empires succeed
Fraud paintings: How artists have confused viewers for centuries
Optical illusions are not a new phenomenon, the first “illusionists” were ancient creators. With the development of painting, the skill of artists in creating fake paintings was also improved – at first confusing, always bewitching and memorable.
It is now impossible to determine which of the ancient artists guessed about the possibilities that the image opens on the flat surface of a three-dimensional object. But both the Greeks and the Romans used the drawings on the walls in order to visually enlarge the room, to make it lighter, more spacious, more beautiful – so false windows, doors, atriums appeared. Findings in Pompeii and Herculaneum – ancient Roman cities where most of the frescoes of antiquity have survived – show that even in those days, illusion paintings were popular. Continue reading
From cave paintings to drawings of the great Pushkin: History of a portrait profile
The profile, which in the modern world is associated primarily with self-presentation in the Internet space, in its original meaning of a half-turn, a silhouette, is almost the same age as the fine art. The appearance of a profile portrait, as well as the decline in its popularity, is most directly related to the main stages of the development of human culture.
The ancestors of modern man knew how to create images of their own kind in the Paleolithic period. The surviving cave paintings show scenes from the life of a caveman, with animals and people, as a rule, painted in profile.
In ancient Egypt, a man’s head was also portrayed from a side angle, while the body was turned towards the viewer. The Assyrians and artists of the early periods of civilization of Ancient Greece adhered to the same rules. The fact is that drawing a profile required significantly less skills from a master than using other angles, nevertheless allowing to achieve similarity with the original and realize the goals of the work. Continue reading
Why the picture of John Millet “Christ in the parental home” caused a scandal and the beginning of a new direction in art
The picture in which Christ and his family were depicted as “ordinary people” caused a once-great resonance in English society. Many considered the excessive realism inappropriate and even “disgusting.” But the young artist who created this work had his own motives for that – and time has shown that the calculation was justified.
Conquer the Academy of Arts and start a rebellion against its foundations
The author of the picture, which caused an extremely stormy resonance in English society, was John Everett Millet, who was born in Southampton in 1829. He was considered a young genius – from the age of nine he showed brilliant abilities in drawing, and from eleven became the youngest student of the Royal Academy of Arts in its entire history. Among Millet’s achievements over the years of study were the Academy’s silver medal for drawing, a gold medal for his painting, and recognition of his work as the best at the 1846 exhibition. Continue reading
