30 interesting facts about art (31 photos)

When talking about art, we primarily rely on feelings and emotions, and not on the dry language of facts. However, art is full of things that might interest polymaths and quiz-seekers. So remember it - it will come in handy for your next walk through the Hermitage, when you want to show off your knowledge to others.





1. Bob Ross once helped a colorblind viewer by dedicating an entire episode to painting in gray.



2. Van Gogh painted two paintings called "Starry Night"

3. Leonardo da Vinci was a vegetarian and animal rights activist



4. Roman sculptures were made with removable heads so that one head could be replaced by another.



5. The most famous graffiti artist in the world is Banksy, but no one knows his real name.



6. A recent discovery in Spain reveals that the oldest drawings made by humans are over 42,000 years old.



7. Art was one of the disciplines at the Olympic Games



8. Leonardo da Vinci was ambidextrous - he could write with one hand while drawing with the other.



9. In Starry Night, Van Gogh captured the view from his mental hospital



10. Picasso believed that art was needed to sweep away the dust of everyday life from our souls.



11. Leonardo da Vinci was a procrastinator



12. The Scream, Edvard Munch's most famous painting, exists in five different versions.



13. Pablo Picasso was the main suspect in the theft of the Mona Lisa in 1911, but his innocence was proven in court.



14. One of the fathers of the Impressionist movement, Pierre Auguste Renoir, suffered from rheumatoid arthritis.



15. Before Van Gogh committed suicide in 1890, he sold only one painting, Red Vineyards at Arles.



16. 3500-year-old frescoes in Kerala are made from natural paints and vegetable dyes and are still preserved



17. Mona Lisa receives so many love messages that she has her own mailbox in the Louvre



18. Pablo Picasso loved animals, and kept a monkey, a goat, an owl, a turtle, and many cats and dogs in his house



19. Claude Monet was told that he should be a grocer rather than an artist.



20. Salvador Dali invented his famous flowing clock by watching pieces of Camembert cheese melt in the sun



21. In 1961, Henri Matisse's painting "The Boat" was hung upside down at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and it was not noticed until 46 days later.



22. The heads on Easter Island actually have bodies.



23. The first pencil was invented in England in 1565



24. Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci forever changed the way human bodies are depicted in paintings



25. Dali considered himself the reincarnation of his older brother, also named Salvador Dali



26. The most expensive painting sold in history is “Salvator Mundi” by Leonardo da Vinci, it was sold for $450.3 million



27. Michelangelo painted all the frescoes of the Sistine Chapel ceiling while standing, including the most famous part - “The Creation of Adam”



28. In 1911, after the Mona Lisa was stolen, more visitors came to the Louvre than ever before to look at the empty space on the wall.



29. The color wheel is older than the United States of America



30. Willard Wigan, a famous miniaturist, once accidentally inhaled his own creation.