10 curiosities about famous works of art

A real lover who poses as the Virgin, the most notorious robbery in history, a self-portrait in an oil can... The history of art is full of anecdotes and, in reality, nothing is what it seems. Next, we present a list with some of the most succulent curiosities about famous works of art, explained in detail.

10 curiosities about famous works of art

Here are 10 curiosities that hide some of the most famous works of art in history.

1. The most famous painting in the world

Definitely, the Gioconda by Leonardo da Vinci is one of the works that receives the most visitors. Have you ever wondered why? And it is that this small table was not always so popular. In fact, before 1911 people who visited the Louvre hardly noticed it.

But it happened that, on the morning of Tuesday, August 22, 1911, they realized that the Monna Lisa was not in its place. Had disappeared. And so it was for no less than two years; It was not located until December 1913, when the perpetrator of the notorious robbery was found: Vincenzo Peruggia.

Peruggia had worked at the Louvre and knew very well how the paintings were hung. What's more, he had in his possession a worker's gown, which he put on to disappear. Let's remember that we are talking about 1911 and that, therefore, there were no security cameras that could record the theft. Thus, on Monday August 21, the day the museum was closed, Peruggia calmly picked up La Gionconde, he hung it under his arm and left the Louvre, previously hiding it under the worker's coat. No one noticed… until the next day.

News of the theft spread like wildfire. Guillaume Apollinaire ended up in prison accused of the robbery, and his colleague Pablo Picasso was also part of the list of suspects. Newspapers fed gossip and legends. When the painting was found in a small hotel in Florence, where Peruggia had summoned the antiques dealer Alfredo Geni to sell him the work, the Gioconda It was already a true myth. A myth whose fame (justified or not) has only grown until today.

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2. The scream that is not a scream

We all keep in mind the spectacular canvas The Scream, by the Norwegian painter Edvard Munch: before a landscape that seems to melt, a strange figure raises its hands to its face and screams. Right? Well no. Yes there is a figure He does look strange, like a death mask or a mummy, and he does put his hands to his face... but he doesn't scream.

Actually, the name of the painting refers to the scene that inspired the painting. Munch himself describes it as follows in his diary: “I was walking along a path with two friends; the sun went down. Suddenly the sky turned blood red, I stopped and leaned against a fence dead tired: blood and tongues of fire lurked over the dark blue of the fjord and the city. My friends continued and I stood still, trembling with anxiety. I felt an infinite scream that crossed nature…”

That is, the cry that gives the painting its name is the mighty cry of nature, often destructive, that shakes the painter and makes him stagger. Of course, a very different view of the work that has become popular.

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3. the blasphemous corpse

In 1601, Michelangelo Merisi, better known as Caravaggio, received a commission for the church of Santa Maria della Scala in Rome. He must paint a picture that reflects the transit of the Virgin, surrounded by the apostles. No sooner said than done. Caravaggio takes his brush and a few models, and makes a monumental canvas, where Mary appears reclining and the apostles guarding her and lamenting her death.

So far, everything seems in place. But we already know that Caravaggio was one of the great naturalists of the Baroque, who took his models from the poorest neighborhoods of Trastevere. Caravaggio shows us vulgar, ragged and dirty characters on the canvas; What's more, the recumbent figure of the Virgin looks like a corpse just taken from the morgue. In fact, some rumors suggested that, indeed, the painter had taken a prostitute drowned in the Tiber as a model for Mary (which, coming from Caravaggio, could be perfectly true).

Let's finish! That was a mockery decorum ecclesiastical, which required rules when representing sacred characters. As expected, the work was rejected. Luckily, not everyone thought the same. An astonished Rubens was lucky enough to see the work and was absolutely captivated by it. The artist convinced the Duke of Mantua to buy the canvas, and we can currently enjoy it at the Louvre Museum.

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4. Clara Peeters takes a picture… in an oil can

It is usual for painters to portray themselves in her works. It is a fairly widespread custom since the Renaissance; for example, Botticelli included her portrait among the crowd of his Adoration of the Magi (1475-76), and Bosch did the same in his Garden of delights (1503-15), although, to be fair, we have to say that the identity of the latter is not confirmed.

Clara Peeters (1594? -?) was a Flemish painter famous for her exquisite still lifes. In many of them she included her own image, reflected on the surface of some objects. This is the case of one of the still lifes that the Prado Museum preserves, dated 1611, and which shows a table with delicious delicacies (cookies, breads and fruits dry), a vase with flowers, a glass of wine and an oil can where, if we look closely, we can see the face of the artist, reflected in the metal.

Clara's virtuosity is evident in these details, since it is not easy to portray yourself on the curved surface of an object. The artist perfectly controls the effects of light and the distortion that the sinuosities of the oil can cause in her portrait. If you go to the Prado, you can try to discover it.

5. The face of controversy

Who is the woman portrayed by Goya in duplicate, one dressed in oriental dresses and the other completely naked? We are referring, of course, to the famous Majas, currently kept in the Prado Museum and which once belonged to the private collection of Manuel Godoy, Prime Minister of Carlos IV.

In the inventory of the Godoy palace, the canvases appear consigned as "gypsy" paintings, without further specifications.. The controversy began when the Inquisition itself summoned Goya to testify about the paintings and about the person who had commissioned them. Rivers of ink began to flow. Was it the face of the famous Duchess of Alba that appeared to be looking challenging (and also sensual) at the viewer?

This version was the most accepted by the popular legend; However, the Duchess of Alba was already very ill at the time the paintings were made. Could it be, then, that the portrayed was someone else? Perhaps Pepita Tudó, Godoy's lover at the time? The comparison of the traits of the Majas with the confirmed portraits of Pepita shows an extraordinary resemblance. On the other hand, the Majas they were in the possession of Manuel Godoy; It seems entirely logical that the minister wanted to have an erotic portrait of his lover.

Despite the suppositions, it has not yet been possible to confirm who is the woman who poses coquettishly and elegantly on a couch. Perhaps it is better this way, since the mystery of the Majas It constitutes one of its greatest attractions.

6. Velázquez portrays his family

Velázquez painted his Adoration of the Magi during his Sevillian stage, when he was still in Francisco Pacheco's workshop. It was precisely his daughter, Juana, whom Velázquez married in 1618. The work, painted the following year, is, beyond the representation of the Epiphany, a sign of fidelity and family love.

And it is that Velázquez depicted the features of his wife Juana in the face of the Virgin Mary. Not only that; it is known that the Child Jesus was, in reality, his little daughter Francisca, born just a few months before. Velázquez himself would be the young figure in the foreground, while the older king would be a portrait of his father-in-law and teacher, Francisco Pacheco. Something, on the other hand, very usual in the Baroque: the fusion of the sacred with everyday life, which brought the biblical characters enormously closer to the people.

7. Angelica's “third breast”

Despite being a highly appreciated painter today, the truth is that Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres had many detractors during his lifetime. The artist had a reputation for drawing impossible anatomies; the criticism of the moment was primed with his great odalisque (1814), which they said had "several extra vertebrae".

It is true that Ingres figures are not anatomically perfect. They have an almost gothic languor that makes them closer to the world of dreams than to tangible reality.. However, that is part of the charm of his work.

Some of his contemporaries did not think the same, as we have already seen. Another of his most famous paintings, Roger frees Angelica (1819), drew the same heated criticism as his Odalisque. Let us look at the date: 1819, the height of the neoclassical rage in France. The figure of Angelica, chained to a rock and saved by Roger from certain death, flaunts on her neck… a third breast! Or, at least, that is how the painter's contemporaries wanted to see it. The confusion comes from the protruding bulge that the young woman shows under her chin and in the roundness of her neck. Could it be that Angelica presented a tumor? Who knows…

8. A royal mistress in the role of the Virgin

In the Melun Diptych (1450), both parts of which are currently kept in different museums, Jean Fouquet she represents the Virgin offering her breast to the Child Jesus to be fed, in a well-known iconography as Galaktotrophousa (Virgin of the milk). This type of representation was quite common from the first centuries of the Middle Ages, but Jean Fouquet gives it a twist and represents a Virgin of suggestive eroticism.

María is dressed in the fashion of the time; her forehead is shaved, as are her eyebrows. Her skin is snowy and soft, and her breasts (actually only one, since the other is uncovered) are encased in a blue bra. An elegant ermine cape falls down her back… The earthy beauty and obvious eroticism of this Virgin is a real shock to the viewer. And if we take into account the legend that ensures that the model is none other than Agnès Sorel, the favorite of King Charles VII of France, everything gets even more complicated. A real mistress playing the Virgin Mary!

The lady's identity could not be confirmed, but it turns out that one of the patrons of the diptych, who appears represented in the other table, he was the executor of Agnès, who died very young, at twenty-eight, supposedly poisoned. Do you want more coincidences? The date of execution of the diptych corresponds to that of the death of her favorite. Draw your own conclusions.

9. family must be together

Napoleon commissioned the famous neoclassical painter Jacques-Louis David to create a colossal canvas to immortalize his rise to power. David captured the moment in which Napoleon, already crowned, imposes the crown on his wife, Queen Josephine. It is a grandiose vision of no less than 667 x 990 cm, and is currently in the Louvre Museum.

Among the crowd that attends the coronation, we can see, in a prominent box, the mother of the Great Corsican, contemplating her son with admiration. But the truth is that, in truth, María Letizia Ramolino had not attended the ceremony, due to certain family disagreements (it is said that the mother did not approve of the marriage of her son with Josephine…). Napoleon did not hesitate to ask David to include his mother among the attendeesBecause what image would he give to the people if he made his family troubles public? The Photoshop of the time.

10. Avignon is in Barcelona

The famous painting by Picasso has been considered The Ladies of Avignon as the first entirely cubist painting. However, the composition is still somewhat experimental. Picasso tries formal solutions that, yes, are a clear precedent for the cubism that will come later.

The painting portrays five prostitutes… from Avignon, France? No; Avinyó street (Avignon), in Barcelona. Let us remember that in those years (1907) the young Picasso had settled in Barcelona. Thus, the name of the painting can be misleading, especially considering that the artist later lived in France. If you ever drop by Barcelona, ​​be sure to visit the street in question; It is located in the heart of the so-called Gothic Quarter, an area with a lot of charm and many artistic jewels to discover.