Art Curiosities - True or False?

It’s easy to think that art history is something made of years and years of studies and knowledge. Ok, it takes studies and care to understand all of those historical and social processes that brought us to today’s concept of art. But we are forgetting that artists are just people gifted by a great sensibility, who talk about their own vision or life through art. But…what is so special In their lives? What are the oddities and peculiarities that male their lives so unique?

Let’s discover together legends and adventures of some famous artists through a TRUE or FALSE test.

• ·      Amedeo Modigliani: it has been said that he was so ashamed of his poor italian roots that once he came to Paris he started to dress up with very elegant clothes, and he got the nickname of “Prince of Jerusalem”.

TRUE. Amedeo was a very good looking man and he was very eye – catching in Montparnasse in 1905. Often he has been compared to David, His beauty and his attention for style made him earn the nickname of “Prince of Jerusalem”.

Amedeo Modigliani (Livorno July 12th 1884 - Paris  January 24th 1920)

• ·     Pablo Picasso was really loved by women, first because he was a fascinating and talented artist, but also because he was very careful with the women he loved.

This is obviously FALSE. Picasso was a very brusque  and competitive man, he loved a lot of women but none of them could gentle him. It’s symbolic the episode that concerned Dora Maar, a beautiful photographer and artist loved by Picasso, who has been humiliated and brought to depression and madness by this insane love.

 

Pablo Picasso (Malaga October 25th 1881 - Mougins April 2nd 1973)

• ·     At the beginning of his career,  Jean Michel Basquiat found Andy Warhol sitting on a bar in Manhattan, and he made him buy some of his artworks.

This story is TRUE. After Basquiat left his studies, he started selling some drawings to earn some money. When he first met Warhol he was so impressed by his style that he bought some of his drawings. It took some more years to make them be close friends and to make Basquiat come into Warhol’s Factory.

Andy Warhol (Pittsburgh August 6th 1928 - New York February 22nd 1987)
and Jean Michel Basquiat (New York December 22nd 1960 - New York August 12th 1988)
 

• ·     There are some theories about Holy Shroud, that say it’s nothing but a Leonardo da Vinci’s selfportrait.

This sentence is TRUE. The scientist Vittoria Haziel says that in around 1500 Leonardo worked on a length of flax with a red – hot piece of iron to draw the shape of a tortured corp, and to draw his own face on it. This theory is in the centre of a controversial debate because of chronologic mistakes, but even if it’s not sure, it’s a very interesting one.

Holy Shroud's face compared to Leonardo da Vinci's one.

• ·   The artwork “Il bacio” by Francesco Hayez, talks about a love story between two yoing lovers. Hayez tells us about a kiss in the Middle Age, in a very dark and mysterious atmosphere.

This sentences is FALSE, but there is a truth there. Hayez’s production is set during the Italian rebellion against Austrian Empire in the Nineteenth century, and this painting has a very strong sense of rebellion indeed.The two lovers in this artwork are the perfect metaphore of the Plombières Agreement in 1858, when France and Italy became leaguers. The impossibility of talking about the politic situation at that time brought writers and artists to censure their productions, that’s why Hayez found in Middle Age the perfect moment to set his national feelings in.

"Il bacio" by Francesco Hayez (Venice February 10th 1791 - Milan December 21st 1882)

• ·  It’s historically known the strong competition between Gianlorenzo Bernini e Francesco Borromini, the two biggest artists of Rome in 17^th century. It has been said that the Rio de La Plata statue is lifting up his arm to protect itself from the Sant’Angese in Agone Church’s crushdown, which is set in the same square and it’s made by Borromini. Meanwhile, the Nile statue is covering its head with its hands, not to see it.

The antagonism between Bernini e Borromini it’s absolutely a TRUE news. The legend of the Fountain of the Four Rivers is well known not only in art history but also between Rome’s citizens as well. But…it’s FALSE. The Fountain was actually built between 1648 and 1651, but the church’s construction started some time later, in 1652. The Nile’s pose is probably connected to the fact that its sources at that time were still unknown.

Detail of the Fountain of the Four Rivers - the Nile.

There's always something to discover, in art world.