The most incredible mistakes in famous works of art (23 photos). The most famous mistakes in works of art Artists' mistakes in paintings on historical themes

“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 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. Finally, Leonardo stumbled upon a suitable drunk, 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 "Night Watch") depicted the patrol 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 changelings, then one cannot help but mention a blunder in Ilya Repin's painting "Barge Haulers on the Volga": there an 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.

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 “The Battle of Vyazma”, the sovereign ordered “to write to Kiel (the court painter) that ... the emperor was extremely pleased with the picture of Hesse ... 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”

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 a 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.

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, at 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 in general belongs to wonderful works of art.”

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

Yuri Danilov

On December 3, 1961, a landmark event took place at the New York Museum of Modern Art - the Matisse painting “The Boat”, which hung upside down for 46 days, was properly hung. It is worth saying that this is not a single amusing case associated with the paintings of great artists.

Pablo Picasso painted one of his famous portraits in less than 5 minutes

Once, one of Pablo Picasso's acquaintances, looking at his new works, sincerely said to the artist: “I'm sorry, but I can't understand this. Those things just don't exist." To which Picasso retorted: “You don’t understand Chinese either. But it still exists." However, Picasso was not understood by many. Once he invited the Russian writer Ehrenburg, his good friend, to paint his portrait. He happily agreed, but did not have time to sit in an armchair to pose, as the artist announced that everything was ready.

Ehrenburg expressed surprise at the speed of execution of the work, after all, less than 5 minutes had passed, to which Picasso replied: “I have known you for 40 years. And all these 40 years I learned to paint portraits in 5 minutes.

Ilya Repin helped sell a painting he didn't paint

One lady purchased on the market for only 10 rubles a completely mediocre painting, on which the signature “I. Repin” proudly flaunted. When a connoisseur of painting showed this work to Ilya Efimovich, he laughed and added “This is not Repin” and put his autograph. After some time, an enterprising lady sold a painting by an unknown artist signed by a great master for 100 rubles.

The bears in the famous painting by Shishkin were painted by another artist

Among artists there is an unspoken law - professional mutual assistance. After all, each of them has not only favorite stories and strengths, but also weaknesses, so why not help each other. So, it is known for certain that for the painting “Pushkin on the Seashore” by Aivazovsky, the figure of the great poet was painted by Repin, and for the painting by Levitan “Autumn Day. Sokolniki, a lady in black was painted by Nikolai Chekhov. The landscape painter Shishkin, who could draw every blade of grass and needles in his paintings, did not succeed in creating bears when creating the painting “Morning in a Pine Forest”. Therefore, Savitsky painted bears for the famous Shishkin canvas.

A piece of fiberboard, over which paint was simply poured, became one of the most expensive paintings

The most expensive painting in the world in 2006 was Jackson Polock's Number 5, 1948. At one of the auctions, the painting went for $140 million. It may seem funny, but the artist did not particularly “bother” with the creation of this picture: he simply poured paint over a piece of fiberboard, spread out on the floor.

The date of creation of his painting Rubens encrypted by the stars

Art critics and scientists for a long time could not establish the date of creation of one of the most famous paintings by Rubens - the painting "The Feast of the Gods on Olympus." The riddle was resolved only after astronomers took a closer look at the picture. It turned out that the characters in the picture were located in exactly the same order as the planets were located in the sky in 1602.

The Chupa-Chups logo was drawn by the world-famous surrealist

In 1961, Enrique Bernata, the owner of the Chupa Chups company, asked the artist Salvador Dali to come up with an image for a candy wrapper. Gave the request fulfilled. Today, this image, albeit in a slightly modified form, is recognizable on the company's lollipops.

It is worth noting that in 1967 in Italy, with the blessing of the Pope, it was released with illustrations by Salvador Dali.

The most expensive painting Flour brings misfortune

Munch's painting "The Scream" was sold at auction for $120 million and is today the most expensive painting by this artist. They say that Munch, whose life path is a series of tragedies, put so much grief into it that the picture absorbed negative energy and takes revenge on the offenders.

One of the employees of the Munch Museum somehow accidentally dropped the painting, after which he began to suffer from terrible headaches that led this man to suicide. Another employee of the museum, who was unable to hold the painting, got into a terrible car accident just a few days later. And a visitor to the museum, who allowed himself to touch the painting, burned alive in a fire after some time. However, it is possible that these are just coincidences.

Malevich's "Black Square" has an "elder brother"

The “Black Square”, which is perhaps the most famous painting by Kazimir Malevich, is a canvas 79.5 * 79.5 centimeters, on which a black square is depicted on a white background. Malevich painted his painting in 1915. And back in 1893, 20 years before Malevich, Alphonse Allais, a French humorist, drew his “black square”. True, Alle's painting was called "The Battle of Negroes in a Deep Cave on a Dark Night."

Christ and Judas have the same face in Da Vinci's painting

It is said that the creation of the painting "The Last Supper" required a titanic effort from Leonardo da Vinci. The artist quickly found the person from whom the image of Christ was painted. One of the church choir singers approached this role. But "Judas" da Vinci was looking for three years.

Once on the street, the artist saw a drunkard who unsuccessfully tried to get out of the cesspool. Da Vinci took him to one of the drinking establishments, sat him down and began to draw. What was the surprise of the artist when, having opened up, the drunkard admitted that several years ago he had already posed for him. It turned out that this is the same singer.

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.

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 slides 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 supposedly 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 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, and both are better 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, Magritte's friend and patron - 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 correctly in the mirror. 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

Salvador Dali's (1904-1989) upside-down painting “Swans Reflected in Elephants”, in which we also encounter violations of the laws of symmetry, is also interesting to study. 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?