fun facts with Queen! (Properly this time, mostly about paintings, you’d learn more in Art History):
1. Did you know, the ‘Starry Night’ painting by Vincent Willem Van Gogh was painted during Vincent’s time in a mental hospital? The painting depicts the view he saw from his bedroom window, the only thing he saw for most of his time at the hospital. Vincent actually disliked the painting, as he thought he didn’t capture the stars right, he believed it would be his most disliked painting and now it is one of the most popular paintings out there.
2. There are many paintings of the biblical story of Judith, but ‘Judith Beheading Holofernes’ by Artemisia Gentileschi is one of the more notable ones. There is actually another story behind the story of Judith, a story about Artemisia herself. Artemisia painted herself as Judith and Holofernes as her own husband and also her rapist. See Artemisia had been raped by a man, but when she told her father of the situation he did not believe her, so he forced her to marry her rapist. She drew the painting to express her displeasure in the situation and also depict the issue with treatment towards women during the time.
3. Did you know, the original Mona Lisa had been attacked multiple times? Once when a tourist threw a rock at it, breaking the protective glass and damaging the painting. Major steps were taken to insure the painting’s safety and keep anyone from damaging it. Though it’s still not impossible to harm Leonardo’s painting, it is extremely difficult.
4. The ‘Mona Lisa’ was actually a commission from an anonymous person but for some reason, Leonardo Da Vinci kept the painting and even traveled with it. No one knows why he did this nor does anyone know anything about the client who asked for the painting.
5. Final fact about the ‘Mona Lisa’ I promise is that if you look closely at the background of the painting, you can see that it’s parts of different backgrounds stitched together. You see a bridge that does not continue. A mountain range that seems to just stop, high ground the ends abruptly behind her head. No one knows why the painting is done like this, it could be the simplest thing like “Leonardo or the client just wanted it that way” or it could be something complicated and far off from simply wanting it that way.
6. No one knows who ‘Girl With a Pearl Earring’ is. Speculation lead to a novel, a movie and even a screenplay. The girl depicted in the painting was likely Vermeer’s eldest of 10, Maria. Though this has never been confirmed, people still wonder who the ‘Girl With a Pearl Earring’ is, or shall I say ‘Girl in a Turban’ or perhaps ‘Mona Lisa of the west’ the painting has many names and a single nickname. The most popular being ‘Girl With a Pearl Earring’ or ‘Madonna With a Pearl Earring’
7. The Persistence of Memory by Dali was actually created in a hallucination. Around the time it was painted, Dali perfected his “paranoia-critical method” The artist would attempt to enter a meditative state of self-induced psychotic hallucinations so that he could make what he called “hand-painted dream photographs.”
8. Vincent Van Gogh’s ‘The Night Café’ actually has a deeper meaning in terms of colors. Rather than just being a café, the painting also shows a sense of despair, Van Gogh achieved that using the contrasting colors of red, dark yellow and green. Van Gogh’s use of colors to create a sense of emotion made his painting a historical masterpiece and one of his best.
9. K enough paintings, there’s a total of 16 Diary of a Wimpy Kid Books and 24 Dork Diaries, as well as 3 Diary of a Super Awesome Friendly Kid. Is that a fun fact? Who knows I just wanted to say it haha.
10. There’s still a lot we don’t know about Komodo Dragons, their fossils sate back to millions of years. But we do know their tails are as long as their bodies, they are poisonous and carnivorous, they live on their own island and they might have originated in Australia. They may be overgrown lizards, but they’re my overgrown lizards, one day I can have them as pets to create my army of animals, 5 snakes, 23 cats, 14 birds, 2 Komodo Dragons and 85 undecided animals.