio, Supper at Emmaus

If we continue the theme of shifters, then one cannot help but mention a blunder in Ilya Repin’s painting “Barge haulers on the Volga”: there the artel drags a barge on which the flag for some reason is turned upside down.

The face of Vincent van Gogh in his famous "Self-portrait with a severed ear" turned out to be upside down. There, the eccentric artist is depicted with a bandaged ear, but in reality he injured his left - while in the picture his right was injured!

native birches

As for the inaccuracies in the paintings of domestic artists, it seems that here we are ahead of the rest. So, when the same Ilya Repin, in the process of writing the painting “The Cossacks write a letter to the Turkish Sultan,” discovered that the surroundings and clothes of the characters did not quite correspond to reality, he abandoned the first option and began to paint the picture again.

Ilya Repin "The Cossacks write a letter to the Turkish Sultan."

However, today it will be very difficult for a non-specialist to determine which of the options we can see on the Internet - right or wrong.

In the painting by Viktor Vasnetsov "Bogatyrs" several mistakes were made at once. If we rely on historical data and take the age of Ilya Muromets as a standard, it turns out that at that time Dobrynya Nikitich should already be a gray-bearded, weak old man, and Alyosha Popovich - a little boy, while on the canvas they are depicted almost the same age. And Alyosha, who is right-handed (which is confirmed by the sword hanging to the left), for some reason hung the quiver to the left, making it very difficult for himself to pull arrows out of it in battle.

So, after examining the first picture “The Battle of Vyazma”, the sovereign ordered “to write to Kiel (the court painter) that ... the emperor was extremely pleased with Hesse’s painting ... but ... the officers’ coats are buttoned in the picture on the left side, we have all the officers buttoned on the right side, and the number of buttons on these sides should be only 6.

There should not be a galloon on a non-commissioned officer's overcoat. Junker belts do not use bandages for wearing. Do not make white pimples from under ties. However, von Hess did not have to finish the work - the mistakes listed by the sovereign were corrected by professors and students of the battle class of the Academy of Arts.

Peter von Hess, “Battle of Vyazma”

Fortunately for von Hess, neither Nicholas I nor Alexander II saw in the “Battle of Vyazma” in the hands of Russian soldiers guns from the future, which were not yet in service, and the monogram instead of an eight-pointed star at the Life Cuirassier Imperial Majesties regiments in “ Battle of Borodino.

Peter von Hess. Crossing the Berezina

The matting is grassy, light-yellow, in which coffee is brought to us from America, and is so large that it covers the entire cart. It doesn't smell like Russia! Why, we ask, where did the brand new open suitcase on the same cart come from? Let's ask how they survived, with one of the road carriages, umbrellas and canes in leather cases tied to the rear of the carriage? And where and why is this Kalmyk galloping in a close crowd of foot soldiers? After all, he will pass them on ... "

However, Bulgarin draws an unexpected conclusion from everything written: “The coloring, as in all the paintings of Mr. Hesse, is pale, but the picture generally belongs to wonderful works of art.”

And you are right, Thaddeus Venediktovich is right!...

Yuri Danilov

This entry was originally posted at

“The essence of a historical picture is guessing. If only the spirit of the time is observed, you can make any mistakes in the details,” Vasily Ivanovich Surikov argued to the critics of his masterpiece “Boyar Morozova”, who blamed the painter that he was hacking: there was not enough room for the coachman, the boyar’s arm was too long and unnaturally twisted ... And how many more such mistakes were made by great artists? "Secrets of the 20th century" offer a closer look at famous paintings and look at the work of great artists in a new way.

I don't recognize you in makeup!

Let's start the story with one of the greatest masters of the brush - Leonardo da Vinci.

He made an involuntary mistake in the process of creating the famous "Last Supper": if you look at it more closely, you can see that Christ and Judas are the same person. The fact is that da Vinci quickly found a sitter for the role of Jesus - he became a church choir singer, but the search for Judas dragged on for three years. In the end, Leonardo stumbled upon a suitable drunkard, wallowing in the mud of an Italian street. The artist took the tramp to the nearest tavern and began to sketch the appearance of Judas. When the drawing was completed, it turned out that in front of da Vinci ... the same singer who posed for him several years ago.

Left! Left!

The semi-anecdotal story with the monument to Lenin, where the leader of the world proletariat poses with two caps - one on his head, the other in his hand - turns out to have a historical prototype.

native birches

As for the inaccuracies in the paintings of domestic artists, it seems that here we are ahead of the rest.

So, when the same Ilya Repin, in the process of writing the painting “The Cossacks write a letter to the Turkish Sultan,” discovered that the surroundings and clothes of the characters did not quite correspond to reality, he abandoned the first option and began to paint the picture again.

However, today it will be very difficult for a non-specialist to determine which of the options we can see on the Internet - right or wrong.

Emperor Nicholas I turned out to be a very strict critic of painting, for whom the Bavarian battle painter Peter von Hess undertook to paint 12 large paintings depicting the main battles of the Patriotic War of 1812. So, having examined the first picture “Vyazma”, the sovereign ordered “to write ... to Kiel (the court painter) that ... the emperor was extremely pleased with Hesse's painting ... but ... the officers' coats are buttoned in the picture on the left side, with us all the officers are buttoned on the right side, and the number of buttons on these sides should be only 6. There should not be a galloon on the overcoat of a non-commissioned officer. Junker belts do not use bandages for wearing. Do not make white pimples from under ties. However, von Hess did not have to finish the work - the mistakes listed by the sovereign were corrected by professors and students of the battle class of the Academy of Arts.

The painter also got it from the next emperor, Alexander II, who, after examining the next canvas, ordered “that in the picture depicting the battle of Klyastitsy, among the soldiers of the Life Guards of the Pavlovsky regiment, which is in the foreground, Professor Villevalde rewrote the form of uniforms that existed in that time." Fortunately for von Hess, neither Nicholas I nor Alexander II saw in the “Battle of Vyazma” in the hands of Russian soldiers guns from the future, which were not yet in service, and the monogram instead of an eight-pointed star at the Life Cuirassier Imperial Majesties regiments in “ Battle of Borodino.

“With the greatest curiosity, we examined ...“ The crossing of the French troops across the Berezina in 1812, ”wrote the famous Russian writer F.V. Bulgarin in the newspaper "Northern Bee". - In this picture, in our opinion, beauty and shortcomings are half. Laugh at us all great artists and connoisseurs, but we will frankly say that the first thing that caught our eye was non-Russian matting on a Russian cart. Whatever you say, this trifle makes an impression. The matting is grassy, light-yellow, in which coffee is brought to us from America, and is so large that it covers the entire cart. It doesn't smell like Russia! Why, we ask, where did the brand new open suitcase on the same cart come from? Let's ask how they survived, with one of the road carriages, umbrellas and canes in leather cases tied to the rear of the carriage? And where and why is this Kalmyk galloping in a close crowd of foot soldiers? After all, he will crush them ... ”The conclusion from everything written, however, Bulgarin makes an unexpected one:“ The color, as in all the paintings of Mr. Hesse, is pale, but the picture generally belongs to wonderful works of art.

And you are right, Thaddeus Venediktovich is right!...

No one on Earth is immune from cretinism, which affects not only mere mortals, but also generally recognized geniuses. Therefore, let's indulge our vanity and see what mistakes the masters of fine art made in their works.
7. How, don't you see anything?

Crucifixion of San Damino, original
The large Romanesque crucifix of San Damiano was made by an unknown craftsman 4 centuries before the events unfolding in the game Assassin's Creed 2 (XI century). He is best known for the fact that Saint Francis of Assisi prayed before him shortly before he received a vision of the reformation of the Roman Catholic Church as a gift from God.
Let's take a closer look at this product of ancient masters.

Crucifixion of San Damino by an unknown master
The crucifixion of San Damino set the standard for all religious Christian icons, which has remained unchanged for many hundreds of years. This continued until his reproduction adorned one of the walls of the church in Warr Acres, Oklahoma, where the majority of believers, with a shudder in their souls and hearts, saw the divine press in the form of ... better look at the original and the work of the artist for yourself clumsy, or just a mischievous joker who decided to bring a little overt erotica to the image of the idol of millions of people. Or maybe the poor guy just thought that the real press has a phallic shape!?
Ultimately, the unfortunate artist was called to account and forced to remake his creation.

6. Norman Rockwell gave a man a third leg

People who understand absolutely nothing about art, most often notice in the picture of Norman Rockwell (Norman Rockwell) something that is hidden from the eyes of experts and art lovers.
Norman Rockwell was a real printing press who produced a little bit of 4,000 paintings in his life, most of which show the life of average Americans doing completely ordinary and unremarkable things.
However, despite the seeming simplicity, his works found and continue to find their admirers, who claim that Rockwell is the greatest artist of the 19th century.
His paintings, written for spreads of The Saturday Evening Post, are the clearest example of the work of this man, who glorified the culture of the entire American society. Every two weeks he drew new covers for this newspaper, which were imbued with the American spirit and flaunted the American dream in all its glory to the whole world.
This artist did not just embellish reality, but extolled the United States to a height unattainable for other countries, thereby pushing the idea of the "American Dream" to the masses.
His classic People Reading Stock Exchange, which depicts four people closely studying stock quotes, graced the newspaper's front page. However, the overtired master made one mistake, seeing which, a European resident could interpret the artist's idea in only one way: America is inhabited by mutants!

What's wrong here?

The young man in the red shirt appears to be leaning on his third leg! As you can see, two of his legs are brought together and straightened, while the third, hidden by the apron, is bent at the knee, allowing him to lean on it with his hand.
Rockwell realized that he had drawn something wrong only a few months later and was frankly shocked by his inattention. A writer describing the biography of this outstanding man named Richard Halpern (Richard Halpern) wrote that Mr. Norman Rockwell was reluctant to talk about the painting "People Reading Stock Exchange Reports" and called the third leg nothing more than an unidentified phallic object.
It seems that all the outstanding artists of the past were obsessed with male reproductive organs!? Is the whole article going to be devoted to looking for phallic images in old paintings?

5. Favorite women of Michelangelo ... or is it men?

Yes, according to the author's idea, this is a real woman!
However, any modern person who decides to take a closer look at Michelangelo's work will conclude for himself that the artist was either not indifferent to pumped bodybuilders, who did not yet exist in nature in the 16th century, or had a hidden passion for athletically built transvestites.
Michelangelo is a universally recognized genius in the history of all mankind, but the question involuntarily begs: what was he thinking when he painted a woman who looks exactly like Arnold Schwarzenegger in his best years?

In principle, everything would not be so bad if one fine day the idea did not come into the artist’s head to start drawing these busty Hercules naked.

Solution!
Most historians are convinced that Michelangelo was a homosexual. To divert any suspicions from his orientation, he diluted the images of naked men in his works with female bodies, models for which were weightlifters who posed for the artist.

That is why most of the representatives of the weaker sex, who came out from under his pen, do not look weak at all. This fact is also supported by the shape of female breasts, which look clumsy and unnatural.

Just look at this beautiful ‘female’ breast, which could be called silicone if plastic surgeons practiced in the XVI:

Even more terrible, as if glued, is the chest of the ‘woman’ on the fresco “The Last Judgment”, which adorns the altar wall of the Sistine Chapel:

There you can also see two pumped-over machos - Adam and Eve ... We see Adam ... even two, but where is the first woman? Although the left one has a very sweet, almost feminine face, it is possible that this is Eve, whom Michelangelo quite accidentally forgot to add breasts, as well as the penis, which he deprived Adam of.

Adam and Eve!?

4. Moses didn't have horns...or did they?

No, this horned fiend is not the devil, but Moses, as he was depicted in the Ten Commandments - the prescriptions of the 10 basic laws, which, according to believers, were given to the Jewish prophet by the Lord God himself.

There are a huge number of paintings, sculptures and other works of art representing the biblical hero in satanic guise.

Why the hell do I make devil horns on Moses' head?

If God really exists, then he definitely has nothing to do with the Bible that has come down to our days. This is also supported by the fact that throughout its history, the Holy Scriptures have been rewritten countless times, acquiring more and more new doctrines and rules that churchmen have imposed on believers throughout the existence of Christianity.
Another obstacle to the 'Word of God' was tongues; so one sentence in biblical Hebrew can have a completely different meaning, for example, in Russian. The reason for this confusion was the presence in the original source of words that simply do not have synonyms in other cultures. The mentality of native speakers of different languages, who can perceive the same phrase in completely different ways, has also contributed its fly in the ointment to the understanding of scripture.
Therefore, there is a strong possibility that Moses acquired his demonic horns through the work of the notorious Saint Jerome, who made a rather clumsy translation of the Bible from Hebrew into Latin. By the way, later this translation was called the Vulgate (lat. public) and became extremely popular.
The innocent oversight of the author, who decided that believers would like horns more like those of a fucking devil than snotty horn-shaped rays illuminating the face of a prophet, resulted in a real creative tsunami raging in the minds of art people for almost 1000 years.
The most famous product of this cataclysm was the marble statue "Moses" by our old friend Michelangelo, which occupies the central part in the sculptural tomb of Pope Julius II in the Roman basilica of San Pietro in Vincoli:

While working on the sculpture, Michelangelo found out about a mistake in translation, but in order not to conflict with the clergy, he still left the horns.
Thus, our good old Mike became the first of a galaxy of talented artists who, through his work, strengthened the delusion about the true image of the Jewish prophet in the hearts of believers.

3. William Penn waves his…penis to the people of Philadelphia

If anyone does not know, then William Penn (William Penn) is one of the founding fathers of the American state, who founded a colony-"refuge" for free-thinking Europeans, which he named Pennsylvania in his honor.

The giant bronze colossus of the founder of Pennsylvania was erected in 1894 at the very top of the Philadelphia City Hall clock tower.

The height of the bronze idol, laughing at the top of its lungs over the long-suffering residents of the city, is almost 11.28 meters, which puts this monumental creation of human hands in first place in the list of the tallest statues installed on the tops of buildings.
What do the founding father and the male sexual organ have in common?
When traveling around the USA, be sure to drop by a beautiful town called Philadelphia and ask this immodest, but so tormenting your soul question, to one of the locals ... it’s better, of course, to choose a guy or a group of guys who are healthier - they certainly should know.
Your interlocutor, flushed with shame and embarrassment, will certainly send you to hell, but before that he will point his middle finger up in the direction of the majestic statue of William Penn, greeting you with his ... You won’t believe it, with a giant bronze penis.

However, coming closer to the statue, you will understand that your perverted imagination has played a cruel joke on you - no, the founding father is really waving at you, but not with his manhood, but with his right hand.

The sculptor of this monument was Alexander Milne Calder, who most likely thought that the inhabitants of the city would look at his creation from the bottom up, standing under the clock tower.
However, the best view of this statue is for pedestrians walking along 1 Penn Square, who look away in embarrassment at the sight of the Founding Father's sticking out personal belongings.

See how William Penn's outstretched hand in a greeting gesture looks from the side of JFK Plaza (JFK Plaza):

We can only guess whether the hand-penis was the author’s idea or whether the degradation of modern society is to blame for everything, catching a hint of the genitals in all objects that have phallic forms.
For my part, I once again swear by oath that this was the penultimate penis that you read about in this article!

2. Playful little hands or Rembrandt's secret addictions

This, of course, is complete crap, smacking of homophobia, but some historians are convinced that Rembrandt was a homosexual and cite as proof of this the painting “Night Watch” (De Nachtwacht) painted by him in 1642, in which, supposedly, the brilliant artist depicted a shadow from the hands of Captain Frans Banninck Cocq giving orders to the Musketeers, stretching to the inguinal region of Lieutenant Willem van Ruytenburch.

Despite all its absurdity, this absurd theory made a lot of noise and was further developed.

Fans of historical secrets and conspiracies agreed that the disliked warrior Rembrandt thus wanted to ridicule the customers of the painting, from writing which, with all his desire, he could not refuse.

Fuel is added to the fire by the girl standing in the background, on whose belt a dead rooster hangs, gently hinting at the unconventional orientation of the musketeers.
In addition, ridiculing the narrow-minded mind of Captain Cock, Rembrandt portrayed him with a smart look, holding another right glove in his right hand in a glove.
The radiograph of the painting also showed that the groin area of Reutenburg underwent the greatest number of changes during the writing of the canvas.

1. Crazy Horse Memorial by Korczak Ziłkowski

Korczak Ziolkowski's sculpture depicts a famous episode in Native American history when a pale-faced man asked an Oglala Lakota Redskin warrior named Crazy Horse, "And where are your lands now?" to which Crazy Horse pointed into the distance and answered the conqueror: "My lands are where my grave is."
In different cultures, hand gestures have different meanings, for example, what in Russia means a friendly greeting, among African tribes can be regarded as a challenge to a mortal battle.
Korczak Ziłkowski, in this case, portrayed the Crazy Horse with his hand outstretched and his index finger pointing forward, which among the Indians is a rude, full of aggression, hatred and contempt gesture, the softest analogue of which is the middle finger of the hand held up, accompanied by the phrase beloved all over the world " FUCK YOU".
Thus, this gesture gives a completely different meaning to the phrase Crazy Horse, which all the natives of America quote only as: "My land is where your graves are."

Sometimes we see in the pictures something that cannot be in reality, no matter how plausible the image may seem. This happens when artists make mistakes related to the violation of the laws of geometry. In some cases, inconsistencies are striking, in others they are completely invisible, but they make us feel something unusual and even strange. Such inaccuracies can be both accidental and intentional - in order to attract the attention or amaze the viewer's imagination.

Leonardo da Vinci. Adoration of the Magi. Sketch. 1481.

Maurits Escher. Gazebo. Lithography. 1958

Leonardo da Vinci. Annunciation. Around 1472-1475.

Jos de May. Still life in the window. 1997

Van Dyck. Portrait of a noble Genoese lady and her son. 1626.

Giovanni Bellini. Dinner at Emmaus. 1490s.

Giorgio de Chirico. Prophet. 1915

Rene Magritte. Portrait of Edward James. 1937

Salvador Dali. Swans reflected in elephants. 1937

Dirk Bouts. Christ in the House of Simon. 1440.

Leonardo's riddle

Before you is a sketch of the painting "The Adoration of the Magi" by Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519). As experts in the field of painting admit, the famous Italian Renaissance artist was excellent at building linear perspective. Indeed, the sketch of the background is calibrated with mathematical precision - the eye glides along straight lines, rushing to the central vanishing point, and is fixed on it. But take a closer look at the columns at the left edge of the picture. Do you notice anything strange? The columns are depicted in violation of the very perspective that so admires in Leonardo's drawing. The column, which rests on a step, is depicted on two plans at once: the front (at the base) and the back (at the level of the capital). And the second column is clearly out of place.

The true reason for the “mistake” made by the artist will remain a mystery to us. At that time, an already established master, Leonardo is unlikely to have made a miscalculation out of ignorance, especially since there is a “distracting maneuver” - the viewer’s gaze willy-nilly focuses on the center of the picture.

Another thing is the work of a novice artist, yesterday's student. Take a look at The Annunciation, the earliest known painting by Leonardo da Vinci. It has several errors. The most obvious is that the hand of the Virgin Mary cannot reach the book lying on the lectern: it stands closer to the viewer than to the Virgin herself. As a result, her right arm is longer than her left, the proportions of the figure are violated.

unreal objects

An impossible figure, or geometrically inconsistent image, similar to the columns in Leonardo's sketch, is a construction on the famous Belvedere lithograph by the Dutch graphic artist Maurits Escher (1898-1972). According to this picture, written almost 500 years after the "Adoration of the Magi", one can judge the direction of imp-art (from the English impossible - impossible and art - art) in the so-called optical art - op-art, which is represented by its author. Variations on the same theme are found in the works of other contemporary artists, who create paradoxical objects that seem real, but cannot exist in reality. Depicting various objects, the authors deliberately violate the laws of geometry and thereby achieve unexpected visual effects - they create amazing optical illusions. Here is just one example - "Still Life in the Window" by the Belgian artist and designer Jos de May (1928-2007). In the painting, the upper and lower halves of the "window frame" appear normal when viewed separately, but when joined together form an impossible object. The fact is that they are shown from different points, in different perspectives, and this leads to an incorrect location of one part relative to the other.

Violating proportionality

And here is the "Portrait of a noble Genoese lady and her son" by the famous Flemish portrait painter Anthony van Dyck (1599-1641). The heroes of the picture make a completely different impression. Because of the strong disproportion, the woman looks unreal. She has a huge height for a person, a disproportionately small head and, judging by the position of her arms and legs, problems with her physique. It seems that the portrait of the lady is assembled in parts, and they are poorly fitted to one another. In the figure of the boy, nothing of the kind is observed; it is perceived quite naturally.

Worth it or fall?

The most common mistakes in paintings are the violation of perspective and proportions. But the eye also notices other inaccuracies. For example, in the painting "The Supper at Emmaus", painted allegedly by the Italian Giovanni Bellini (circa 1430-1516), the meal scene looks very realistic. The poses, faces and attire of people, interior details, food and utensils are carefully drawn. But the legs of the table are clearly not in place. Through their ends, both the upper ones - from the side of the countertop, and the lower ones - resting on the floor, one can mentally draw straight lines that will turn out to be parallel to one another. This means that all legs are located in the same plane. Such a table is extremely unstable, it will fall at the first attempt to put it on the floor. It would be necessary to deploy a pair of legs (one is enough, or better both at once - for reasons of structural symmetry) in space, say 90o, so that they are located in parallel planes.

It is curious that this mistake is also found on the canvases of other painters, for example, in the painting "Prophet" by Giorgio de Chirico (1888-1978), one of the predecessors of the surrealists. Although it all depends on our agreement. If we consider that the easel is falling, then the artist was not mistaken, and if we decide that the easel is firmly on the floor, then this is the same fiction of the author, like the whole image.

forbidden image

An example of a "mistake" of a different kind, indicating the original author's intention, is the famous mystery painting "Portrait of Edward James" by the Belgian surrealist artist Rene Magritte (1898-1967). The canvas has another name - "Reproduction is prohibited." The hero of the picture - a well-known English collector and philanthropist, friend and patron of Magritte - looks at himself in the mirror, but, contrary to the law of reflection (symmetry relative to the plane), instead of a face, he sees his head. From the point of view of geometry, this is impossible, which means that such a “reproduction” is really prohibited. True, this applies only to the hero of the portrait: both the mantelpiece and the book lying on it are reflected in the mirror correctly. The mistake was made by Magritte, of course, intentionally. It's in his style - to combine in his works things that are not compatible in reality, depict characters from the back, cover or replace their faces with various objects.

Two in one

Interesting to study is the flip painting by Salvador Dali (1904-1989) “Swans Reflected in Elephants”, in which we also encounter violations of the laws of symmetry. On the one hand, the swans on the water are an independent part of the picture, and on the other hand, they seem to have grown together with the trees. The most amazing thing is that their reflection in the water is not swans, but the figures of elephants standing on the ground. Let's turn the picture "upside down" and see the swans, which, reflected "in the opposite direction", again turn into elephants. From the point of view of geometry, such a mutually inverse transformation of objects is explained by the manifestation of the law of mirror symmetry. But take a closer look at the group of swans. Three birds are reflected in the water correctly, but the fourth, as if tumbled on its side, is not. Is it because, according to the author's intention, this swan is reflected in another mirror plane and it is located at an angle to the first one? In reality, this, of course, would be impossible, but in the imagination of a surrealist artist it would be.

Finally, one more picture-mystery. Before you is the canvas "Christ in the House of Simon" by the Dutch painter Dirk Bouts (circa 1410-1475). It is written on the biblical story - the anointing of Christ by a woman when he visits Simon's house. There are several noticeable errors and inconsistencies on the canvas. Try to find irregularities in the image of figures and objects that make the picture look more like a collage. It also has a detail that is superfluous in terms of geometry. Which one?

There are works of art that seem to hit the viewer on the head, dumbfounded and amazing. Others drag you into reflection and in search of semantic layers, secret symbolism. Some paintings are covered with secrets and mystical mysteries, while others surprise with an exorbitant price.

We carefully reviewed all the major achievements in world painting and selected two dozen of the strangest paintings from them. Salvador Dali, whose works completely fall under the format of this material and are the first to come to mind, were not included in this collection intentionally.

It is clear that “strangeness” is a rather subjective concept, and for everyone there are amazing paintings that stand out from a number of other works of art. We will be glad if you share them in the comments and tell us a little about them.

"Scream"

Edvard Munch. 1893, cardboard, oil, tempera, pastel.
National Gallery, Oslo.

The Scream is considered a landmark expressionist event and one of the most famous paintings in the world.

There are two interpretations of what is depicted: it is the hero himself who is seized with horror and silently screams, pressing his hands to his ears; or the hero closes his ears from the cry of the world and nature sounding around him. Munch wrote four versions of The Scream, and there is a version that this picture is the fruit of a manic-depressive psychosis from which the artist suffered. After a course of treatment at the clinic, Munch did not return to work on the canvas.

“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 cry that pierces nature,” Edvard Munch said about the history of the painting.

“Where did we come from? Who are we? Where are we going?"

Paul Gauguin. 1897-1898, oil on canvas.
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

At the direction of Gauguin himself, the picture should be read from right to left - the three main groups of figures illustrate the questions posed in the title.

Three women with a child represent the beginning of life; the middle group symbolizes the daily existence of maturity; in the final group, according to the artist, "an old woman approaching death seems reconciled and given over to her thoughts", at her feet "a strange white bird ... represents the futility of words."

A deeply philosophical picture of the post-impressionist Paul Gauguin was written by him in Tahiti, where he fled from Paris. At the end of the work, he even wanted to commit suicide: "I believe that this canvas is superior to all my previous ones and that I will never create something better or even similar." He lived another five years, and so it happened.

"Guernica"

Pablo Picasso. 1937, oil on canvas.
Reina Sofia Museum, Madrid.

Guernica presents scenes of death, violence, atrocities, suffering and helplessness, without specifying their immediate causes, but they are obvious. It is said that in 1940 Pablo Picasso was summoned to the Gestapo in Paris. The conversation immediately turned to the picture. "Did you do that?" - "No, you did it."

The huge fresco "Guernica", painted by Picasso in 1937, tells about the raid of the Luftwaffe volunteer unit on the city of Guernica, as a result of which the six thousandth city was completely destroyed. The picture was painted in just a month - the first days of work on the picture, Picasso worked for 10-12 hours, and already in the first sketches one could see the main idea. This is one of the best illustrations of the nightmare of fascism, as well as human cruelty and grief.

"Portrait of the Arnolfinis"

Jan van Eyck. 1434, oil on wood.
London National Gallery, London.

The famous painting is completely filled with symbols, allegories and various references - up to the signature "Jan van Eyck was here", which turned the painting not just into a work of art, but into a historical document confirming the reality of the event, which was attended by the artist.

The portrait, presumably of Giovanni di Nicolao Arnolfini and his wife, is one of the most complex works of the Western school of painting of the Northern Renaissance.

In Russia, in the past few years, the painting has gained great popularity due to Arnolfini's portrait resemblance to Vladimir Putin.

"Demon Seated"

Mikhail Vrubel. 1890, oil on canvas.
State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow.

"Hands Resist Him"

Bill Stoneham. 1972.

This work, of course, cannot be ranked among the masterpieces of world art, but the fact that it is strange is a fact.

Around the picture with a boy, a doll and palms pressed against the glass, there are legends. From "because of this picture they die" to "the children in it are alive." The picture looks really creepy, which gives rise to a lot of fears and conjectures in people with a weak psyche.

The artist assured that the picture depicts himself at the age of five, that the door is a representation of the dividing line between the real world and the world of dreams, and the doll is a guide that can lead the boy through this world. The hands represent alternative lives or possibilities.

The painting gained notoriety in February 2000 when it was listed for sale on eBay with a backstory that said the painting was "haunted". "Hands Resist Him" was bought for $1,025 by Kim Smith, who was then inundated with letters with creepy stories and demands to burn the painting.