Interesting facts about paintings. Masterpieces of world painting. Paintings by famous artists

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Many paintings by famous artists contain entertaining historical facts of their creation. Learn more about them.

Experts called Vincent van Gogh's "Starry Night" (1889) the pinnacle of expressionism. But the author himself classified it as an extremely unsuccessful work, since his state of mind at that time was not the best. So, five interesting facts about the famous painting.

Quarrel of friends

The picture appeared after a serious quarrel with a friend Paul Gauguin, who came to Van Gogh to exchange experiences and fruitful cooperation. Mental illness worsened again, at the peak of an emotional breakdown, he cuts off part of his ear and takes it to a brothel to a familiar prostitute. This was done with a bull defeated by a matador. Brother Theo was forced to take the unfortunate man to a mental hospital. There the expressionist created the famous painting.

"Starry night" is createdthe artist's imagination. Therefore, the researchers tried in vain to determine the drawn constellation. For the artist, at the request of his brother, a separate room was allocated in which he could create his masterpieces, he was forbidden to go outside.

Saw the invisible

The exacerbation of mental illness and subtle perception of the world allowed him to see and depict turbulence. During the life of Van Gogh, it was impossible to see the eddy currents. However, the genius Leonardo da Vinci was able to see a similar phenomenon before him.

The picture in the eyes of the artist was not his best work, ordinary, because he preferred to work from life. She was put on display, Van Gogh himself said that her goal was to show the world how not to depict a night landscape. But the expressionists considered the manifestation of feelings to be the main thing, so the "Starry Night" was an icon of style for them.

The artist painted another painting with the same title. The landscape turned out to be excellent, so she bypassed indifferent connoisseurs. Van Gogh wrote to his brother:

“Why can't the bright stars in the sky be more important than the black dots on the map of France? Just as we take the train to Tarascon or Rouen, so we die to reach the stars.”

It's sad, because during his lifetime the artist managed to sell only one painting. These are the interesting facts about Starry Night.

Three heroes

This picture was created by Vasnetsov for 27 years. A huge canvas accompanied the artist and his family duringthe time of moving from Moscow to Kyiv, where he worked on the frescoes of the Vladimir Cathedral, and in the summer from the city to the village. An interesting fact about the painting "Three Heroes" is that the author was able to complete the work a few decades later thanks to Vasily Polenov, who refused to accept the first sketch, begun in oil, as a gift until a large-scale version was written.

Collective image of heroes

These Russian heroes lived at different times, so we got a collective image of the heroes. The idea of the artist was the idea of heroic defenders who went on patrol to find out if anyone offends anyone. In the historical museum, he was allowed to borrow ancient armor, which helped him create folklore heroes.

Dobrynya Nikitich, according to epics, is a boyar or a relative of the prince. The researchers saw its prototype in the uncle of Prince Vladimir the Red Sun. But in fact, the character Dobrynya absorbed the features of relatives and the author himself.

Ilya Muromets, according to the epic epic, was an old Cossack and a peasant son. Historians have found several prototypes. One of them is the holy elder, who rests in the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra. According to epics, at the end of his life, Ilya went to die in a monastery. The Kiev-Pechersk hero had the nickname Chobotok. The fact is that he managed to fight off the adversaries with one boot. The artist's sitters were a cabbie and a peasant.

In epics, Alyosha Popovich is the son of a Rostov priest, who was distinguished by cunning. In the annals, there is a warrior of the prince named Alexander Popovich, and he became his prototype. Sources put forward two versions of the time of his life: the beginning or end of the 11th century or the 13th century, in which he fought the Tatar-Mongols. Alyosha Popovich has the appearance of the son of Savva Mamontov, who was a friend of Vasnetsov and a patron of the arts.

Hero Attributes

A pectoral cross with a knife hung around Dobrynya's neck, with which he killed, according to legend, the Serpent. Contemporary folklorists believed that Vasnetsov wanted to draw a parallel and depict the struggle of the peasantry against paganism, which was advocated by Prince Vladimir and his uncle Dobrynya. But Vasnetsov depicted an encolpion cross with a relic. It was worn as a decoration and a talisman over clothes.

Dobrynya Nikitich has a sword in his hands, which emphasizes his belonging to the military nobility. On the head is a helmet in the form of a Greek cap borrowed from Byzantium. It was written from an exhibit (XIII century) of the Armory, which is located in the Moscow Kremlin. Presumably, he came to Moscow in the 15th century, and was brought by the Byzantine princess Sophia, who was married off as Ivan III. A relative of the prince is dressed in expensive brocade clothes and armor. Armor made of steel plates is worn over the chain mail. In Ancient Russia, the nobility used them to pay for the acquisition of land.

In the 16th century, the most popular type of helmet was a shishak (on Ilya Muromets). For additional protection, helmets were sometimes used, they were worn over.

According to the Nikon chronicle, the prince awarded Alexei Popovich a hryvnia for the victory over his enemies. For the first time in Russia yushman -plate armor - was mentioned in the middle of the XVI century. It was brought from Persia. A compound bow is made up of different types of wood. The top of the arrow was painted in different colors in order to quickly find the right one, for example, in order to pierce an enemy dressed in armor, or to defeat his horse. Alyosha Popovich took a harp on a hike, which indicates his love for music.

In the foreground, the artist depicted young shoots as a sign of the continuity of generations. Mounds can be seen behind the heroes. This is a tribute to those who, like today's real heroes, defended their native borders.

Interesting facts about the painting "Again deuce"

This canvas is very well known to today's schoolchildren. Since the general education program has a paragraph about the description of the picture. The plot is simple and understandable, but many do not know interesting facts about the canvas. It turns out that Fyodor Reshetnikov's painting "Again deuce" is included in the trilogy of his works. The first work of the triptych is the canvas "Arrived on vacation". The author wrote it in 1948. The painting depicts a young Suvorovite who came to visit his relatives. The boy is very happy to salute his grandfather as commander in chief, thus showing that he is satisfied with his position.

The next picture the artist decided to paint at school, making the main character an excellent student. To do this, he asked the teacher for permission to sit in the place he needed and write from nature. The teacher called an excellent student and asked him to answer a simple question about the topic being studied. However, the boy was unable tothought, he felt ashamed of it, and he lowered his head. The fact is that he mistook the artist for the inspector.

Change in mind

Then Fyodor Pavlovich decided to change the idea and portray a loser, only to transfer the action of the plot to the house. He assigned the main role to his neighbor - the young goalkeeper. Only he did not reveal to him the details regarding the name of the picture. The difficulty during the painting was the dog, which refused to stand upright. I had to resort to a trick - to give the dog sausages so that it would remain in the right position for at least a few minutes. If you look closely, the first picture of the triptych is shown in the background. "Again the deuce" was written in 1952.

Third painting

The last picture of the trilogy is "Reexamination", written in 1954. The action moves from the city to the countryside. The boy is sitting at the table and preparing for the new exams. It can be seen how unhappy he is, because he has to learn lessons when his friends are walking and having fun. One of the paintings from the trilogy hangs on the wall again, highlighting one theme.

Interesting facts about the painting "Mona Lisa"

The expression on the face of the woman depicted in the picture suggests that she is hiding some kind of secret that no one is still able to unravel. The famous painting again heated up passions around itself thanks to the novel "The Da Vinci Code" by Dan Brown. Readers gathered as families at round tables in order to quicklysolve all the secret facts described in the book.

Leonardo da Vinci's painting is also famous for other facts. This is a painting by a famous artist who also became famous for his work on human anatomy. The canvas is written in a peculiar manner. But the most interesting fact about the painting is that it is stolen more often than others. These data are known to a wide range of people, but there are others, less popular.

Seven new facts

Also interesting facts about the masterpiece of world painting are the following:

1. The name of the canvas "Mona Lisa" has a spelling error. "Mona" means "Madonna" in Italian. Whom Leonardo da Vinci depicted on the canvas is still unknown. Some believe that it was a self-portrait in female form. But most believe that the girl depicted - Lisa Gherardini - is the mother of two sons.
2. The world's fine art masterpiece is damaged. A stone was thrown at him by Hugo Ungaz in 1956. Damage to the paint has since been visible near the Madonna's left elbow.
3. A masterpiece of world painting is considered priceless, so it cannot be insured.
4. It can be seen that the picture of a woman without eyebrows. According to rumors, experts, trying to restore the picture, accidentally erased the eyebrows. But some scientists believe that the author deliberately did not finish the picture, because he was a perfectionist.
5. The painting is in the Louvre in a special room. With the help of modern technology, the room was given a special temperature so that the masterpiece was stored in optimal conditions. The picture itself is inbulletproof glass. This room cost the museum more than seven million dollars.
6. Experts have proven that the picture is applied to three different layers. But it is not known what is depicted on the lower layers. One version - a woman holds her hand on a chair instead of a hand.
7. Marcel Duchamp painted a copy of the Mona Lisa in 1919, but added a mustache and beard to it.

This work of fine art is considered an unsurpassed masterpiece in the world classics.