9 Famous Paintings That Hide Pictures Under Their Layers of Paint (The Original Mona Lisa Impresses)

Painters and writers often change their works so much in the process of working that the final version can be startlingly different from the original. It also happens that an editor or another painter interferes with the life of a painting or a text. And if drafts remain from literary works from which to restore the process of work in a book, with the visual arts everything is more complicated.

O awesome.club conducted an investigation and found “ghost paintings” under some famous canvases, which no one had suspected before.

This painting has always caused a lot of controversy. A new wave of discussions erupted in 2015, exactly 100 years after its creation, when, under the layer of black paint, one and then another hidden image was discovered.

These images belong to different painting styles. The first is Cubofuturism, and the second, which is directly below the black square, is Suprematism. In the opinion of some researchers, the three images symbolize the artist’s transition from one current to another.

On the other hand, an inscription was found on the image and deciphered. It says: “The battle of the blacks in a dark cave”. Experts believe this to be a reference to Alphonse Allais’ lost canvas, which is a black rectangle.

The history of the changes in this painting remains a mystery. But restorers managed to restore the original image.

Initially, a certain lady was painted on canvas, whom she later decided to transform into a saint: for this, a palm branch, a shattering wheel and even a cape on her shoulders were added. The unicorn, which apparently didn’t fit the concept, was completely eliminated. For the first time, the painting became known under the name of “Saint Catherine of Alexandria”.

When the restorers continued to study the painting, they discovered that, first of all, instead of a unicorn, the lady initially held a puppy. And secondly, Raphael himself had painted only the woman, the landscape and the sky, while the details (the columns, the parapet, the dog) were done by another artist.

By the way, X-rays were used for the first time to study this image in detail.

The mystery of this painting was revealed thanks to another famous artist: Salvador Dalí. The canvas did not give him rest, he painted the figures of people in various ways in his works more than 60 times. But he still couldn’t understand the reason for the deep pain of the man and the woman.

In the end, Dalí asked experts at the Louvre Museum to study the painting. They accepted and, as it turned out, did well. On the canvas, a hidden layer was discovered on which an unbaptized dead boy who was being buried in the countryside had been painted.

Then, in Millet’s memoirs, information was found that the original painting was called A Child’s Funeral in the Countryside🇧🇷 But to facilitate the sale, its name had been changed.

As for Dalí, about the discovery, he simply said: “I have always felt death in this painting”.

Like many other artists, Rembrandt sometimes painted some of his canvases on top of other paintings. And researchers continue to find “ghost images” to this day.

So, in 1968, scientists for the first time discovered a second portrait under the screen. An Old Man in Military Suit🇧🇷 But examining and studying it in detail was only possible in 2015, thanks to new technologies.

Experts believe the painting shows the artist’s father. But they have trouble identifying the person whose portrait was found under the visible-to-all layer.

In 2008, Belgian and Dutch scientists discovered a hidden layer in one of the famous painter Van Gogh’s paintings. grass patch it was painted in shades of blue and green, and the hidden image is in red and brown, revealing a portrait of a woman.

She looks like a peasant girl, but the identity of the person in the picture has not been established. Experts believe that, due to lack of money, Van Gogh simply painted one image on top of another, taking advantage of the canvas.

French engineer Pascal Kotté discovered that in Da Vinci’s famous painting Lady with Ermine, there shouldn’t be any animals. The artist added it later, and experts don’t have a single opinion on why. There are different versions.

According to one of them, the painting represents a mistress of the Duke of Milan, whose family emblem was precisely the ermine. Another version suggests that the woman was likely to be pregnant and that the animal in her belly symbolized purity and chastity. Finally, according to a third hypothesis, the represented woman was very dominant and kept the duke in check.

Others believe the painting does not depict an ermine, but simply a white ferret.

To recreate this painting, scientists undertook a real treasure hunt. The canvas was displayed in the first third of the 20th century and then disappeared. It was believed that it had simply been destroyed by the artist.

The situation changed when, in 2013, employees of the Museum of Modern Art in New York suspected that, under the “portrait” of René Magritte, there was another hidden image. An X-ray was taken and revealed… the torso of a missing screen woman. Then began the search for the remaining four parts.

The search ended in 2017. The missing pieces were found in other paintings and in other museums. However, it was not possible to assemble the puzzle, as other frames would have to be destroyed. Therefore, the painting was restored only in digital format.

As with many other paintings, no one suspected the presence of any hidden image in it. When the time for restoration came and the specialists removed the old varnish coating, on the horizon appeared the silhouette of a man looking at something resembling a sailboat.

When the study continued, it turned out that people flocked to the beach for one reason: there was a large whale on which a man was standing. The sailboat was the fin of the marine mammal. According to scientists, the animal was hidden in the 18th or 19th century so as not to cause public outrage over the dead whale.

One of the most famous and mysterious paintings continues to amaze the entire world with its secrets. under the image of Mona Lisa two more portraits were found.

And so the scientists split into two camps. Some believe that the results of the investigation can significantly affect the perception of the masterpiece and the revelation of its secrets. Others consider that the researchers found only traces of the creative process and that there is no other portrait in the painting.

For now, there have been no official comments on the matter from the Louvre’s representatives.

What secrets of famous paintings do you know?