30 Things About Famous Works of Art People Misunderstand

Here’s a stack of actuallys for dealing with fancy people
30 Things About Famous Works of Art People Misunderstand

We all know insufferable people who claim to understand Art with a capital A, and who deliver condescending lectures to the rest of us. But the thing is, sometimes the thing people commonly believe about famous art is objectively wrong. And so, here’s your chance to turn the tables and be the insufferable one for a change…

#savepepe Matt Furie, the artist who created Pepe the Frog, never intended for it to be a political symbol. Pepe is just supposed to be a chill dude.
Mark Rothko's No. 5/No. 22 is seen by most as a colorful abstract that depicts optimism... E ...but Rothko himself described the painting as violen
CRACKEDCO Horrifying image of a woman striking a child with a hammer? Nope! This painting from the poem Roman de la Rose by Guillaume de Lorris and Je
The name of van Gogh's famous Self Portrait' has been changed to Self Portrait or Portrait of Theo van Gogh. In 2011, van Gogh specialists compare
The couple depicted in American Gothic aren't husband and wife. They're father and daughter. Artist Grant Wood wanted to paint the type of people he t
The Rape of the Daughters of Leucippus by Peter Paul Rubens doesn't use the word 'rape' as it is understood today but rather in its Latin version 'rap
No one knows who the Mona Lisa is. one of the most provocative theories is that it is a self portrait of Leonardo da Vinci as a woman. CRACKED COM
Contrary to popular belief, the clocks in Salvador Dali's The Persistence of Memory are not inspired by Albert Einstein's theory of special relativity
CRACKEDo COM Although Michelangelo's David looks serene, a close-up on his face reveals that he's intensely glaring at something.
The Swing by Jean-Honore Fragonard is actually depicting sex. It was commissioned by the Baron de Saint Julien, and features him looking up his mist
GRACKEDOON Ancient Romans were obsessed with dicks. They drew them everywhere and even wore phallic amulets. But this art form was driven by religion
Robert Longo's Men in the Cities aren't a statement on '80s yuppie culture. The subjects are often confused as dancing yuppies even appearing in Ame
CRACKEDCON Ufologists claim Madonna with Saint Giovannino depicts an alien Spaceship... but most nativity scenes of the time included a shepherd behol
William Blake's Newton was not made to praise the great scientist, but to mock him. Blake despised Enlightenment ideals and detested Newton's scienti
CRACKED.CON Ancient Greek and Roman sculptures were actually rendered in vivid colors. They only appear white because time and weather have eroded mos

Starry Night

Starry Night isn't a painting of a real scene. Van Gogh made it during the day, painting what he saw in his mind.
The banana taped to wall isn't worth CRAGKEDAON $120,000 Its certificate of authenticity is (Because it's a acollectors'item'). The piece is called T

Hidden Meanings

Les Demoiselles CRACKEDc COM d'Avignon means The Ladies of Avignon, right? Literally, yes, but the title refers to Avignon Street in Barcelona, which
Christina's World CRACKEDCOR by Andrew Wyeth seems at first glance to be a serene moment of life in the country and a beautiful girl in a pink dress,
Barrie, Ontario's Spirit Catcher is often mistaken for carrying knives. They're actually meant to be quills. It's just hard to convey that in a scul
This is a steel sculpture in the Spanish city of Algeciras. It's called MONUMENT TO ANDALUCIA or MONUMENT TO THE WIND, and represents the swing of a F
Rodin's The Kiss is often seen as portraying an idyllic romantic pair, but theyre actually adulterers about to be murdereds From Dante's Inferno, it i
Andy Warhol's Marilyn Diptych isn't about Monroe's death, but about her life. 0 30 Or 0 01 OF 10 Os 0 0 0f 0 0f O The colorful side represents her p
The Charging Bull has become a symbol of the greediness of Wall Street... FILN NE YOR ACTING AADT but it was made by an immigrant to thank the country
Liberty Leading the People isn't a celebration of the French Revolution of 1790... but the toppling of Charles X 40 years later. CRACKEDc COM
Rembrandt's THE NIGHT WATCH is neither set at night, nor called THE NIGHT WATCH at all. It was originally kNOWN as the quite literal Civic Guardsmen

The Thinker

Rodin didn't intend The Thinker to be, well, a thinker. He created it as the crowning piece of his sculpture The Gates of Hell. His name for it was Th
John Trumbull's Declaration ofIndependence,. July4, 1776 is how most people envision the first 4th of July, but it is full of inaccuracies. 1. This ce
CRACKEDC COM It is easy for viewers to assume that the woman in Jan van Eyck's Arnolfini Portrait is pregnant. She isn't. ro271 If you take a closer
In The Scream, the ghostly figure isn't screaming- it's blocking out nature's scream. Edvard Munch's inscription on one version says, I felt the grea
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