Mysteries of old paintings. Secrets of famous paintings. Doubles at the Last Supper

There are many masterpieces of fine art known throughout the world. But not everyone knows that some of them keep secrets that were discovered after the death of the creators of the works. Although there are secrets that were learned about during the artists’ lifetime, which makes the paintings even more mysterious and attractive.

1. Hieronymus Bosch, “The Garden of Earthly Delights,” 1500-1510.

2. Since the appearance of this masterpiece by the Dutch artist, debates have flared up more than once about the hidden meanings in it. Of particular interest has always been the sinner depicted on the right wing of the triptych, who has music notes imprinted on his buttocks. One of the students at Oklahoma Christian University named Amelia Hamrick decided to translate the 16th-century notation into a modern twist, and the “500-year-old ass song from hell” that appeared on the Internet became a real sensation.

3. "Mona Lisa"
Few people know that there are two versions of the well-known painting. One of them is called “Monna Vanna”, and its author is the student and model of Leonardo da Vinci, the little-known artist Salai. Art historians are confident that it was this young artist who served as the model for the great Leonardo when painting such paintings as “John the Baptist” and “Bacchus.” Some even suspect that it was Szalai who posed while painting the Mona Lisa, dressed in a woman’s dress.

4. "Old Fisherman"

5. This seemingly unremarkable painting was painted by the Hungarian artist Tivadar Kostka Csontvary in 1902. But the subtext embedded in the picture was revealed only after the death of the author. If you place a mirror in the middle of the picture, you can see God on one side and the Devil on the other. So the artist tried to reflect the dual essence of each of us.

6. "The Last Supper"
When painting his painting, Leonardo da Vinci paid special attention to the figures of Christ and Judas. One of the young singers was chosen as the model for the image of Christ, but the artist spent three whole years searching for a model for Judas. One day on the street Leonardo came across a drunkard whom he liked so much that he decided to paint Judas from him. Imagine the artist’s surprise when the drunkard, who came to his senses, said that he had already posed for the master several years ago and it was from him that Leonardo painted Christ.

7. "American Gothic"
Many people find Grant Wood's work strange and depressing, although there is absolutely no subtext to it. The artist made this painting during a trip to Iowa when he saw a small Gothic-style house. Grant's sister and his dentist posed as characters in front of the house.

8. "Night Watch"
This painting by Rembrandt, “The Performance of the Rifle Company of Captain Frans Banning Cock and Lieutenant Willem van Ruytenburg,” was discovered by art historians only in the 19th century. This work was included in the treasury of world art under the name “Night Watch”, which it received due to the dark background against which the figures appear. In 1947, the painting was restored, and it was then that the layer of soot with which it was covered was discovered. Having cleared the original, it was revealed that the artist meant a daytime scene, judging by the position of the shadow from the left hand of the central figure at approximately 14 o'clock.

9. "Boat"
In 1961, Henri Matisse's painting "The Boat" hung upside down in New York's Museum of Modern Art for 47 days. The painting shows 10 purple lines and two blue sails on a white background. When it was discovered that the second sail was just a reflection of the first one on the surface of the water, it became clear that the picture was hung incorrectly. The top of the picture should be a large sail.

10. “Self-portrait with a pipe”
Although many believe that Van Gogh cut off his own ear, art historians are confident that the artist injured his ear in a fight with the artist Paul Gauguin. Considering that the self-portrait reflects a distorted reality due to the fact that it was painted using a mirror, in fact the artist’s left ear was damaged.

11. “Breakfast on the grass.” Two French artists Edouard Manet and Claude Monet are often confused. This is not surprising, because even the title of Manet’s painting “Lunch on the Grass” was borrowed by Monet and painted in his own “Lunch on the Grass”.

12. Claude Monet, “Breakfast on the Grass.”

13. “Morning in a pine forest”
As it turned out, not only Shishkin worked on this well-known picture. Since the artist, who specialized in painting landscapes, could not produce bears, he turned to animal artist Konstantin Savitsky for help.

The artist sees the world in his own way. Driven by divine providence, he offers the viewer paintings of illusions full of desire to show the obvious. Optical deception or, scientifically speaking, optical illusion is a ubiquitous phenomenon and can be observed endlessly, perceiving the world around us and even ordinary objects.

The ephemerality is especially evident when it comes to the art and works of great masters of the brush, their mysterious canvases, which are worth racking your brains over...

Mysteries of Leonardo da Vinci: mirror hoaxes of a genius

According to researchers, they were able to comprehend the message of the greatest artist with the help of mirrors. Sacred images are what the genius wanted to show the world. One of the most famous paintings of the great hoaxer clearly hints at the presence of the Old Testament Yahweh. The young John the Baptist depicted in the sketch is not looking at Mary or Saint Anne. His gaze passes over the newborn Jesus. He is looking at the face of God! It was his bizarre image that attracted the boy's attention.

The idea of ​​​​creating paintings, the image of which appears under certain conditions, belongs to Leonardo da Vinci. This kind of art is called anamorphic. His Mona Lisa hides an amazing face. It can be seen in the area of ​​​​the right hand of Mona Lisa, the “Last Supper” hides the inverted Grail, and John the Baptist keeps the image of a fantastic creature, hinting at the process of creation. One of the first anamorphic drawings was an image of a child's head, which can only be viewed from a certain angle.

Anamorphic paintings by Istvan Orosz

"The Mysterious Island" - the most famous anamorph of Istvan Oros

The enchanting mystery paintings of the Hungarian graphic artist are based on the laws of physics, so in order to strengthen their perception you will have to study at least a school course. The creator's imagination literally knows no bounds.

The magician hides the most incredible things and phenomena in his paintings, forcing the viewer not only to admire what he saw, but also to think. To obtain an anamorphic image, Oros uses cylindrical, pyramidal or cone-shaped mirror objects. It is enough to put them in the right place and the correct image appears in an obvious light.

3D illusions by Alessandro Diddi

Looking at them, I want to understand how he manages, using only paper and pencil, to create miracles that deceive the human brain.

Diddy has the talent to breathe the spark of God into every drawing. His characters are so real that they even frighten with their presence. He explains his secret simply, suggesting that we try to understand anamorphic art. Next is a matter of technology.

Graphics by Maurits Cornelis Escher

He became famous for his special worldview and ability to juggle with the ordinary laws of the logic of space. Escher's phantasmagoric paintings are called graphic illustrations of the theory of relativity. This type of illusory images aims to achieve a stereo effect. Samples of such pictures are created using special cameras (invention of Ivan Aleksandrovsky, 1854).

The graphics are based on double rendering of the scene (shooting from two cameras). You can see these bizarre sketches only if you know special techniques.

1. How Salvador Dali took revenge on his sister

“Figure at the Window” is a painting painted by Dali back in 1925, when he was only 21 years old. At that time, his muse was Ana Maria. Dali once wrote in his painting “sometimes I spit on the portrait of my own mother, and this gives me pleasure.” After this, the relationship between brother and sister was completely ruined, because Ana could not forgive him for this. When the book “Salvador Dali through the eyes of his sister” was published in 1949, in which Dali was depicted without any praise, he became furious and remembered it for a long time. The painting “A Young Virgin Indulging in the Sin of Sodomy with the Horns of Her Own Chastity” appeared in 1954, as Dali annoyed his sister for her book. If you look closely, you can see some similarities with the painting “Figure at the Window.”

2. Danaya is two-faced

In the 60s of the twentieth century, the secret of the famous painting by Rembrandt was revealed. When the painting was illuminated with X-rays, it was discovered that the face was very similar to Saskia, the painter’s wife, who died in 1642. In the final painting, the face resembles that of Rembrandt’s mistress, Geertje Dirks. The artist lived with her after his wife died.

3. “Bedroom in Arles” by Van Gogh

Van Gogh was often misunderstood by artists and critics. In 1888, he had to flee to the south of France, where he set up a workshop. He converts one of the four rooms into a bedroom. In the fall, he gets the idea to paint “Van Gogh’s Bedroom in Arles.” He wanted to portray the comfort of the room, so that when he saw it, all thoughts would arise only about relaxation. Researchers of his work noticed that the painting was painted in yellow tones and explained this by the fact that Van Gogh took a remedy for epilepsy - foxglove, and it is known to change the perception of color and a person sees everything in green and yellow tones.

4. Perfection without teeth

Mona Lisa is perfection, and her smile is flawless and mysterious. Most people think so, but not an art critic from America. Joseph Borkowski, a dentist by profession, carefully examined the enlarged photographs and said that the heroine had lost many teeth in her life. He also found scars around his mouth. The expert believes that her famous smile is very typical of those people who are left without front teeth.

The audience was greatly amused by the artist Fedotov’s painting “The Major’s Matchmaking.” The painting contains ironic details that were understood by observers of the time. For example, the major clearly does not have the rules of etiquette inherent in nobles: he came without bouquets for his bride and her mother, as was customary. The bride's parents put an evening dress on her, even if it was daytime (the lamps in the room were not lit). In the picture we see that the girl most likely put on a low-cut dress for the first time, so she is very embarrassed and tries in every possible way to run away and hide from everything that is happening.

Etienne Julie, a famous art critic, believes that Delacroix copied a woman’s face from the famous revolutionary in Paris, Anne Charlotte. After the tragic death of her brother at the hands of the royal soldiers, Anna went to the barricades and heroically killed nine guardsmen. In the picture we see a revolutionary woman with her breasts bare. The bare chest symbolizes selflessness and fearlessness and shows everyone that Liberty does not wear a corset like a commoner.

7. Non-black square

“Black Square” is very popular, although many do not even realize that it is not black and not square at all. In a quadrilateral, none of the sides are parallel to any other, and not even parallel to any of the sides of the frame in which the picture is framed. Many people think that the square is black, but in fact the color was obtained by mixing different colors, and there was no black color there at all. As art historians say, this was the principled position of Kazimir Malevich, as he sought to create a mobile, dynamic form.

8. Old fisherman

The artist Tivadar Kostka Csontvary from Hungary painted the painting “The Old Fisherman” in 1902. It may seem to many that there is nothing unusual in the picture, but the artist put a subtext into his picture that was never revealed during his lifetime. Few people would think of placing a mirror in the middle of the picture. Tivadar Kostka Chontvari wanted to show that both God and the Devil can be present in any person.

9. Secret romance

Klimt depicted the wife of Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer, a sugar magnate from Austria, on his canvas. Many were surprised and discussed the romance between the famous artist and Adele. The husband was terribly angry and decided to take revenge on his lovers in an unusual way. Bloch-Bauer ordered a portrait of his wife from Klimt and ordered a huge number of sketches to be made so that the artist began to turn away from her. He planned that the work would continue for several years and thus the feelings of the lovers would fade away. Ferdinand made a tempting offer, which the artist was unable to refuse, and everything worked out as the deceived husband had planned. The work lasted 4 years and during this time the lovers lost their feelings for each other, and Adele never found out until the end of her days that her husband was aware of his relationship with Klimt.

10. Came back to life thanks to the painting

Even those masterpieces of painting that seem familiar to us have their secrets. By and large, almost every significant work of art has a mystery, a “double bottom” or a secret story that you want to reveal.

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

Many secrets of one of Rembrandt's most famous paintings were revealed only in the 60s of the twentieth century, when the canvas was illuminated with X-rays. For example, the shooting showed that in an early version the face of the princess, who entered into a love affair with Zeus, 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

In May 1888, Van Gogh acquired a small studio in Arles, in the south of France, where he fled from Parisian artists and critics who did not understand him. In one of the four rooms, Vincent sets up a bedroom. In October everything is ready, and he decides to paint Van Gogh's Bedroom in Arles. For the artist, the color 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

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. “The expression on her face is typical for people who have lost their front teeth.”

Major on face control

The public, who first saw the film “Major's Matchmaking,” laughed heartily: 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?

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

In fact, “Black Square” is not black at all and not square at all: none of the sides of the quadrangle is 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. It is believed that this was not the author’s negligence, but a principled position, the desire to create a dynamic, moving form.

Melodrama of the Austrian Mona Lisa

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 between Adele and the famous artist. The wounded husband wanted to take revenge on his lovers, but chose a very unusual method: 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 lost interest in 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

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.

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).

Publications in the Museums section

Secrets of famous paintings

Works of art often gain special popularity if there are legends about them or if they unexpectedly turn out to be not what they seem at first glance. "Kultura.RF" reveals the secrets of famous - and not so famous - Russian paintings.

“The Nun” by Ilya Repin

Ilya Repin. Nun. 1878. State Tretyakov Gallery / Portrait under an X-ray

From the portrait, a young girl in strict monastic clothes looks thoughtfully at the viewer. The image is classic and familiar - it probably would not have aroused interest among art critics if not for the memoirs of Lyudmila Shevtsova-Spore, the niece of Repin’s wife. They revealed an interesting story.

This did not stop the artist from repeatedly painting portraits of Sophia. For one of them, the girl posed in a formal ball gown: a light elegant dress, lace sleeves, and a high hairstyle. While working on the painting, Repin had a serious quarrel with the model. As you know, anyone can offend an artist, but few can take revenge as creatively as Repin did. The offended artist “dressed” Sophia in the portrait in monastic clothes.

The story, similar to an anecdote, was confirmed by an x-ray. The researchers were lucky: Repin did not remove the original paint layer, which allowed them to examine the heroine’s original outfit in detail.

"Park Alley" by Isaac Brodsky

Isaac Brodsky. Park alley. 1930. State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow / Isaac Brodsky. Alley of the park in Rome. 1911

An equally interesting mystery was left for researchers by Repin’s student, Isaac Brodsky. The Tretyakov Gallery houses his painting “Park Alley,” which at first glance is unremarkable: Brodsky had many works on “park” themes. However, the further you go into the park, the more colorful layers there are.

One of the researchers noticed that the composition of the painting was suspiciously reminiscent of another work by the artist - “Park Alley in Rome” (Brodsky was stingy with original titles). This painting was considered lost for a long time, and its reproduction was published only in a rather rare edition in 1929. With the help of x-rays, the Roman alley that had mysteriously disappeared was found - right under the Soviet one. The artist did not clean up the finished image and simply made a number of simple changes to it: he dressed the passers-by according to the fashion of the 30s of the 20th century, “took away” the children’s clothes, removed the marble statues and slightly modified the trees. So, with a couple of light movements of the hand, the sunny Italian park turned into an exemplary Soviet one.

When asked why Brodsky decided to hide his Roman alley, they did not find an answer. But it can be assumed that the depiction of the “modest charm of the bourgeoisie” in 1930 was no longer inappropriate from an ideological point of view. Nevertheless, of all Brodsky’s post-revolutionary landscape works, “Park Alley” is the most interesting: despite the changes, the picture retained the charming grace of Art Nouveau, which, alas, no longer existed in Soviet realism.

“Morning in a Pine Forest” by Ivan Shishkin

Ivan Shishkin and Konstantin Savitsky. Morning in a pine forest. 1889. State Tretyakov Gallery

A forest landscape with bear cubs playing on a fallen tree is perhaps the artist’s most famous work. But the idea for the landscape was suggested to Ivan Shishkin by another artist, Konstantin Savitsky. He also painted a bear with three cubs: the forest expert Shishkin had no luck with the bears.

Shishkin had an impeccable understanding of forest flora; he noticed the slightest mistakes in the drawings of his students - either the birch bark was depicted incorrectly, or the pine looked like a fake one. However, people and animals have always been rare in his works. This is where Savitsky came to the rescue. By the way, he left several preparatory drawings and sketches with bear cubs - he was looking for suitable poses. “Morning in a Pine Forest” was not originally “Morning”: the painting was called “Bear Family in the Forest,” and there were only two bears in it. As a co-author, Savitsky also put his signature on the canvas.

When the canvas was delivered to the merchant Pavel Tretyakov, he was indignant: he paid for Shishkin (ordered an original work), but received Shishkin and Savitsky. Shishkin, as an honest person, did not attribute authorship to himself. But Tretyakov followed the principle and blasphemously erased Savitsky’s signature from the painting with turpentine. Savitsky later nobly renounced copyright, and the bears were attributed to Shishkin for a long time.

“Portrait of a Chorus Girl” by Konstantin Korovin

Konstantin Korovin. Portrait of a chorus girl. 1887. State Tretyakov Gallery / Reverse side of the portrait

On the back of the canvas, researchers found a message from Konstantin Korovin on cardboard, which turned out to be almost more interesting than the painting itself:

“In 1883 in Kharkov, a portrait of a chorus girl. Written on a balcony in a public commercial garden. Repin said when S.I. Mamontov showed him this sketch that he, Korovin, was writing and looking for something else, but what is it for - this is painting for painting’s sake only. Serov had not yet painted portraits at this time. And the painting of this sketch was found incomprehensible??!! So Polenov asked me to remove this sketch from the exhibition, since neither the artists nor the members - Mr. Mosolov and some others - liked it. The model was not a beautiful woman, even somewhat ugly.”

Konstantin Korovin

The “Letter” was disarming with its directness and daring challenge to the entire artistic community: “Serov had not yet painted portraits at that time,” but he, Konstantin Korovin, painted them. And he was allegedly the first to use techniques characteristic of the style that would later be called Russian impressionism. But all this turned out to be a myth that the artist created intentionally.

The harmonious theory “Korovin is the forerunner of Russian impressionism” was mercilessly destroyed by objective technical and technological research. On the front side of the portrait they found the artist’s signature in paint, and just below in ink: “1883, Kharkov.” The artist worked in Kharkov in May - June 1887: he painted scenery for performances of the Mamontov Russian Private Opera. In addition, art historians have found that the “Portrait of a Chorus Girl” was painted in a certain artistic manner - a la prima. This oil painting technique made it possible to paint a picture in one session. Korovin began to use this technique only in the late 1880s.

After analyzing these two inconsistencies, the Tretyakov Gallery staff came to the conclusion that the portrait was painted only in 1887, and Korovin added an earlier date to emphasize his own innovation.

“The Man and the Cradle” by Ivan Yakimov

Ivan Yakimov. Man and cradle.1770. State Tretyakov Gallery / Full version of the work

For a long time, Ivan Yakimov’s painting “Man and Cradle” puzzled art critics. And the point was not even that this kind of everyday sketches are absolutely uncharacteristic of 18th-century painting - the rocking horse in the lower right corner of the picture has a rope that is too unnaturally stretched, which logically should have been lying on the floor. And it was too early for a child to play with such toys from the cradle. Also, the fireplace did not even fit half onto the canvas, which looked very strange.

The situation was “clarified” - in the literal sense - by an x-ray. She showed that the canvas was cut on the right and top.

The Tretyakov Gallery received the painting after the sale of the collection of Pavel Petrovich Tugoy-Svinin. He owned the so-called “Russian Museum” - a collection of paintings, sculptures and antiques. But in 1834, due to financial problems, the collection had to be sold - and the painting “Man and Cradle” ended up in the Tretyakov Gallery: not all of it, but only its left half. The right one, unfortunately, was lost, but you can still see the work in its entirety, thanks to another unique exhibit of the Tretyakov Gallery. The full version of Yakimov’s work was found in the album “Collection of excellent works by Russian artists and curious domestic antiquities,” which contains drawings from most of the paintings that were part of Svinin’s collection.

The evolution of painting in Russia from the 10th to the mid-20th century