(Newswire.net — April 25, 2022) — We have collected an overview of the best paintings in the world.
1. Sandro Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus
The birth of Venus Botticelli – one of the world’s most famous paintings
The painting “The Birth of Venus” by Sandro Botticelli (presumably 1485), which is housed in Florence’s Uffizi Gallery, is not only one of the most famous, but also one of the most sensual works of world pictorial art. Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de’ Medici, who owned the Villa Castello in 1486, commissioned the painting. Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de’ Medici is Lorenzo the Magnificent, Duke of Florence’s cousin.
Among Botticelli’s exceptional innovations, perhaps the most significant was the use of canvas, rather than a board, for a work of such large scale (172.5 x 278.5 cm).
The artist added a small amount of fat to the pigments to ensure that the canvas remained strong and elastic for an extended period of time and that the paint did not crack. Furthermore, it was discovered during the research that Botticelli applied a protective layer of egg yolk to the painting, ensuring that the “Birth of Venus” was well preserved.
2. Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa
Yes, we can’t live without Leonardo and at least a few of his works – who would argue otherwise? The most famous of his works is, of course, Mona Lisa, also known as Gioconda! It is believed that da Vinci began painting in Florence (Italy) in 1503 or 1504 and that the order took him up to four years to complete, despite its small size. However, there is no definitive date for when the painting was completed.
Although the Louvre, the world’s largest art museum and historical monument, where the original Mona Lisa is on display, claims that the painting was completed between 1503 and 1506, some historians and Leonardo experts argue that it could not have been completed before 1513. This question, however, remains unanswered.
The woman in the painting is thought to be an Italian noblewoman named Lisa del Giocondo, the wife of a wealthy Florentine silk merchant named Francesco del Giocondo. The painting was commissioned for their new home and to commemorate the birth of Andrea, their second son.
3. Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper
The Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci is one of the most revered, studied, and reproduced paintings ever created in our world. She is commemorated in books, films, paintings, music, and conspiracy theories. The “Last Supper” has spawned as many theories and legends as its creator, the brilliant “Leonardo da Vinci man orchestra.”
In any case, it appears that everything about Leonardo da Vinci’s “Last Supper” should be known. However, I believe there are some interesting facts about this masterpiece that you are unaware of. We’ll go over them. So, there you have it: some fascinating facts about Leonardo da Vinci’s painting “The Last Supper”!
4. Raphael Santi’s Sistine Madonna
The most famous painting in the world is Raphael’s “Sistine Madonna” (ital. Madonna Sistina), which has been in the Old Masters Gallery in Dresden since 1754. It belongs to one of the most well-known peaks of the High Renaissance and is rightly regarded as one of the most famous paintings in the world. The canvas was created by Raphael for the altar of the church of the monastery of St. Sixtus II in Piacenza by order of Pope Julius II and is huge in size (265 196 cm, the size of the painting is indicated in the Dresden Gallery catalog).
What was unusual for the early 16th century was that the material was a canvas rather than aboard. This could imply that the canvas was intended to be used as a banner (unless the choice of material is explained by the large dimensions of the work).
In the XVIII century, a legend spread (unsupported by historical documents) that Julius II commissioned a canvas from Raphael for his tomb, and that the Madonna was modeled after Raphael’s beloved Fornarina, Saint Sixtus was modeled after Pope Julius himself (nephew of Sixtus IV), and Saint Barbara was modeled after his niece Giulia Orsini. The acorns on Sixtus II’s robe clearly refer to these two popes from the Della Rovere family (Rovere — “oak”), according to supporters of the theory that the canvas was created for the papal tomb.
5. Michelangelo’s The Creation of Adam
“The Creation of Adam” (Ital. La creazione di Adamo) is a famous fresco by Michelangelo, painted around 1511 during the master’s work on painting the walls and vaults of the Sistine Chapel.
It should be noted that Michelangelo’s depiction of God was one of the first of its kind. Michelangelo was a true pioneer in depicting the Supreme Essence in this manner.
Khudzhnik portrayed God the Father as a great elder with long white hair and a beard, an image that became popular over time. It’s difficult to believe today, but no one had ever depicted God in this way before Michelangelo.
6. Claude Monet’s The Rising Sun (Impression)
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“Impression. The Rising Sun” is one of the most famous paintings in the world (Claude Monet)
There are only a few paintings in the history of painting that have a whole direction named after them. The painting “Impression. The Rising Sun” by Claude Monet (1872) is an example of this. Anyone, even those who are uninterested in art, has probably heard of the painting trend known as impressionism with the tip of his right or left ear – because it is impossible not to hear about it.
This is the most avant-garde breakthrough in the visual arts of the nineteenth century, a true revolution that was named after this very small (48 x 63 cm) and, at first glance, completely unremarkable Monet painting, the title of which in the original looks like this: Impression, Soleil levant (fr.)
7. Hieronymus Bosch’s The Garden of Earthly Delights
Hieronymus Bosch’s The Garden of Earthly Delights. The most famous painting in the world “The Garden of Earthly Delights” is the most famous and monumental triptych by Hieronymus Bosch, painted by the artist between 1500 and 1510 and now housed in Madrid’s wonderful Prado Museum.
The triptych’s enormous space (389 x 220 cm) is literally overflowing with transparent figures, fantastic constructions, monsters, flesh hallucinations, demonic caricatures of reality – this is one of those works that will take at least a month to consider in detail, and it may take a lifetime to comprehend!
The phantasmagoric world created by Bosch does not fit into any of the existing religious frameworks. It both frightens and attracts anyone who is fortunate enough to see the triptych in its original form, and the scenes and characters depicted by Bosch have long been “pulled apart for quotations,” which only adds to the popularity of this masterpiece.
8. El Greco’s Christ Carrying the Cross
El Greco painted at least seven copies of “Christ Bearing the Cross,” demonstrating both the importance of the work for the artist and its enormous popularity during El Greco’s lifetime. This is, in our opinion, one of El Greco’s best works, if not the best.
Perhaps this is because El Greco focused on the human hypostasis of Christ rather than the divine, which resulted in a truly touching painting.
Jesus’ tearful eyes, turned to the heavenly Father, expressing both a plea for mercy and a request to accept his sacrifice for sinful humanity’s salvation. It is Christ’s weakness that draws him so close to us, paradoxically allowing us to fully comprehend Jesus’ divine essence.
9. Diego Velasquez’s Menina
Diego Velasquez plays Menina. “Meninas” (Spanish Las Meninas — “ladies-in-waiting”), also known as “The Family of Philip IV,” is a painting by Diego Velasquez that was completed in 1656. The painting, which is now housed in Madrid’s Prado Museum, is rightfully regarded as one of the world’s most famous works of art.
The canvas depicts Velasquez painting a joint portrait of Spanish King Philip IV, his wife and niece Marianne of Austria, and their daughter Infanta Margarita Teresa and her retinue. The painting’s complex and mysterious composition raises questions about illusion and reality, as well as the uncertainty of the viewer’s connection to the characters.
“Meniny” is now regarded as one of the most significant and extensively studied paintings in Western art history. According to Luca Giordano, this painting represents the “theology of painting,” and Sir Thomas Lawrence, president of the Royal Academy of Arts, described it as “a genuine philosophy of art.” Furthermore, this monumental canvas (318 x 276 cm) is regarded as Velasquez’s highest achievement and is regarded as a “self-conscious and carefully verified demonstration of the limits of painting.” It is regarded as “perhaps the most profound statement about its capabilities ever made.”
10. Jan Vermeer’s “The Girl with the Pearl Earring”
The painting “The Girl with the Pearl Earring” (1665) by Dutch artist Jan Vermeer, which is housed in the Mauritshuis Museum in The Hague, Netherlands, is frequently compared to the “Mona Lisa” – a comparison that is entirely justified given the work’s fame.
Aside from stylistic differences, “A girl with a pearl earring” is not technically a portrait, but “troni” is a Dutch word for an image of a person’s head that is not a full-fledged portrait. Surprisingly, the painting was purchased for only two guilders and thirty cents in 1881 at an auction in The Hague!
And, from 2012 to 2014, while the Mauritshuis was being restored, “The Girl with the Pearl Earring” went on a tour of the United States, Italy, and Japan, drawing huge crowds everywhere and cementing her place as one of the world’s most famous paintings.
11. Ivan Aivazovsky’s The Ninth Shaft
The most well-known of Ivan Aivazovsky’s paintings, completed in 1850, is now housed in the State Russian Museum (St. Petersburg).
The scallops of foam on the tops of waves do not occur in open water spaces, but this does not change the obvious fact: none of the paintings by marine artists painted over the last 300 years can be compared in skill, effect on the viewer, or fame to the “Ninth Shaft” Aivazovsky.
Surprisingly, the artist painted a copy of his monumental canvas (221 x 332 cm) in 1857, with dimensions of only 28 x 42.2 cm. This miniature replica of the author is currently housed in the Altai Territory State Museum.
12. Vincent Van Gogh’s Starry Night
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“Starry Night” (1889) is more than just a post-impressionist painting, and it is more than just a painting by the most prominent representative of this trend, Vincent Van Gogh. “Starry Night” is perhaps the most famous painting by the Dutch artist, whose fame has spread far beyond the limited club of painting lovers and has become a universal property, as with “Card Players” by Paul Cezanne or “The Permanence of Memory” by Salvador Dali.
Van Gogh painted “Starry Night” in 1889 to heal the “wounds of the soul” he had with Paul Gauguin at the Saint-Paul de Mozol clinic for the mentally ill (Saint Remy de Provence).
Despite his stay in the “yellow house,” the saddest place on Earth, Van Gogh felt a surge of creative energy and wrote a lot, creating, among other things, the well-known painting “Irises,” which is now one of the world’s most expensive paintings.
13. Kazimir Malevich’s “Black Square”
Yes, dear friends: “The Black Supremacist Square,” painted by Kazimir Malevich in 1915, is somewhat out of the general series: it is difficult to call it “beautiful” with all the desire, but the fact remains: “The Black Square” is one of the most famous paintings in the history of painting.
You can be as indignant as you want about the squalor of this work and the “greatest fraud in the history of world art,” which is the “Black Square,” but please name at least one person who hasn’t heard of it – and then don’t expect me to believe you. Malevich’s suprematist square is either beautiful or terrible, depending on one’s taste, but it was and continues to be one of the most discussed works of all time.
14. Gustav Klimt’s “The Kiss”
“The Kiss” is a painting by Gustav Klimt, completed in 1908 by an Austrian artist and now housed in Vienna’s Belvedere Gallery. In the context of the rest of the artist’s work, which seems to literally breathe chastity – or is it just “it seems”? – Klimt’s most famous work, and one of the most famous paintings in the world in general, has become an absolutely “harmless” thing.
Klimt, on the other hand, purposefully forces the viewer to perceive the plot in this manner.
15. Edvard Munch’s The Scream
The most famous painting in the world “Scream” is the title of not one, but a whole series of works by the Norwegian expressionist Edvard Munch, created between 1895 and 1910.
One of the versions of the “Scream” made in 1895 (cardboard, pastel) became especially well-known after it was auctioned for $ 120,000,000 at Sotheby’s in 2012, which was an absolute record for auction sales at the time.
The main character of “Scream,” who resembled an embryo, a skull, and a sperm, clasping his hands in horror and agony, became a “cult” and received many interpretations in popular culture, becoming a kind of symbol of absolute horror, agony, and anxiety in which a human being resides…
16. Pablo Picasso’s Guernica
Guernica is one of Pablo Picasso’s most famous paintings. It was completed between May and June 1937 and is now housed in the Reina Sofia Museum in Madrid. The title of the painting is a direct reference to the bombing of the Basque city of Guernica on April 26, 1937, by forces of the German legion “Condor” during the Spanish Civil War.
Picasso was commissioned by the government of the Second Spanish Republic to create a painting that would be displayed in the Spanish Pavilion at the 1937 International Exhibition in Paris to draw public attention to the plight of the Republicans.
When General Franco’s military dictatorship in Spain was established in the 1940s, Pablo Picasso preferred to leave the painting in the Museum of Modern Art in New York, expressing his intention to return Guernica to Spain only after the country’s democratic system was restored.
17. Salvador Dali’s The Persistence of Memory
And, of course, a list of the world’s most famous paintings would be unthinkable without the works of our beloved Salvador Dali. If we had our way, we’d include at least a dozen of his works in this list, but we’ll settle for two, one of which is “The Persistence of Memory” (1931).
When the artist painted this unimpressive canvas (the size of the canvas is only 24 X 33 cm) during the famine of 1931, he probably had no idea that the image of his “soft watch” would become known to every inhabitant of the planet Earth – including people who are infinitely removed from art.
There was a reason why the “hungry year” was mentioned. It is critical to understand the circumstances surrounding the creation of one or more of Salvador Dali’s paintings in order to fully appreciate his work.