Learn about some of the famous paintings in which we managed to see and decipher the "double bottom".
Most artists put in their paintings some hidden meaning, mystery or riddle that art critics and other experts try to decipher over time.
1. Hieronymus Bosch, Garden of Earthly Delights, 1500-1510.
Yerun van Aken signed his paintings "Hieronymus Bosch". He was a well-to-do man and was a member of the Catholic brotherhood of the Mother of God. However, most likely behind the back of Erun van Aken kept his fingers crossed, because according to the assumptions of historians, Bosch was a heretic and belonged to the Adamite sect and therefore was an admirer of the Qatari heresy.
In those days, the Catholic Church everywhere struggled with the Cathars, and the artist had to hide his beliefs. However, according to art critics around the world, in the film "The Garden of Earthly Delights" it was precisely his secret belief of the heretic, in which he tells about the teachings of the Cathars, that was encrypted. But if his contemporaries guessed this, then Bosch, without the right to justification, would be burned at the stake.
2. Tivadar Kostka Chontwari, Old Fisherman, 1902
In order to decipher the idea of this picture, we had to attach a mirror to its middle. During the life of the artist, this is not a child's puzzle and could not figure it out. But when modern art critics came to think of working with a mirror, they were amazed by what they saw, as one picture displayed three faces at once. The first is the real face of the old fisherman, the second and third are his hidden personalities: the demon (reflected on the left shoulder) and virtue (reflected on the right shoulder).
3. Hendrik van Antonissen, View of the sea shore of Scheveningen, 1641.
When the canvas entered the museum as a gift from a clergyman and part-time collector in 1873, then in the picture the people gathered in bad weather watched simply into the sea. This did not once offend the curiosity of specialists, since it was unclear what could attract people to shore in bad weather.
The mystery was revealed later with careful restoration. When she was enlightened by X-rays, the picture showed the carcass of a whale, thrown on this shore. And then it became clear that it attracted the attention of all these people. After the restoration, a whale appeared on the painting, and this masterpiece became much more interesting, so it was given a more honorable place than it was before. By the suggestion of the restorers, the whale could be wiped and sketched by the artist himself, who thought that not everyone would want to contemplate a dead sea creature in the picture.
4. Leonardo da Vinci, The Last Supper, 1495-1498.
When the artist created this masterpiece, most of all he paid attention to the main figures - Christ and Judas. He did not manage to find suitable sitters for a long time, but one day he met a young chorister in a church choir and copied the image of Christ from him. However, he had to look for a man for the image of Judas for 3 more years, until the artist met a drunkard lying in the gutter.
It was a young man, whose appearance distorted the drunkenness of drunkenness. And when, after sobering up da Vinci began to write with him the image of Judas, the drunkard said that he had already posed for him 3 years ago. It turned out that this fallen man was that young chorister who posed for the image of Christ.
5. Rembrandt, Night Watch, 1642
The greatest painting of the artist was discovered only in the XIX century, after which she visited the famous halls of the world under the title "Night Watch". Assigned a title to the picture because it seemed as if the figures are performing against a dark background, which means - at night. And only by the middle of the twentieth century restorers discovered that the picture from time to time is covered with a layer of soot. After clearing the masterpiece, it became clear that the scene takes place during the day, since the falling shadow from the left hand of Captain Cock indicates that the time of the action is about 14.00.
6. Henri Matisse, Boat, 1937
In 1967, a painting by Henri Matisse "The Boat" of 1937 was exhibited in the Museum of New York. However, after 47 days, one of the specialists drew attention to the fact that the picture is most probably posted "upside down". Important elements of the picture are 2 sails, one of which is a reflection in the water. So, in the right version, the big sail should be at the top, and its peak should look in the direction of the upper right corner.
7. Vincent van Gogh, Self-portrait with a tube, 1889.
On the severed ear of van Gogh, legends already go. Many say that he cut it to himself, but an officially more believable version was adopted, that the ear suffered from the artist in a small fight with another artist - Paul Gauguin. The secret of this picture is that the artist was drawing his self-portrait from a reflection in the mirror: the right ear is bandaged in the picture, however in reality it was damaged by his ear on the left side.
8. Grant Wood, American Gothic, 1930
In American painting, this picture, with the sullen and sad faces of the people of Iowa, is considered the most gloomy and oppressive. After the canvas was exhibited in Chicago at the Art Institute, the judges did not give her big rewards immediately and were rated as a satirical picture. However, the curator of the museum was amazed and believed that the images of rural residents of that time are reflected here. He influenced the outcome of the final evaluation, and eventually Grant Wood received a prize of $ 300, after which the museum immediately bought this picture. So the picture fell on the pages of newspapers.
However, this picture did not cause such admiration, as in the museum curator, among the inhabitants of the state of Iowa. On the contrary, the sea of criticism fell upon this work, and the Aiovtsi were deeply offended, that the artist displayed them in such gloomy and gloomy. Later, the artist explained that passing through the state of Iowa, he met an interesting white house, built in the style of carpentry Gothic, and he decided to create his inhabitants on his assumption, and did not want to offend the villagers of this state.
The artist even opened the names of the sitters from which he wrote images: the girl in the unfashionable apron was writing from his sister, and the stern man with a hard look is the artist's dentist, who in life does not look so morose. However, Sister Wood remained dissatisfied, she claimed that in the picture she could be mistaken for a wife of twice the older man. Therefore, only with her words it is believed that the canvas shows the father and daughter, but the artist never commented on it.
9. Salvador Dali, a young virgin who surrenders to Sodom sin with the help of the horns of her own chastity, 1954.
Until the meeting with Gala for Salvador Dali was a muse and part-time model his sister Anna Maria. And in 1925 the picture "Figure by the Window" was published. But one day the artist dared leave an insulting inscription on one of his works about their mother: "Sometimes I spit on the portrait of my own mother, and it gives me pleasure." For this shocking trick the sister could not forgive him, after which their relationship deteriorated.
And when Anna Maria in 1949 published her book entitled "Salvador Dali through the Sister's Eyes," she did not describe the artist's admiration, which made El Salvador himself furious. And, according to experts, in retaliation for the book's sister in 1954, the offended artist created the picture "A young virgin who surrenders to Sodom sin with the help of the horns of her own chastity." In this picture, the landscape outside the window, red curls and the open window are clearly intertwined with the picture "Figure Outside the Window."
10. Rembrandt Harmens van Rijn, Danae, 1636-1647
During the restoration work in the 60s of the 20th century, the picture was radiated by X-rays, after which it became known that Danae has 2 faces. Initially, the face of the princess was written from the image of the wife of the artist Saskia. However, his wife died in 1642, and after her death, Rembrandt began to live with his mistress Hertie Dirks. Therefore, the painting was finished by the artist already from her, and the face of Danae changed, becoming similar to the image of Dirks.
11. Leonardo da Vinci, Portrait of Madame Lisa del Giocondo, 1503-1519.
Throughout the world, Mona Lisa is recognized as perfect, and her smile is tender and mysterious. The mystery of this smile was tried to decipher the art critic and concurrently the dentist American Joseph Borkowski. According to his expert opinion, a theory has been put forward that the "beautiful Mona Lisa" smiles so mysteriously for one simple reason - it lacks a lot of teeth. Studying the enlarged fragments of her mouth, Joseph even considered the scars around him, so he claims that something happened to the heroine, as a result of which she lost a significant number of teeth. And her smile is typical for a man who does not have front teeth.
12. Ferdinand Victor Eugene Delacroix, Freedom on the Barricades, 1830
Art historian Etienne Julie believes that the image of Liberty was written from the famous revolutionary of the time Anna Charlotte, who was a commoner and washerwoman by profession. This desperate woman went to the barricades and killed the 9th royal soldiers. At such a brave step, the death of her brother, who fell at the hands of the guards, aroused her. A bare chest in Freedom in the picture means that democracy and freedom itself is the same as a commoner who does not wear corsets.
13. Kazimir Malevich, Black Suprematist Square, 1915
Some people attribute the mystical power to the Black Square of Malevich. However, as it turned out, the author did not lay anything magical in this picture, and the picture was actually called "The Battle of Negroes in a Dark Cave". Such an inscription was discovered by specialists of the Tretyakov Gallery.
The square turned out to be not quite square, since neither side is parallel to the other, but it is not the negligence of the artist, but his desire to create a dynamically mobile form. And black is just the result of mixing colors of different shades. Most likely, Malevich thus responded to the picture of another artist Alfons Alla, who painted a completely black rectangle, calling the work "The Battle of the Negroes in a Dark Cave Deep in the Night."
14. Gustav Klimt, Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer, 1907
Behind the secret of this portrait lies a love triangle between the very mistress of Bloch-Bauer, her husband and artist Klimt. The bottom line is that between the wife of a sugar magnate and a popular artist in those years, a turbulent romance spun around, and probably all of Vienna knew about it.
When this news reached the husband of Adele Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer, he decided to take revenge on his lovers in an unusual way.
Stung by the betrayal of his wife, Mr. Bloch-Bauer turned to her lover Gustav Klimt with the order: to write a portrait of his wife. The sly tycoon decided that he would reject the portraits of his wife, and the artist would have to make hundreds of new sketches. And this is necessary for the artist to simply turn out from the model Adele Bloch-Bauer. Then Adele should see how Klimt's passion for her fading away, and the novel will come to an end.As a result, the insidious plan of Ferdinand worked just as he had planned, and after writing the final picture lovers parted forever. However, Adélie did not know that her husband was aware of her love affairs with the artist.
15. Paul Gauguin, Where did we come from? Who are we? Where are we going ?, 1897-1898.
This picture was a turning point in the life of the artist, or rather, it truly brought him back to life, after an unsuccessful suicide. He wrote a work in Tahiti, where he sometimes ran away from civilization. But this time things did not turn out so smoothly: the constant poverty brought the imaginary artist to a deep depression.
He finished painting as a testament to mankind, and when the masterpiece was completed, the desperate artist went to the mountains with an arsenic box to end his life. However, he did not calculate the dose and, writhing with pain, returned home and fell asleep. After the awakening and awareness of his act, the artist returned to his former thirst for life, and when he returned home everything was normal, a creative upsurge began, and things went uphill.
The secret of this picture is that it must be read from the right to the left, like the cabbalistic texts that the author of the painting was fascinated by at that time. The work tells about the spiritual and physical life of a person from birth to death (in the lower right corner the baby is drawn as a symbol of birth, and in the lower left corner - old age and a bird catching a lizard as a symbol of death).
16. Peter Bruegel the elder, Dutch proverbs, 1559
This truly masterpiece contains in itself neither more nor less, but about 112 proverbs. Some of them talk about human stupidity. Many are relevant to this day: "armed to the teeth", "sail against the current."
17. Paul Gauguin, Breton Village under the Snow, 1894.
This picture reflects the depth of man's fantasy, as art can be viewed in different ways. For the first time the canvas was sold after the death of the artist at auction for a miserable seven francs called "Niagara Falls." It happened because the auction organizer hung it to the top with his feet and saw a waterfall in the picture, and not a village, covered with snow.
18. Pablo Picasso, Blue Room, 1901
The solution of this picture was a success for art historians only in 2008, after it was enlightened by infrared radiation. After that, the second picture or, most likely, the first one was discovered. Under the main image of the woman in the blue room, the figure of a man dressed in a suit and a butterfly, propping his head with his hand, became clearly visible.
According to the expert Patricia Favero, when Picasso had inspiration, he immediately grabbed the brush and began to draw. And perhaps, at the next moment, when the muse visited him, the artist did not have a blank canvas at hand, and he began to paint a new picture on top of the other, or Pablo simply had no money for new canvases.
19. Michelangelo, The Creation of Adam, 1511
This picture can be called a lesson of anatomy. So, according to American specialists in neuroanatomy, the picture shows a huge brain with clearly visible parts of it, for example, the pituitary gland, the cerebellum, the optic nerves and even the vertebral artery, which is depicted as a bright green ribbon.
20. Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, Lutnist, 1596
This picture was exhibited in the Hermitage for a very long time under the name "Lutnistka". However, in the first half of the twentieth century, art historians and experts found out that the picture depicts a young man, not a girl. On this thought they were pushed by notes lying before the image of a man. They can see the bass male party of Madrigal Jacob Arkademt "You know that I love you." Therefore, it is unlikely that a woman would make such a choice for singing.
In addition, during the artist's lifetime both the lute and the violin, which are depicted on canvas, were considered exclusively male musical instruments. After this conclusion, the picture was exhibited under the name "Lutnist".