Each sculptural masterpiece has hidden secrets that few people know. A true masterpiece always proves its appeal. It makes you admire and think that only genius can create a perfect beauty out of an inanimate rock. However, there are still some pretty funny mysteries that you don’t know about them.
Everyone makes mistakes, and even geniuses can’t avoid it. On the Bright Side page, take a new look at world-famous art masterpieces and uncover a number of inaccuracies, whether intentional or unintentional. Let’s refer to 8 sculptural masterpieces that hide secrets that few people know in the article below!
© Jörg Bittner Unna / commons.wikimedia © Jörg Bittner Unna / commons.wikimedia
The Statue of David is a statue sculpted by Michelangelo between 1501 and 1504 – a masterpiece of Renaissance sculpture and also one of Michelangelo’s two greatest sculptures. This statue is seen as a symbol of youthful beauty and strength.
The statue of David – the biblical hero was carved from a single Carrara stone. Michelangelo’s sculptures are usually highly precise in terms of the body, but the statue of David has a small flaw : a piece of muscle is lost between the spine and the right shoulder blade. The sculptor was unable to carve it due to a defect in the marble block.
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Ivan Aivazovsky’s painting ” The Ninth Wave ” depicts a group of shipwrecked victims, all of whom are about to be engulfed by a giant wave. A merciless blow of the force of nature, waves billowing, rising violently and crashing down with tremendous force, revealing a moment of abyss below. The incessant movement of clouds and bubbles adds to the impression of a raging sea storm.
Painter Ivan Aivazovsky observed this scene from the shore and assumed that all waves in the sea were the same. However, the waves generated during storms in the open sea are conical and look different from those in the river section.
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Statue of Moses is a famous sculpture of Michelangelo – a talented painter and sculptor of the Renaissance period.
A famous anecdote says that, after finishing the statue of Moses, Michelangelo hit the statue’s knee with a hammer and cried: ” Why don’t you talk to me? “. Also because the statue of Moses is so real. However, the story would not be worth telling, if the statue of Moses did not possess a pair of horns .
Many art historians have suggested that Michelangelo misunderstood the Bible . In the Bible there is a passage: ” It is difficult for the Jews to see the face of Moses when he came down to Mount Sinai with a stone tablet “. The Hebrew word ” karnayim – dazzling ” seems to have been misinterpreted as ” horns ” when translated into Italian and so the statue of Moses possesses a pair of very beautiful, unrelated horns.
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Édouard Manet’s painting ” A Bar at the Folies-Bergere ” in the Courtauld Gallery in London has been much discussed. The bar girl in the Manet painting does not look directly at the viewer, but looks everywhere with a tired and sad face . She was unfamiliar with her detailed surroundings, trying to ignore sleazy customers, including the man who looked sinister and unintelligible in the mirror. Work was a series of unnamed things, sex relationships were dangerous, and the magnificent city of Paris was an empty nightclub in Manet’s eyes at the time. Because of that, all of those things showed up in the young girl’s face.
If you look in the mirror, you can immediately tell that the reflection is not true : the bottles on the counter are placed in different positions and the waiter seems to be looking in a different direction. In the painting, there is a young woman standing in front of a large mirror, because we see her back reflected, but this reflection is not completely reflected from the normal angle and this back is facing a man standing in front of her.
Viewers seem to be standing directly across from the bartender outside the bar, looking at what’s reflected in a mirror. However, when we look closely, we may wonder where the viewer stands? Is it the position of the man in the upper right corner outside the counter in front of the mirror of the painting? And who is the man in the picture? It was the painter Édouard Manet.
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Rembrandt’s painting ” Night watch ” is full of unanswered questions. There is much debate about Captain Frans Banning Cocq’s gloves : the gloved hand on the right hand is holding another glove. Many art historians think this is a way to bring humor to the painting. Others suggested that the glove was the left hand glove, and that the captain held it with his ring finger while his thumb was pointed towards the viewer.
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Onlookers who pay close attention can observe that the fruit basket is ” clinging ” to the edge of the table but not falling, defying the laws of physics. Besides, art experts noticed that the fruits in the basket did not seem to be in season: the painting was painted the night before Easter, before the autumn harvest. All these mistakes are intentional: apples, grapes as well as fish-shaped silhouettes of fruit baskets, carry Christian symbols and Gospel ( Evangelical ) documents.
See also: Only a genius can find all the differences in these 16 photos!
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Sandro Botticelli was a genius Italian painter of the pre-Renaissance period. ” The Birth of Venus ” is his greatest work and is considered as a symbol of ” Truthfulness-Compassion-America “. In Greek mythology, Venus was born from the sea foam, the child of the Lord of the sky – the god Uranus. The birth of Venus became a major topic in painting, there are very famous paintings by Cabanel, Bouguereau or Amaury Duval.
However, Sandro Botticelli’s painting is still widely recognized as the most perfect and classic work. In the painting, Venus is depicted with brilliant golden cloud hair, white skin, a holy face, and plump lips. Besides, Venus has a round, full body, full of life, symbolizing fertility, love, joy and beauty.
Although Renaissance sculpture is said to have high anatomical accuracy, Venus still has notable defects, such as a swollen foot and an excessively long neck . According to one opinion, these mistakes are intentional to avoid depicting a woman’s perfect body.
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At first glance, you might get the impression that Pope Sixtus II has six fingers on his right hand . However, after looking back more carefully, you will realize that what you see about the sixth finger is part of the palm. The growth next to Madonna’s little toe could be a sign of polydactyly – polydactyly – a birth defect in which people have extra toes or fingers. Although this is usually not life-threatening, or even particularly disruptive, most Westerners have surgery to remove the extra toe.
Do you know which is the original Mona Lisa painting by Leonardo Da Vinci?
Mona Lisa painting.
Leonardo da Vinci is an almighty Italian genius: an outstanding painter, architect, musician, transcendental engineer, a scientist ahead of his time… Without a doubt, the Mona Lisa is a work of art. The most famous painting in the world, considered the standard of beauty.
The painting shows a plump, kind-hearted woman with a slight smile on the corner of her mouth. Descendants have tried to analyze the mystery of Mona Lisa’s smile : is she smiling or not smiling, what that smile means, how Da Vinci can create such a smile… but never give a satisfactory answer. Moreover, there have been a series of theories and myths surrounding the painting’s prototype.
Few people know that there is another version of La Gioconda – the Isleworth Mona Lisa that is believed to have been painted by Da Vinci, although it had been painted many years before that. This image was found in a private collection more than a century ago and is now on display at the Prado Museum, Madrid. Maybe one day it will help find answers to the questions posed by the Mona Lisa?