The bloody drama that broke out centuries ago in Rembrandt’s brilliant painting Lucretius
As a rule, artists in all ages, creating their paintings, meticulously approached the choice of subjects that would inspire them to write unique and masterpieces. And since in the old…

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The tragedy of the author of the most famous portrait of Chekhov: How he lost his family and paintings, and why he got to Solovki Osip Braz
Over several centuries of development, Russian culture has presented the world with a galaxy of brilliant painters, whose works are included in the world treasury of fine art. Among them…

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The riddle and curse of the “Crying Boy”: Why Amadio was called the devil painter
The Italian painter Bruno Amadio, who worked under the pseudonym Giovanni Bragolin, is considered to be the most dramatic and sinister artist in the history of art of the 20th…

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modern

Skillful fakes that museums took for originals

Artistic fakes are a very real threat that museums constantly have to contend with. Fake artifacts appear in many museums from time to time, which can be displayed for several years before specialists realize that this is a fake. For counterfeiters, the high price tags attached to these fakes are often an incentive to continue to create fakes. Art fraudsters often go to great lengths to trick museums into acquiring their work. Some fakes are so good that it is difficult for historians and archaeologists to distinguish them from real things. Among the museums that became victims of fakes is even the famous Louvre Museum, where for many years successful copies were exhibited instead of the originals, and no one even knew about it.

Three Etruscan warriors

In 1933, the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art added three new works of art to its exhibition. These were sculptures of three warriors of ancient Etruscan civilization. Continue reading

Ciphers, signs and self-portraits: How artists of the past signed their paintings

Not every masterpiece of painting contains the signature of the artist. There were reasons for this, both at the dawn of the Renaissance and in the modern era; they are now. Some of the works were “signed” by the masters in unusual ways – symbols in which an indication of the identity of the author was hidden. Bones, butterflies, cats appeared in the paintings for a reason.

Why it was not customary to sign a work before

Having finished work, put your signature in the lower right corner of the picture – a custom that entered the practice of artists during the early Renaissance. Alas, authorship of earlier works is often not possible to establish – primarily because of the lack of signatures on them. Artists of the Middle Ages then united in workshops, and had no right to show any individualism in creativity, this was perceived as vanity. In addition, most of the works were devoted to religious subjects, and to put their own name on paintings depicting saints was akin to sacrilege. Continue reading

What impact do paintings of Savrasov, Levitan and other famous landscape painters have on people

To understand these landscapes, one does not need any art education, no general erudition, or even knowledge of the name of the artist. The painting itself appeals to the viewer, causing in it long-forgotten or, on the contrary, carefully stored feelings, touches into some strings of the human soul, intimate, personal. But the emotions caused by mood landscapes nevertheless turn out to be similar to those that others experience when looking at these canvases. And also with those that once made the artist take up the brush.

What are mood landscapes, and thanks to whom they arose

When, when looking at the landscape, the heart suddenly contractes, grips grips, or, conversely, a feeling of happiness arises, when it seems that the picture almost conveys sounds, the freshness of the wind, cold or heat – this is the landscape of mood. Continue reading

Was there a boy, or what they argue about for many years, looking at Chardin’s picture “Prayer before dinner”
He was called the "artist of animals and fruits." He had a significant influence on Henri Matisse and Paul Cezanne. In art, this artist sought naturalness and humanity as opposed…

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The bloody drama that broke out centuries ago in Rembrandt’s brilliant painting Lucretius
As a rule, artists in all ages, creating their paintings, meticulously approached the choice of subjects that would inspire them to write unique and masterpieces. And since in the old…

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10 collectors whose investments in art are millions of dollars
The richest people in the world spend billions of dollars in order to collect a decent collection of antiques and art. Each collector has his own taste and his own…

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