Fatal paintings by Russian painters. Mystical paintings

These paintings are known even to those who are far from the world of art, because they are true masterpieces. And each of them hides some secret that cannot be seen with the naked eye.

And it seems that every stroke has already been studied inside and out, nevertheless, scientists are constantly discovering something new in these ancient paintings. Their authors left their descendants with unusual riddles that they managed to solve!

The editors of InPlanet have prepared a list of 12 legendary paintings that have kept secrets for many years and even centuries!

Portrait of the Arnolfini couple / Jan van Eyck (1434)

This portrait was the first in European history to depict a couple. He is a wonderful example of the era early Renaissance. Historians are still arguing about who is depicted on the canvas and what is happening there. Many are sure that this is a wedding, as indicated by some signs in the picture.

But the most interesting fragment is practically hidden from view - in the reflection of the mirror on the wall you can see the outlines of four people. It is vaguely clear that there is a man and a woman, and the signature is “Jan van Eyck was here.” Art critics believe that the artist depicted himself and his wife.

The Last Supper / Leonardo da Vinci (1495-1498)

This fresco is one of the most famous works Leonardo da Vinci also hides many secrets. The most interesting riddle hidden on the surface - in the images of Jesus and Judas.

The artist painted the remaining images with ease, but these two faces were the most difficult for him. For the face of Jesus, he was looking for the embodiment of goodness, and he was lucky - in the church choir he met a young singer. But the last unwritten stain remained Judas, and da Vinci sat for hours in eateries to select the ideal embodiment of evil. And finally, he was lucky - in a ditch he found a drunkard who could barely stand on his feet. He painted the image of Judas from it, but in the end he was surprised.

This man approached him and said that they had already met. Several years ago he was a singer in a choir and had already posed for Leonardo for this picture. So, one man began to personify good and evil.

Portrait of Lady Lisa del Giocondo / Leonardo da Vinci (1503-1505)

Perhaps the most mysterious picture of all those ever painted is the Mona Lisa. For several centuries now, it has haunted art critics and historians, giving rise to increasingly wild and intriguing ideas for its creation.

Who is this woman with a mysterious smile and no eyebrows? It is traditionally believed that this is the wife of the merchant Francesco Giocondo. But there are several other theories that have a right to exist. For example, that the Mona Lisa is a self-portrait of Leonardo himself. There is also a possibility that this painting was painted by da Vinci for himself, and the real painting was discovered in Aizerloot 100 years ago. This Mona Lisa more closely matches the description of the painting by Leonardo's contemporaries.

And more recently, scientists have suggested that the mysterious smile of the girl on the canvas is due to the fact that she had no teeth. By the way, the x-ray showed that she had eyebrows, but the restorations had significantly damaged them.

Creation of Adam / Michelangelo (1511)

Another genius of the Renaissance, Michelangelo, created his fresco for Sistine Chapel, where she remains to this day. The subject for this part of the painting was a scene from Genesis called the creation of Adam. And there are many encrypted symbols on the fresco.

For example, if you look closely at the Creator who creates Adam, you can see... the human brain. Experts believe that in this way the artist drew an analogy of the Creator with the source of intelligence, or simply the brain. This theory is confirmed by the fact that Michelangelo was fond of anatomy and constantly conducted experiments on corpses.

Sistine Madonna / Raphael (1513-1514)

This huge painting, by Raphael, is an example supreme art Renaissance. The painting was commissioned by Pope Julius II and was located in the Piacenza monastery. Some art historians believe that this masterpiece was painted for the funeral of the pope.

Raphael encrypted many signs on the canvas, which historians managed to uncover. One of the obvious secrets Sistine Madonna- in the background the artist depicted the faces of the cloud in the form of the faces of angels. Some historians believe that these are unborn souls.

Shore Scene / Hendrick van Antonissen (1641)

The painting by the famous Dutch marine painter Hendrik van Antonissen has long attracted the attention of art critics. This 17th century painting depicts a seemingly ordinary seascape. But the experts were confused a large number of people gathered on the shore for no apparent reason.

The truth was established with the help of an x-ray study, which established that in reality the painting depicted a whale. But the artist decided that people would be bored looking at the dead whale carcass, so he remade the painting. And with a whale, the canvas looks much more impressive!

The last day of Pompeii / Karl Bryullov (1830-1833)

Russian artist Karl Bryullov was impressed by the history of Pompeii while visiting Vesuvius in 1828. He was a very reserved person by nature, but then Karl was simply overwhelmed by emotions, he stayed in the destroyed city for four days and after a couple of years he began to paint his famous painting.

There is a special secret on the canvas - if you look closely, in the left corner you can see a self-portrait of the artist himself. He also captured his beloved, Countess Yulia Samoilova, with whom he was associated long relationship at least three times, possibly more. She can be seen as a mother holding her daughters to her chest, as a girl with a jug on her head, and as a girl lying on the ground.

Self-Portrait with a Pipe / Vincent van Gogh (1889)

Everyone knows the story of the cut off ear of the extravagant artist Vincent van Gogh. He even painted his self-portrait with a bandaged ear, which caused heated debate among art critics. It is still not known for certain whether he cut off his ear completely or injured it.

For a long time, experts were confused by the fact that in the painting Van Gogh is depicted with a bandage on his right ear, but he injured his left one. But the secret was revealed - the Dutch artist painted self-portraits while looking in the mirror, so there was confusion in the picture due to the mirror image.

Blue Room / Pablo Picasso (1901)

Now the names of these artists are known to everyone, but at the beginning of their careers they had to paint several paintings on one canvas - they could not afford to buy fabric. That is why many masterpieces have a so-called double bottom, for example, Pablo Picasso’s painting “The Blue Room”.

Using X-rays, it was possible to find out that a portrait of a man was drawn under the image. Art historians determine who this person was. According to one version, Picasso painted a self-portrait.

The Old Fisherman / Tivadar Kostka Chontvari (1902)

The Hungarian artist Tivadar Kostka Csontvary created many paintings during his life, but was little known. He suffered from bouts of schizophrenia, but still dreamed of Raphael's fame. Tivadar became famous after his death when the painting “The Old Fisherman” was deciphered, which has now become very popular. It was created in 1902 and is considered one of the most mysterious works artist.

At first glance, the canvas depicts an old man, as was believed for many years. Until one day it occurred to someone to look at mirror image two halves of the old man's face. Then it was revealed main secret this canvas - on it the master depicted God and the Devil, which exist in every person.

Portrait of Adele Bloch-Gower / Gustav Klimt (1907)

This painting is one of the most famous works of Gustav Klimt. In 2006 Golden Adele bought for a fabulous sum - $135 million. The beautiful woman depicted on it was actually painted for the sake of... revenge.

In 1904, the whole of Vienna, including her husband Ferdinand, was talking about the novel between Adele Bloch-Gower and Gustav Klimt. He came up with an unusual revenge and commissioned the artist to paint a portrait of his beloved wife. Ferdinand was very picky, and Klimt made more than 100 sketches. During this time, the artist became bored with his mistress, whose portrayal was so difficult, and their romance ended.

Black Square / Kazimir Malevich (1915)

One of the most famous and controversial Russian paintings is “Black Square” by Kazemir Malevich. Few understand the hidden meaning of this provocative painting. But perhaps it’s worth starting with the fact that the square is not square at all and not even black!

X-ray helped determine that under the “Black Square” there is another work by Malevich, on top of which he painted his masterpiece. For him, he prepared a special composition of matte and glossy paints, among which, by the way, there was no black shade. And, despite the fact that the sides of the so-called square are 79.5 cm long, the figure does not have a single right angle.

One way or another, the Mona Lisa remains one of the most mysterious paintings modernity. Perhaps we will never know what this or that artist wanted to tell us, or maybe even all the signs are just a coincidence...

Mystical secrets of paintings

Who would refuse to have their own portrait, and even painted by a famous artist? Meanwhile, this can turn out to be very risky. The idea of ​​an inextricable connection between the image and the original has long existed in the popular consciousness. Therefore, back in the 19th century in Russia, artists were faced with reluctance and fear on the part of ordinary people to paint their portraits. It was believed that if something happened to the portrait (it exploded or burned), then the person would also suffer: he would get sick or die.

Life Sucking

ABOUT mystical connection the man and his portrait have been known since ancient times.

One of God's first commandments to the Jews, transmitted through Moses, reads:
“You shall not make... any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth below, or that is in the water under the earth.”
The Jews observed this prohibition for centuries, making an exception only for animals.

Islam also prohibits painting portraits. There was a similar ban in a number of primitive cultures. People interested in painting have noticed a number of cases when those whom great artists of past centuries and in our time depicted on their canvases suddenly died. 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 children a lot. Three died in infancy. The fourth - Titus - lived only to be 27 years old. Second wife - Hendrik Stoffelds. A favorite model, depicted in many paintings by Rembrandt. She also died quickly.

Modigliani... The master's loudest paintings were inspired by his student Jeanne Hebutien. Three years later, she jumped out of the window and fell to her death.

About the same story happened with the great Flemish painter Rubens. His regular model was his first wife, the beautiful Isabella. He often wrote to his daughter. Isabella died before reaching thirty-five years of age; her daughter died at the age of twelve.

Rubens mourned his loved ones for a long time and only many years later, when he was already over fifty, he married the sixteen-year-old beauty Elena Fourmens, who also became his model.

Soon Elena... buried her husband. Modern experts claim that she had a very strong biofield that could protect her from being “pulled out.” vital energy for the canvas. The first wife was deprived of this quality 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.” This is 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 supposed legends admit that some kind of mystical mystery still exists.
Igor Vagin, Russia's leading specialist in thanatology (the science of death), believes that a portrait is a bioenergy-informational phantom of a person. Why do people tear up photos of their partners during divorces? Because they want to bring them misfortune. And 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 ill-wishers. To whom is all the envy, hatred, and black energy transferred? Of course, to portraits of loved ones, into which the masters put their love. And the more talented the portrait is made, the more vulnerable the original. Some of the spectators are simply jealous of the beauty of these women.

“The show is prohibited!”

Many of Serov's models died soon after posing sessions. The most mysterious was the death of the model depicted in the famous painting “Girl Illuminated by the Sun” (popularly called “Girl with Peaches”).

In just a month, she burned out from sudden onset consumption. only love Konstantina Somova, who posed for him for the painting “Lady in Blue.”

Vrubel painted a portrait of his little son, born with a cleft lip (from his last wife, the famous singer Zabela-Vrubel), and the painter depicted his offspring without even trying to hide the congenital deformity. After completing the portrait, the boy died. Soon, unable to survive the tragedy, Vrubel himself died.

Leonardo da Vinci's famous painting "La Gioconda" has gained notoriety. Delight and admiration for the creation of the great Florentine are mixed with mysteries and fear. We won’t dwell on the famous smile of Mona Lisa, but it’s worth talking about the strange (not to say terrible) effect of the image on the viewer. This amazing ability of the canvas to make impressionable people faint was noticed in the 19th century, when the Louvre opened to public visits.

The first such person from the public was the writer Stendhal. He unexpectedly stopped at the Mona Lisa and admired her for some time. It ended badly - famous writer He immediately fainted near the painting. To date, more than a hundred similar cases have been recorded.
Leonardo's genius? After all great artist I have never worked for so long on an ordinary portrait. It would seem like an ordinary custom item. But no, the artist will not be satisfied with his 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, and exhaustion. But the main thing is that he will not want to part with the La Gioconda, he will look at it for hours, and then, with a trembling hand, begin to make adjustments again.

Louvre workers, by the way, noted that long breaks in the museum’s work lead to the tarnishing of the Mona Lisa. It gets dark, but as soon as visitors fill the halls of the museum again, the Mona Lisa seems to come to life, appearing rich colors, the background is brightened, the smile is visible more clearly. A vampire and nothing more!

For many months I suffered over my painting “Ivan the Terrible Kills His Son Ivan...” and great Ilya Repin. At the early stage of painting the canvas, the artist admitted that he removed the canvas out of sight. Several models posed for Repin at different times. Sketches of the prince’s head have reached us, in which we can recognize the artist V.K. Menk and the famous prose writer Vsevolod Garshin, who, soon after posing, threw himself down a 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. The 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: “Don’t be scared, get ready, now you will see this terrible picture.”
In Moscow, the demonstration of the painting was initially prohibited by the emperor Alexander III. And only after some time the ban was lifted with reservations about the undesirability of showing the film 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 the day after finishing work on his portrait.
At least eight more of the artist’s models suffered premature death.

Apartment keeper

The question is, how can those people who still have a tendency to buy antiques for their home avoid paintings saturated with strong energy? Art critics and parapsychologists usually give the following recommendations. The buyer must remember that purchasing a painting for the home is a responsible step, since almost any painting 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, and paintings by marine painters. Also, paintings by French impressionists and expressionists are absolutely safe for mental health.

You should not order your own portraits. There is always a connection between the portrait and the original. And God forbid something happens to the picture: the connection will definitely appear in some way!
As for 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 flatter picture. After all, basically, a portrait magnetizes with the eyes, less often with the hands. This is the ultimate task of any artist.

Alexey P. is a young businessman from the capital. Recently he decided to rent an apartment for friendly parties.
“To begin with, I contacted one of the real estate agencies, but I was not satisfied with the price,” says Alexey.
- Without choosing anything, I left the “office” and noticed that some suspicious man was rubbing himself near the door. Dressed very unkemptly. Bum? He offered me an apartment to rent. His name was Dmitry. We talked - it turned out that the stranger was leaving for his homeland, because some unpleasant memories connected with the capital.
While we were driving “to the house,” 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. 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 must transfer the money for renting the apartment to his hometown myself. I promised and never saw the owner again...
Having changed the entire furnishings in the apartment, I left untouched only the picture in which some kind of forest with huge trees was painted. Moreover, I had a strange feeling as if someone was hiding behind the trees.
This coming weekend I had a housewarming party with friends. We drank and began to talk about business matters. And suddenly one of my friends screamed. We shuddered and became silent - then I clearly heard someone walking in the room where the picture hung! I went in there. The painting 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 there, I saw that a man with a face as pale as a sheet was lying near the open balcony door. And in the air, as it seemed to me, a silhouette was melting human figure... 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 trouble.
According to him, when he climbed into the room from the balcony, he felt that someone was looking at him intently. His gaze fell on the picture on the wall - from there, without blinking, a pair of red eyes looked at him with hatred! The "window man" fainted from fear.
After this incident, I decided that I had had enough of adventure and mysticism, and decided to move out of this apartment. I tried to find Dmitry to get some of my money back. A new discovery awaited me at REU. Yes, they confirmed there, Dmitry lived in this apartment and worked as a security guard in a warehouse. There the bandits killed him at night. His wife, having grieved, went with her sons to their mother in the city where I transferred the money. Haven't returned yet. The apartment is still in their name."
Psychic Nikolai Kon commented on this story as follows.
It turns out that there are special spirits - guardians of the house. They “live” in “security” things - talismans. Apparently, the wife of the deceased hung up such a talisman - a painting - so that it would guard the apartment in her absence. Or Dmitry himself from the other world appears through this talisman into the world of the living...

It has long been noted that some works of art are endowed magical power. This is usually due to the fact that the artist, when 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 is 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 of Fine Arts. He brings with him special L-shaped dowsing frames. “By holding them directed towards the picture, I receive information about it on a subconscious level, and then the impulse is transferred to the 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 in different directions - positive."
According to Babanov, not all paintings should be kept at home. It is best to hang light sketches, friendly cartoons, and light still lifes in the room. Although sometimes even innocent landscapes can disturb sleep and affect health.
“One of my friends,” says Babanov, “hung at his head a landscape with a church on the shore of a pond. 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 assumed that he could be awakened by the service that began in the painted church early in the morning."
The famous psychiatrist Professor A. Bukhanovsky is sure that paintings in themselves do not cause mental disorder. But they can simulate 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 for works of symbolism or cubism. According to Bukhanovsky, if a painting causes strange sensations, spoils the mood, frightens or even generates ghosts, one must get rid of it immediately.

The Royal Museum of Edinburgh houses an old portrait painted on wood of an elderly man with his arm outstretched. Sometimes some museum visitors think that the old man is barely moving his fingers. You can take this for an optical illusion or a game sun rays in the portrait.
However, museum officials claim that sunbeams nothing to do with it, and the fingers in the portrait actually move from time to time. Moreover, this gesture foreshadows the inevitable... death from fire!
A creepy legend invented in order to attract more visitors to the museum halls? Not at all. Once, Lord Seymour, while examining the exhibition at the Edinburgh Museum, noticed that the old man in the portrait moved his fingers.
Lord told the director of the museum about this, and he told him everything he knew about the atomic phenomenon. The lord grinned and, naturally, did not believe a single word. However, several months passed and Lord Seymour died tragically in a fire at his castle, Sittingham.
Another similar incident occurred in 1908. The captain of the ocean liner "Scott" R. Belfast was visiting his parents in Edinburgh. Before his long voyage, he decided to visit the museum and, stopping in front of a mystical painting, suddenly saw that the mysterious old man’s fingers were moving.

Knowing about the museum legend, one can guess 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 capable of causing depression. Although some patients may associate themselves with what is depicted in the painting - human or inanimate, the captain began to be wary of fire. However, you cannot escape fate. Belfast realized this six months later, when the Scott liner, located in the Indian Ocean 120 miles from Colombo, was engulfed in fire. The captain fought the fire along 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 was killing museum staff. According to the Hermitage workers, a long stay in close proximity 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 made even during the Soviet era, but at that time it was simply impossible to officially declare this.
Nevertheless, the caretakers of the hall in which the masterpiece was exhibited ancient artist, 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 was not directly responsible for bad feeling employees, but nevertheless spreads energy around itself that causes the human brain to vibrate at a high frequency, which, according to the expert, not every person can bear.
In this regard, it was suggested that the icon was painted by a powerful psychic and was originally intended for a select few with high extrasensory perception. Therefore, it is quite dangerous for ordinary people to constantly see it. Taking into account the specialist’s conclusion, the museum’s management decided to put the icon in storage and no longer put it on display.

The last portrait of a millionaire

Alfred Higgins was 47 years old when he ordered famous artist picture: he and his wife are standing on the deck of their favorite yacht. The picture turned out to be colorful, but soon after finishing work on it, Higgins died: he suffered a cerebral hemorrhage.
A week after this, his wife was hospitalized with an attack of acute psychosis, and she also died soon after.
As “knowledgeable people” stated after this tragedy, the Higgins couple 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 soon after posing.
Today Quinn does not give interviews or comment tragic fates their models. But he regularly calls wealthy people, whose faces often appear in gossip columns and on television screens, and offers to take their portrait. Mortally frightened millionaires, according to rumors, immediately pay the artist a tidy sum just so that he does not take up his brush...

Evil spirit of an executed criminal

Antique dealers always have a lot of paintings with deadly energy. One of them was once bought by London resident Dorothy Jenkins 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 had visible marks from the fire. Under the image there was a short caption - "Antoine".
The picture immediately brought problems to the house. At first, Dorothy herself felt the attacks of nervous breakdown. Being a smart person, she assumed that her illness was somehow connected with the portrait hanging in her room. To finally make sure of this, Dorothy invited her son Edward to hang the painting in his room for a couple of days. The result was immediate:
Edward, a calm, melancholic young man, at times began to feel that waves of uncontrollable anger were rolling over him.
Dorothy turned for advice to her friend, a researcher of occult phenomena, Philip Paul. He came to a meeting with the famous London medium Anne Quigt. Paul did not give her all the information regarding the problem under study, but simply asked her to "psychometrically" some objects in one of the areas of London.
Together with the parapsychologists, deputy editor of Parapsychology News Leslie Howard, three newspaper reporters and a photographer who was supposed to capture the entire research process came to Dorothy Jenkins's house.

To make the results of the experiment more objective, Paul led the medium directly to the strange portrait, saying, naturally disingenuously, that she would probably first like to examine completely “neutral” objects in this house. However, Anne Twigg immediately felt an unbearable horror next to the picture, fell into a trance and began to inarticulately talk about some confused events, among which were the sound of music, and a vision of blood, and a description of some damp, rat-filled prison cell , as well as a 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 painting 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 hanged in the city square.
However, her spirit did not calm down after death and settled forever in the portrait, negatively affecting the health of the owners of the painting. Naturally, Dorothy Jenkins wanted to get rid of the damned portrait right away.
However, Ann Twig dissuaded her from such a rash step. “The spirit may be offended,” said the medium, “and the consequences of this will be unpredictable. Therefore, the most neutral option would be to move the painting somewhere to the attic or closet and leave it there forever.” Dorothy did just that and since then neither her nor her son Edward evil spirit didn't bother me anymore.

The ghosts went wild.

Anyone who watched the fairy tale about 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 employees, similar cases occur in real life. So, in 1996, at the Prado Museum in Madrid, in front of stunned tourists from Japan, an infanta stepped off a Velazquez painting and... urinated on the floor! Then, naturally, she returned back to the picture. And at the Orsay Museum in Paris, Renoir's beauty shocked a group of schoolchildren and their guide for ten minutes, spreading her legs... It is noteworthy that in both cases, only those who were in close proximity to the paintings saw the ghosts' antics. The rest of the visitors did not notice anything special.

As many media have recently reported mass media, in one of the museums in New York, almost just before closing, when there were almost no people left in the hall, from the picture unknown artist In the 19th century, the ghost of a young man in a hunting suit came out and... strangled a visitor standing next to him. Museum caretakers arrived at the crime scene when the ghost had already returned to its place in the portrait...
Do you have any at home? antique paintings? Maybe you noticed something strange about them?
G. Fedotov "Interesting newspaper. Psi-factor" No. 1, 2 2008

Cursed painting - Munch E. “The Scream”

Dozens of people who in one way or another came into contact with the painting, 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 gave the painting a bad reputation, so that museum visitors looked at it with caution, remembering the terrible stories that were told about the masterpiece.

One day, a museum employee accidentally dropped a painting. After some time, he began to have terrible headaches. It must be said that before this incident he had no idea what a headache was. The migraine attacks became more and more frequent and severe, and it ended with the poor man committing suicide.

Another time, a museum worker dropped a painting while it was being hung from one wall to another. A week later, he was in a horrific 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 started at his house, in which the man burned to death.

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. Nine years later, Edward’s beloved sister Sophia died from a serious illness. Then brother Andreas died, and doctors diagnosed his younger sister with schizophrenia. In the early 90s, Munch suffered a severe nervous breakdown and underwent 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 heritage: 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 to be a coincidence, a fraud, an accident. There is a lot in the world that we do not yet understand.
It's your right to BELIEVE this story OR NOT.

The portrait by Vladimir Borovikovsky shows Maria Lopukhina, who died early from consumption.

They talked about the portrait of Maria Lopukhina by Vladimir Borovikovsky horror stories back in the time of Pushkin. It was written with the daughter of nobleman Ivan Tolstoy, mystic and master, who died early from consumption. Masonic lodge. There were rumors that if a young girl looked at the painting, she would soon give her soul to God. It was whispered in the salons that at least a dozen noble girls of marriageable age became victims of the devilish portrait. They say that the soul of the deceased Lopukhina lives there, and she takes souls.
After the painting was put on public display in the gallery, talk about the curse subsided somewhat. Although, according to tradition, the portrait is still considered “unlucky”.In 1880, the canvas was acquired by famous philanthropist Tretyakov. Pavel Tretyakov hung two beautiful works by the artist Borovikovsky in his gallery Vladimir Lukich(1757-1826) - portrait of a secular beauty Lopukhina and Prince Kurakin next to each other. The portraits were painted with one hand, which is why the collector placed them close, but it was not to be, in the morning the portrait of the unlucky Kurakin was found on the floor with the frame smashed to pieces. The prince’s obstinate beauty did not like the proximity of the prince. Tretyakov, without thinking twice, began studying the life history of the people whose images he acquired for his collection and discovered the interesting fact that even during their lifetime, the young beauty Lopukhina could not stand the aging prince who was after women .

Fine art has always been considered closely related to the mystical sphere. After all, any image is an energetic imprint of the original, especially when it comes to portraits. It is believed that they are able to influence not only those from whom they are written, but also other people. You don’t have to look far for examples: let’s turn to Russian paintings of the 19th century- beginning of the twentieth century.

Ilya Repin - a thunderstorm for sitters?

Portrait of the writer A.F. Pisemsky

It is unlikely that anyone will argue that Ilya Efimovich Repin is one of the greatest Russian painters. But there is one strange and tragic circumstance: many who had the honor of being his sitters soon died. Among them are Mussorgsky, Pisemsky, Pirogov, and the Italian actor Mercy d’Argenteau. As soon as the artist took up the portrait of Fyodor Tyutchev, he also died. Of course, in all cases there were objective reasons for death, but here are coincidences... Even the hefty men who posed for Repin for the canvas “Barge Haulers on the Volga” are said to have prematurely given their souls to God.

Ivan the Terrible did not kill his son!

The story that Ivan the Terrible is a son-killer is just a myth. It is believed that Ivan the Terrible killed his son in a fit of anger with a blow to the temple from his staff. Different researchers give different reasons: from a domestic quarrel to political friction. Meanwhile, none of the sources directly states that the prince and heir to the throne was killed by his own father! The “Piskarevsky Chronicler” says: “At 12 o’clock in the night of the summer of November 7090 on the 17th day... the death of Tsarevich John Ioannovich.” The Novgorod Fourth Chronicle reports: “In the same year (7090) Tsarevich John Ioannovich reposed at Matins in Sloboda.” The cause of death has not been announced. In the 60s of the last century, the graves of Ivan the Terrible and his son were opened. There were no damages characteristic of brain injury on the prince’s skull. Therefore, there was no filicide?! But where did the legend about him come from? Its author is the Jesuit monk Anthony Possevino (Antonio Possevino), sent to Moscow as an ambassador from the Pope with a proposal for the Orthodox Church to come under the authority of the Vatican. The idea did not meet with support from the Russian Tsar. Possevin, meanwhile, allegedly became an eyewitness to a family scandal. The Emperor was angry with his pregnant daughter-in-law, the wife of his son Ivan, for her “indecent appearance” - either she forgot to put on a belt, or she put on only one shirt, when she was supposed to wear four. In the heat of the moment, the father-in-law began to beat the unfortunate woman with a staff. The prince stood up for his wife: before this, his father had already sent his first two wives to the monastery, who could not conceive from him. John the Younger was not unreasonably afraid that he would lose the third one - her father would simply kill her. He rushed at the priest, and in a fit of violence he struck with his staff and pierced his son’s temple. However, besides Possevin, not a single source confirms this version, although later other historians - Staden and Karamzin - readily picked it up. Modern researchers suggest that the Jesuit came up with the legend in revenge for the fact that he had to return to papal court slurping unsalted. During exhumation, remains of poisons were found in the bone tissues of the prince. This may indicate that John the Younger died from poisoning (which was not uncommon for those times), and not from being hit by a hard object! Nevertheless, in Repin’s painting we see precisely the version of filicide. It is performed with such extraordinary verisimilitude that you can’t help but believe that this is exactly what happened in reality. Hence, of course, the “killer” energy. In 1963, the grave of Ivan the Terrible and his son, Tsarevich John, was opened in the Archangel Cathedral of the Kremlin. The examination did not find any damage to the prince’s skull. However, another curious fact emerged - mercury was discovered in the bones of the prince, Ivan the Terrible himself and subsequently his mother and first wife, Anastasia Romanova. A lot of mercury - an amount many times greater than the lethal dose. It turns out that the dynasty was systematically persecuted for a long time. Maybe Ivan the Terrible was not so formidable after all?

However, the most creepy story happened with the painting “Ivan the Terrible and his son Ivan November 16, 1581,” which in our time is better known as “Ivan the Terrible Kills His Son.” Even balanced people felt uneasy when looking at the canvas: the murder scene was painted too realistically, there was too much blood on the canvas that seemed real.
The painting exhibited in the Tretyakov Gallery made a strange impression on visitors. Some cried in front of the picture, others fell into a stupor, and others suffered hysterical fits. And the young icon painter Abram Balashov cut the canvas with a knife on January 16, 1913. He was sent to a mental hospital, where he died. The canvas was restored.
It is known that Repin thought for a long time before taking on the film about Ivan the Terrible. And for good reason. The artist Myasoedov, from whom the image of the Tsar was painted, soon in anger almost killed his young son, who was also called Ivan, like the murdered Tsarevich. The image of the latter was based on the writer Vsevolod Garshin, who subsequently went crazy and committed suicide by throwing himself into a flight of stairs... The writer Garshin, depicted by Repin in the image of Tsarevich Ivan in the film “Ivan the Terrible and His Son Ivan,” died clearly before his time: he committed suicide at the age of 33, throwing himself down from the upper landing of the staircase into the opening between the flights. The traumatic brain injury turned out to be fatal, but the most surprising thing was that Garshin broke his head in the very place that was indicated by the artist on the famous canvas two years before the writer’s suicide - Ivan the Terrible struck his son, who for Garshin became a symbol of his unfortunate fate, to the left temple. The artist either predicted or P the future fate of Garshin, who played main role in Repin's most heartbreaking film.
The mystical coincidence of dates completes the murderousness of the apparent coincidences: Garshin committed suicide on April 5, 1888 at the age of 33, exactly on the birthday of Ivan Ioannovich, the son of Ivan the Terrible, born on April 5, 1554. The spirit of the murdered prince, resurrected on Repin’s canvas, called upon the writer’s soul , who dared to become a sitter for the artist, who unwittingly committed an act of involting (magically killing the person depicted).

Ministers' nightmare

Once Repin was commissioned to create a huge monumental painting, “The Ceremonial Meeting of the State Council.”
The painting was completed by the end of 1903. And in 1905, the first Russian revolution broke out, during which the heads of the officials depicted on the canvas fell. Some lost their posts and titles, others even paid with their lives: Minister V.K. Plehve and Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, former governor-general of Moscow, was killed by terrorists.
In 1909, the artist commissioned the Saratov City Duma to paint a portrait of Prime Minister Stolypin.
He had barely finished his work when Stolypin was shot dead in Kyiv.
Who knows - maybe if Ilya Repin had not been so talented, the tragedies might not have happened. Back in the 15th century, the scientist, philosopher, alchemist and magician Cornelius Agrippa of Nettesheim wrote: “Beware of the painter’s brush - his portrait may turn out to be more alive than the original.”

The disastrous "Stranger"

“The Stranger” by Ivan Kramskoy brought misfortune to its owners

“Stranger” by Ivan Kramskoy (original title “Unknown”) is one of the most mysterious masterpieces of Russian painting. At first glance, there is nothing mystical in the portrait: the beauty is riding along Nevsky Prospect in an open carriage.
Many considered Kramskoy’s heroine an aristocrat, but a fashionable velvet coat trimmed with fur and blue satin ribbons and a stylish beret hat, coupled with penciled eyebrows, lipstick on her lips and blush on her cheeks, mark her out as a lady of the then demi-monde. Not a prostitute, but clearly the kept woman of some noble or rich man. However, when the artist was asked whether this woman existed in reality, he just grinned and shrugged. In any case, no one has ever seen the original.
Meanwhile, Pavel Tretyakov refused to purchase a portrait for his gallery - perhaps he was afraid of the belief that portraits of beauties “suck the strength” out of living people. The “Stranger” began traveling to private meetings. And very soon she gained notoriety. Its first owner's wife left him, the second's house burned down, and the third went bankrupt. All these misfortunes were attributed to the fatal picture.
Kramskoy himself did not escape the curse. Less than a year after the creation of “Unknown,” his two sons died one after another.
The “damned” picture went abroad. They say that there she caused all kinds of trouble to her owners. In 1925, “The Stranger” returned to Russia and nevertheless took its place in the Tretyakov Gallery. Since then, no further incidents have occurred.
Maybe the whole point is that the portrait should have taken its rightful place from the very beginning?

Karl Pavlovich Bryullov. “Horsewoman”

The history of painting tells the story of the fate of the niece of the brilliant Italian composer N. Paccini, whose portrait was painted by the wonderful artist in 1832 Karl Pavlovich Bryullov(1799-1852). In the picture " Rider"depicts a young Giovannina Paccini gracefully prancing on a thin-legged horse. In Rome they said that young Giovannina was lucky, because after the death of her uncle she was taken in by the rich Russian Countess Yulia Samoilova, but the happiness did not last long - the girl was trampled to death by a horse.

“Unequal marriage”, Vasily Pukirev

Pukirev wrote “Unequal Marriage” in 1862, when he turned exactly 30 years old. The film was received differently. Some said that “a very good frame, no one has anything like it.” Others called it “a tragic picture of the Russian school.” However, not a single gallery wanted to get this work, so Pukirev was glad that the artist A. Borisovsky acquired the canvas in a friendly manner. And only 10 years later “Unequal Marriage” was bought by Tretyakov. I paid 1,500 rubles in silver, hung it up for everyone to see - and something strange began to happen.

Looking pitifully at the canvas, Muscovites told each other that the author depicted his own grief in the painting - his beloved girl was forcibly married to a rich dignitary. What could the poor artist do?! Just picture yourself next to your beloved. Do you see a young black-bearded man with a burning gaze standing with his arms crossed in the right corner of the picture? This is him...

And these rumors were true! That’s why the picture is so poignant. Apparently, while working on it, the artist, as best he could, took revenge on the damned rich man - he aged him to the point of impossibility. And what’s amazing is that he soon died. But this did not help either - the beloved did not return to the painter, but went to the monastery. The artist began to have a fever; he claimed that his own painting was haunting him. One after another he made copies of it, one of which he signed with charcoal directly on his image. Pukirev slowly became an alcoholic, lived on handouts from friends, and died in poverty and obscurity on June 1, 1890...

Muscovites told each other that Pukirev’s painting itself had a mystical influence. Old men preparing to marry young people are completely unable to stand in front of them - one’s head begins to turn white, another’s heart begins to turn white, and some even lose consciousness. No wonder viewers nicknamed the picture “Koshchey with the Bride.” By the way, famous writer-historian N. Kostomarov confessed to his friends that, having seen Pukirev’s painting, he abandoned his intention to marry a young girl.

And with the girls of marriageable age who looked at the picture, something strange began to happen. Either the wedding will go wrong, or the marriage will be unhappy. Well, when one student who was getting ready to marry, leaving the gallery, threw herself under the wheels of a passing horse-drawn horse, a belief was firmly established among Moscow brides - you should not look at Pukirev’s painting before the wedding!

"Demon Defeated"

One of the brightest and most extraordinary geniuses of Russian painting, Mikhail Vrubel, has works that are also associated with the personal tragedies of the artist himself. “The defeated demon” had a detrimental effect on the psyche and health of Vrubel himself. The artist could not tear himself away from the painting, he continued add to the face of the defeated Spirit, and also change the coloring. “The Defeated Demon” was already hanging at the exhibition, and Vrubel kept coming into the hall, not paying attention to the visitors, sat down in front of the painting and continued to work, as if possessed. Those close to him became concerned about his condition, and he was examined by the famous Russian psychiatrist Bekhterev. The diagnosis was terrible - tabes spinal cord, near madness and death. Vrubel was admitted to the hospital, but the treatment did not help, and he soon died.

"Mermaids", Ivan Kramskoy tyts

Ivan Nikolaevich Kramskoy is traditionally considered the head of Russian realistic painting, the leader of the Wanderers. But an amazing thing - among hundreds realistic works, created by Kramskoy, the most famous and attractive paintings remained mystical and mysterious. True, Kramskoy did not think about mysticism. Their "Mermaids" he conceived it as a canvas “based on folk motifs”, taken from “ May night» Gogol. But it turned out a little strange - heavy moonlight, a witchcraft lake, ghostly mermaids coming out onto the night shore... The organizers of the first exhibition of the Association of Itinerants (1871) hung this picture next to the touching landscape of Savrasov "The Rooks Have Arrived". And the unprecedented happened - the night mermaids did not like the daytime birds - on the very first night the landscape fell from the wall.

“The rooks have arrived”, Alexey Savrasov tyts

Tretyakov bought both paintings. He decorated his office with “Rooks”, but he couldn’t find a place for “Mermaids” - he hung them from room to room. He had encountered capricious creatures before. If one of the paintings didn’t like the “neighbor”, the paintings began to “fight” - the paint would burst, the frame would crack, or even one of the paintings would collapse to the floor. But the “Rusalkas” behaved the worst of all - from the hall where Tretyakov installed them, quiet mournful singing was heard at night. The cleaners refused to work there, and Tretyakov’s children were afraid to even walk by. Tretyakov himself began to notice that, as soon as he stayed near the “Mermaids” longer, he felt terrible fatigue. Then visitors began to say that viewing the scene from “May Night” was difficult. And then a rumor spread throughout Moscow that some young lady, having seen enough of Kramskoy’s painting, drowned herself in the Yauza. It’s good that the old nanny who lived in the Tretyakov family advised: “Hang it in the farthest corner so that the light doesn’t fall on it. It is difficult for mermaids in sunlight, which is why they cannot calm down even at night. And as soon as they fall into the shadows, they will immediately stop chattering!” And so they did. Since then, if the river maidens are on the canvas and sing their mermaid songs, this does not bother visitors.

"Rain Woman"

Now it hangs modestly without a frame in one of the Vinnitsa stores. “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 dream about her. And someone even says that they know this lady, but they don’t 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.

Where did it come from? unusual picture, said its author, Vinnytsia artist Svetlana Telets. “In 1996, I graduated from Odessa Art University. Grekova,” recalls Svetlana. “And six months before the birth of “Woman,” it always seemed to me that someone was constantly watching me. I drove such thoughts away from myself, and then one day, by the way, not at all rainy, I sat in front of a blank canvas and thought about what to draw. And suddenly I clearly saw the contours of a woman, her face, colors, shades. In an instant I noticed all the details of the image. I wrote the main thing quickly - I finished it in about five hours. It seemed as if someone was guiding my hand. And then I finished painting for another month.”
Arriving in Vinnitsa, Svetlana exhibited the painting in a local art salon. Art connoisseurs came up to her every now and then and shared the same thoughts that she herself had during her work.
“It was interesting to observe,” says the artist, “how subtly a thing can materialize a thought and inspire it in other people.”
A few years ago the first customer appeared. A lonely businesswoman walked around the halls for a long time, looking closely. Having bought “Woman”, I hung it in my bedroom.
Two weeks later, a night call rang in Svetlana’s apartment: “Please pick her up. I can not sleep. It seems that there is someone in the apartment besides me. I even took it off the wall and hid it behind the closet, but I still can’t do it.”
Then a second buyer appeared. Then a young man bought the painting. And I also couldn’t stand it for long. He brought it to the artist himself. And he didn’t even take the money back.
“I dream about her,” he complained. - Every night he appears and walks around me like a shadow. I'm starting to go crazy. I'm afraid of this picture!
The third buyer, having learned about the notoriety of the “Woman,” simply waved it off. He even said that he thought the sinister lady’s face was cute. And she will probably get along with him.
Didn't get along.
“At first I didn’t notice how white her eyes were,” he recalled. - And then they started appearing everywhere. Headaches began, causeless worries. Do I need it?!
So “Rain Woman” returned to the artist again. Rumor spread throughout the city that this painting was cursed. It can drive you crazy in one night. The artist herself is no longer happy that she painted such horror. However, Sveta does not lose optimism yet:
- Each painting is born for a specific person. I believe that there will be someone for whom “Woman” was written. Someone is looking for her - just like she is looking for him.

Anna Akhmatova once said: “When a person dies, his portraits change.” A picturesque portrait or painting is a powerful energy structure. The painter not only paints a canvas on a particular subject - he conveys his feelings, thoughts, worldview, and most importantly - the mood, which forms the energy of the artistic canvas. It is also called "catharsis". If the plot of the picture is overtly aggressive, then this causes aggression in the viewer. It should be noted that paintings and portraits carry different energy. Sometimes the artist, without realizing it, “loads” the viewer of his paintings with the catharsis from which he himself is freed in the process of creating the canvas.

Russian scientists, studying the “phantom” images of paintings, came to the conclusion that Aivazovsky’s “The Ninth Wave” and a number of others also have a powerful negative aura famous paintings. And while studying the energy of Kazimir Malevich’s “Black Square,” one of the scientists... lost consciousness. "It's one big blob dark force and energy. It’s as if they were painting a picture in the underworld,” the scientist admitted when he was hardly brought to his senses. Malevich’s painting “Black Square” was talked about before and is being talked about today. And not only in order to raise the price. Until now, no one knows what This square means, and what Malevich wanted to express with it. “Black Square” is a “black hole” in painting, sucking in positive energy and throwing out negative energy, which has a strong effect on the viewer’s psyche.

Black suprematist square, 1915

In almost every significant work art has a mystery, a “double bottom” or a secret story that you want to reveal.

Music on the buttocks

Hieronymus Bosch, "The Garden of Earthly Delights", 1500-1510.

Fragment of part of a triptych

Disputes about meanings and hidden meanings The most famous work of the Dutch artist has not subsided since its appearance. The right wing of the triptych called “Musical Hell” depicts sinners who are tortured in the underworld with the help of musical instruments. One of them has music notes stamped on his buttocks. Oklahoma Christian University student Amelia Hamrick, who studied the painting, translated the 16th-century notation into a modern twist and recorded “a 500-year-old butt song from hell.”

Nude Mona Lisa

The famous "La Gioconda" exists in two versions: the nude version is called "Monna Vanna", it was written by little-known artist Salai, who was a student and model of the great Leonardo da Vinci. Many art historians 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 up as women's dress Salai served as the image of the Mona Lisa herself.

Old Fisherman

In 1902, the Hungarian artist Tivadar Kostka Csontvary painted the painting “The Old Fisherman”. It would seem that there is nothing unusual in the picture, but Tivadar put into it a subtext that was never revealed during the artist’s lifetime.

Few people thought of placing a mirror in the middle of the picture. In each person there can be both God (the Old Man's right shoulder is duplicated) and the Devil (the Old Man's left shoulder is duplicated).

Was there a whale?

Hendrik van Antonissen, Shore Scene.

It would seem like an ordinary landscape. Boats, people on the shore and a deserted sea. And only an X-ray study showed that people gathered on the shore for a reason - in the original they were looking at the carcass of a whale washed ashore.

However, the artist decided that no one would want to look at a dead whale, and rewrote the painting.

Two "Breakfasts on the Grass"

Edouard Manet, "Luncheon on the Grass", 1863.

Claude Monet, "Luncheon on the Grass", 1865.

The 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. Monet even borrowed the title of one of Manet’s most famous paintings, “Luncheon on the Grass,” and wrote his own “Luncheon on the Grass.”

Doubles at the Last Supper

Leonardo da Vinci, "The Last Supper", 1495-1498.

When Leonardo da Vinci wrote " last supper", he attached special meaning two figures: Christ and Judas. He spent a very long time looking for models for them. Finally, he managed to find a model for the image of Christ among the young singers. Leonardo was unable to find a model for Judas for three years. But one day he came across a drunkard on the street who was lying in a gutter. He was a young man who had been aged by heavy drinking. Leonardo invited him to a tavern, where he immediately began to paint Judas from him. When the drunkard came to his senses, he told the artist that he had already posed for him once. It was several years ago, when he sang in the church choir, Leonardo painted 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 Ruytenburg,” hung in different rooms for about two hundred years and was discovered by art historians only in the 19th century. Since the figures seemed to appear against a dark background, it was called “Night Watch,” and under this name it entered the treasury of world art.

And only during the restoration carried out in 1947, it was discovered that in the hall the painting had managed to become covered with a layer of soot, which distorted its color. After clearing the original painting, it was finally revealed that the scene represented by Rembrandt actually takes place during the day. The position of the shadow from Captain Kok's left hand shows that the duration of action is no more than 14 hours.

Overturned boat

Henri Matisse, "The Boat", 1937.

Henri Matisse's painting "The Boat" was exhibited at the New York Museum of Modern Art in 1961. 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 on the surface of the water.
In order not to make a mistake in how the picture should hang, you need to pay attention to the details. The larger sail should be the top of the painting, and the peak of the painting's sail should be toward the top right corner.

Deception in 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 damaged his ear in a small brawl involving another artist, Paul Gauguin.

The self-portrait is interesting because it reflects reality in a distorted form: the artist is depicted with his right ear bandaged because he used a mirror when working. In fact, it was the left ear that was affected.

Alien bears

Ivan Shishkin, "Morning in Pine forest", 1889.

The famous painting belongs not only to Shishkin. Many artists who were friends with each other often resorted to “the help of a friend,” and Ivan Ivanovich, who painted landscapes all his life, was afraid that his touching bears would not turn out the way he wanted. Therefore, Shishkin turned to his friend, the animal artist 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 “from the concept to the execution, everything speaks of the manner of painting, of the creative method peculiar to Shishkin.”

The innocent story of "Gothic"

Grant Wood, " American Gothic", 1930.

Grant Wood's work is considered one of the most strange and depressing in the history of American painting. The picture with the gloomy father and daughter is filled with details that indicate the severity, puritanism and retrograde nature 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 ideal as inhabitants. Grant's sister and his dentist are immortalized as the characters Iowans were so offended by.

Salvador Dali's Revenge

The painting "Figure at a Window" was painted in 1925, when Dali was 21 years old. At that time, Gala had not yet entered the artist’s life, and his muse was his sister Ana Maria. The relationship between brother and sister deteriorated when he wrote in one of the paintings “sometimes I spit on the portrait of my own mother, and this gives me pleasure.” Ana Maria could not forgive such shocking behavior.

In her 1949 book, Salvador Dali Through the Eyes of a Sister, she writes about her brother without any praise. The book infuriated Salvador. For another ten years after that, he angrily remembered her at every opportunity. And so, in 1954, the painting “A Young Virgin Indulging in the Sin of Sodomy with the Help of the Horns of Her Own Chastity” appeared. The woman’s pose, her curls, the landscape outside the window and the color scheme of the painting clearly echo “Figure at the Window.” There is a version that Dali took revenge on his sister for her book.

Two-faced Danae

Rembrandt Harmens 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 survey showed that in early version the face of the princess who entered into love affair with Zeus, it was similar to the face of Saskia, the painter’s wife, who died in 1642. In the final version of the painting, it began to resemble the face of Gertje 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 escaped from those who did not understand him Parisian artists and critics. 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 and comfort of the room were very important: everything had to evoke thoughts of relaxation. At the same time, the picture is designed in alarming yellow tones.

Researchers of Van Gogh's work 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: the entire surrounding reality is painted in green and yellow tones.

Toothless perfection

Leonardo da Vinci, "Portrait of Lady Lisa del Giocondo", 1503 - 1519.

The generally accepted opinion is that the Mona Lisa is perfection and her smile is beautiful in its mystery. However, American art critic (and part-time dentist) Joseph Borkowski believes that, judging by her facial expression, the heroine has lost many teeth. While studying enlarged photographs of the masterpiece, Borkowski also discovered scars around her mouth. “She “smiles” like that 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 the audience of that time. For example, the major is clearly not familiar with the rules of noble etiquette: he showed up without the required bouquets for the bride and her mother. And her merchant parents dressed the bride herself in an evening ball gown, although it was daytime (all the lamps in the room were 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 is Liberty naked?

Ferdinand Victor Eugene Delacroix, "Freedom on the Barricades", 1830.

According to art critic Etienne Julie, Delacroix based the woman's face on the famous Parisian revolutionary - the laundress Anne-Charlotte, who went to the barricades after the death of her brother at the hands of royal soldiers and killed nine guardsmen. The artist depicted her with her breasts bare. According to his plan, this is a symbol of fearlessness and selflessness, as well as the triumph of democracy: the naked breast shows that Liberty, as a commoner, does not wear a corset.

Non-square square

Kazimir Malevich, "Black Suprematist Square", 1915.

In fact, “Black Square” is not black at all and not square at all: none of the sides of the quadrangle are parallel to any of its other sides, and to none of the sides of the square frame that frames the picture. And the dark color is the result of mixing various colors, among which there was no black one. It is believed that this was not the author’s negligence, but a principled position, the desire to create a dynamic, moving form.

Specialists Tretyakov Gallery discovered the author's inscription on famous painting Malevich. The inscription reads: “The battle of the blacks in the dark cave.” This phrase refers to the title of the humorous painting by the French journalist, writer and artist Alphonse Allais, “The Battle of Negroes in a Dark Cave in the Dead of 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 Ferdinad Bloch-Bauer. All of Vienna was discussing the stormy romance of Adele and famous artist. The wounded husband wanted to take revenge on his lovers, but chose very unusual way: he decided to order a portrait of Adele from Klimt and force him to make hundreds of sketches until the artist began to vomit from her.

Bloch-Bauer wanted the work to last several years, so that the sitter could see how Klimt's feelings were fading. 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 since cooled off to each other. Adele Bloch-Bauer never knew 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.

Gauguin's most famous painting has one peculiarity: it is “read” not from left to right, but from right to left, like the Kabbalistic texts in which the artist was interested. It is in this order that the allegory of human spiritual and physical life unfolds: 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 escaped 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 swayed to his hut and fell asleep, and when he woke up, he felt a forgotten thirst for life. And in 1898, his business began to improve, and a brighter period began in his work.

112 proverbs in one picture

Pieter Bruegel the Elder, "Dutch Proverbs", 1559

Pieter Bruegel the Elder depicted a land inhabited by literal images of Dutch proverbs of those days. The painting contains approximately 112 recognizable idioms. Some of them are still used today, for example, such as: “swim against the current”, “banging your head against the wall”, “armed to the teeth” and “big fish eat little fish”.

Other proverbs reflect human stupidity.

Subjectivity of art

Paul Gauguin, "Breton Village in the Snow", 1894

Gauguin's painting "Breton Village in the Snow" was sold after the author's death for only seven francs and, moreover, under the name "Niagara Falls." The man holding the auction accidentally hung the painting upside down because he saw a waterfall in it.

Hidden picture

Pablo Picasso, "Blue Room", 1901

In 2008, infrared radiation revealed that hidden beneath the Blue Room was another image - a portrait of a man dressed in a suit with a bow tie and resting his head on his hand. “As soon as Picasso had a new idea, he took up his brush and brought it to life. But he did not have the opportunity to buy a new canvas every time a muse visited him,” art historian Patricia Favero explains a possible reason for this.

Unavailable Moroccans

Zinaida Serebryakova, “Naked”, 1928

One day Zinaida Serebryakova received a tempting offer - to go on a creative journey to depict nude figures eastern maidens. But it turned out that it was simply impossible to find models in those places. Zinaida's translator came to the rescue - he brought his sisters and fiancee to her. No one before or after has been able to capture naked oriental women who are closed.

Spontaneous insight

Valentin Serov, “Portrait of Nicholas II in a jacket,” 1900

For a long time, Serov could not paint a portrait of the Tsar. When the artist completely gave up, he apologized to Nikolai. Nikolai was a little upset, sat down at the table, stretching out his arms in front of him... And then it dawned on the artist - here is the image! A simple military man in an officer's jacket with clear and sad eyes. This portrait is considered the best depiction of the last emperor.

Another deuce

© Fedor Reshetnikov

The famous painting “Deuce Again” is only the second part of an artistic trilogy.

The first part is “Arrived on vacation.” Obviously a wealthy family, winter holidays, a joyful excellent student.

The second part is “A deuce again.” A poor family from the working-class outskirts, the height of school year, the dejected stunner, who again grabbed the deuce. In the upper left corner you can see the painting “Arrived for Vacation”.

The third part is “Re-examination”. A rural house, summer, everyone is walking, one malicious ignoramus, who failed the annual exam, is forced to sit within four walls and cram. In the upper left corner you can see the painting “Deuce Again”.

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 opposite her stood up, opened the window, stuck his head out and stared for about ten minutes. Unable to contain her curiosity, the woman also opened the window and began to look 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 same 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 the right side of the painting depicts a huge brain. Surprisingly, even complex components can be found, such as the cerebellum, optic nerves and pituitary gland. And the eye-catching 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 painting “Cafe Terrace at Night” contains an encrypted dedication to Leonardo da Vinci’s “Last Supper.” In the center of the picture stands a waiter with long hair and in a white tunic reminiscent of the clothes of Christ, and around him there are exactly 12 cafe visitors. Baxter also draws attention to the cross located directly behind 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 canvas. Thus, according to the author himself, the painting “The Persistence of Memory” was painted as a result of associations that arose from the sight of processed cheese.

What is Munch screaming 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 a 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 blood and flames over the bluish-black fjord and the city - my friends moved on, and I stood trembling with excitement, feeling the endless scream piercing nature." But what kind of sunset could frighten the artist so much?

There is a version that the idea of ​​​​"The Scream" was born to Munch in 1883, when several powerful eruptions of the Krakatoa volcano occurred - so powerful that they changed the temperature of the Earth's atmosphere by one degree. Copious amounts of dust and ash spread throughout to 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.

A 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 painting. 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, you can see a character in a robe tunic. Ivanov wrote it from Nikolai Gogol. The writer communicated closely with the artist in Italy, in particular on religious issues, and gave him advice during the painting process. Gogol believed that Ivanov “has long since died for the whole world, except for his work.”

Michelangelo's Gout

Raphael Santi, "The School of Athens", 1511.

Creating the famous fresco "The School of Athens", Raphael immortalized his friends and acquaintances in the images of ancient Greek philosophers. One of them was Michelangelo Buonarotti “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 had 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 Arnolfini couple

Jan van Eyck, "Portrait of the Arnolfini couple", 1434

In the mirror behind the Arnolfini couple 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 contracts were usually sealed.

How a disadvantage turned into a talent

Rembrandt Harmens van Rijn, Self-Portrait at the Age of 63, 1669.

Researcher Margaret Livingston studied all of Rembrandt's self-portraits and discovered 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 illness resulted in the artist being able to perceive reality in two dimensions better 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, this very flaw of Rembrandt could be one of the explanations for his phenomenal talent.

Sinless Venus

Sandro Botticelli, "Birth of Venus", 1482-1486.

Before the appearance of the "Birth of Venus" the image of a naked female body in painting it symbolized only the idea of ​​original sin. Sandro Botticelli was the first of the European painters to find nothing sinful in him. Moreover, art historians are sure that the pagan goddess of love symbolizes on the fresco Christian image: her appearance is an allegory of the rebirth of a soul that has undergone 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 “The Lute Player”. Only at the beginning of the 20th century did art historians agree that the painting depicts a young man (probably Caravaggio’s acquaintance, the artist Mario Minniti, posed for him): on the notes in front of the musician one can see a recording of the bass line of Jacob Arkadelt’s madrigal “You know that I love you” . A woman could hardly make such a choice - it’s just hard on the throat. In addition, the lute, like the violin at the very edge of the picture, was considered a male instrument in Caravaggio’s era.

1. "Crying Boy"- painting by Spanish artist Giovanni Bragolin. There is a legend that the boy’s father (who is also the author of the portrait), trying to achieve brightness, vitality and naturalness of the canvas, lit matches in front of the baby’s face. The fact is that the boy was deathly afraid of fire. The boy was crying - his father was drawing. One day the kid couldn’t stand it and shouted at his father: “Burn yourself!” A month later, the child died of pneumonia. And a couple of weeks later, the artist’s charred body was found in his own house next to a painting of a crying boy that had survived the fire. It all could have ended there, but in 1985, from the stripes British newspapers There were persistent statements that in almost every burnt room firefighters found reproductions of “The Crying Boy,” which were not even touched by the fire. 2. "The hands resist him"- painting by American artist Bill Stoneham. The author says that the painting 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 guide the boy through this world. The hands represent alternative lives or possibilities. The painting became a famous urban legend in February 2000 when it was put up for sale on eBay with a backstory saying that the painting was "haunted." According to legend, after the death of the first owner of the painting, the painting was discovered in a landfill among a pile of garbage. The family that found her brought her home, and already on the first night the little four-year-old daughter ran into her parents’ bedroom shouting that “the children in the picture are fighting.” The next night - that “the children in the picture were outside the door.” The next night, the head of the family installed a motion-sensitive video camera in the room where the painting hung. The video camera worked several times, but nothing was captured. 3. "Rain Woman"- painting by Vinnytsia artist Svetlana Telets. Even six months before the painting was created, she began to have visions. For a long time, Svetlana thought that someone was watching her. Sometimes she even heard strange sounds in her apartment. But I tried to push these thoughts away. And after some time an idea appeared for new painting. The image of the mysterious woman was born suddenly, but Svetlana felt as if she had known her for a long time. Facial features as if woven from fog, clothes, ghostly lines of a figure - the artist painted a woman without thinking for a minute. It was as if her hand was being guided by an invisible force. Rumor spread throughout the city that this painting was cursed after the third buyer returned the painting a few days later without even taking the money. Everyone who had this picture said that at night it seemed to come to life and walk like a shadow nearby. People began to have headaches and, even after hiding the painting in a closet, the sensation of presence did not go away. 4. During Pushkin’s time, the portrait of Maria Lopukhina, painted by Vladimir Borovikovsky, was one of the main “horror stories”. The girl lived a short and unhappy life, and after painting the portrait she died of consumption. Her father, Ivan Tolstoy, was a famous mystic and master of the Masonic lodge. That is why rumors spread that he managed to lure the spirit of his deceased daughter into this portrait. And that if young girls look at the picture, they will soon die. According to the salon gossips, the portrait of Maria destroyed at least ten noblewomen of marriageable age... 5. "Water lilies"- landscape by impressionist Claude Monet. When the artist and his friends were celebrating the completion of the painting, a small fire broke out in the workshop. The flame was quickly doused with wine and they did not attach any importance to it. The painting hung in a cabaret in Montmartre for just a month. And then one night the place burned down. But “Lilies” managed to be saved. The painting was bought by Parisian philanthropist Oscar Schmitz. A year later his house burned down. The fire started in the office, where the ill-fated painting hung. It miraculously survived. Another victim of Monet's landscape was the New York Museum of Modern Art. “Water Lilies” were transported here in 1958. Four months later, there was a fire here too. And the damned picture was heavily charred.
6. In a painting by Edvard Munch "Scream" a hairless suffering creature is depicted with a head resembling an inverted pear, with her palms pressed to her ears in horror and her mouth open in a silent scream. The convulsive waves of this creature’s torment, like an echo, disperse in the air around its head. This man (or woman) seems trapped in his own scream and has covered his ears in order not to hear it. It would be strange if there were no legends around this picture. They say that everyone who came into contact with her suffered from an evil fate. A museum employee who accidentally dropped a painting began to suffer from severe headaches and eventually committed suicide. Another employee, who apparently also had crooked hands, dropped the painting and had an accident the next day. Someone even burned a day after coming into contact with the painting. 7. Another canvas that constantly accompanies trouble is "Venus with a Mirror" Diego Velazquez. The first owner of the painting - a Spanish merchant - went bankrupt, his trade worsened every day, until most of His goods were not captured by pirates at sea, and several more ships sank. Selling everything he had by auction, the merchant also sold the painting. It was acquired by another Spaniard, also a merchant who owned rich warehouses in the port. Almost immediately after the money for the canvas was transferred, the merchant’s warehouses caught fire from a sudden lightning strike. The owner was ruined. And again the auction, and again the painting is sold along with other things, and again a wealthy Spaniard buys it... Three days later he was stabbed to death in own home during a robbery. After that, the painting could not find its new owner for a long time (its reputation was too damaged), and the canvas traveled around different museums, until in 1914 a madwoman cut her up with a knife.
8. "Demon Defeated" Mikhail Vrubel had a detrimental effect on the psyche and health of the artist himself. He could not tear himself away from the picture, he continued to add to the face of the defeated Spirit and change the color. “The Defeated Demon” was already hanging at the exhibition, and Vrubel kept coming into the hall, not paying attention to the visitors, sat down in front of the painting and continued to work, as if possessed. Those close to him became concerned about his condition, and he was examined by the famous Russian psychiatrist Bekhterev. The diagnosis was terrible - tabes spinal cord, near madness and death. Vrubel was admitted to the hospital, but the treatment did not help, and he soon died.