The most terrible picture in the world. The most "scary" picture

Each of us is afraid of something in life - floods, illness, shame, war... Most of these fears are strongly associated with death. Some artists have the talent to transfer human fears onto canvas - and such images evoke goosebumps and unpleasant feelings when viewed. Now we will tell you about the most terrible paintings in the world.

"The Crying Boy" by Bruno Amadio

Let's start with the most seemingly harmless, but so catchy picture - it belongs to the hand of Bruno Amadio. According to one legend, the boy depicted in the painting was the son of the artist. But the father could not get the baby to cry. Realizing that he would not achieve anything by persuasion, Bruno lit matches in front of the boy’s face. A child driven to despair once shouted to his father in anger: “May you burn yourself!” Be that as it may, the artist completed what he started, and two weeks later, the young sitter died of pneumonia, and two weeks later the artist’s house caught fire, in which he himself and almost all of his works burned down - only one remained - the most terrible picture in the world – “The Crying Boy”. According to the second legend, the boy was an orphan - his parents died in the war, and he himself lived in an orphanage. When the artist, who had finished his work, left, the shelter burned to the ground.

We are unlikely to know the truth about the appearance of the film, but the fact is obvious - “The Crying Boy” was a huge success. Several hundred reproductions were made, which were successfully distributed throughout the country. And after that, a wave of fires swept through - completely burned houses took with them the lives of their owners. Very often, a surviving reproduction was found among the smoldering firebrands. People wrote letters to newspapers, telling them terrible stories - about accidents, deaths, fires and everywhere there was a picture hanging on the wall in the living room. As a result, the authorities reported through one of the printed publications that it is highly not recommended to keep the painting at home and urged residents to quickly get rid of the damned masterpiece.

To this day, residents of northern England remember the notorious painting. By the way, the original painting disappeared without a trace.

"Hands Reach", Bill Stoneham

This canvas was born in 72 of the last century - it depicts two children and a glass door, behind which hundreds of children's hands reaching out of the darkness are clearly visible. When this terrible picture was presented to the general public, visitors who came to the exhibition experienced hysterics and fainting. Behind this painting, like its predecessor, there is a trail of unhappy stories.

It began the moment its first owner, actor John Marley, died. Soon after this event, a terrible picture was found in a trash heap. The couple took it for themselves and installed it on the wall in the nursery. On the very first night, their little daughter came running to her parents, in tears she told them that the children depicted in the picture were fighting. After this, the head of the family installed a camera, the built-in motion sensor triggered several times, this was enough for the couple to decide to get rid of the mystical canvas. This is how “Hands Reach” ended up at the famous auction.

By the way, this is not the only such painting; the artist has repeatedly addressed the theme of a boy with a doll. And after some time, he drew two more pictures - they clearly show the metamorphoses taking place with the boy, who was getting older, and the doll, which was slowly turning into a living girl.

"The Weavers' Revolt"

This is not one picture, this is a whole series dedicated to workers, mothers with children, people exhausted by hunger, poverty and war. All of them belong to the hand of the German artist Käthe Kollwitz. The inspiration was the largest weavers' revolt that took place in Silesia in the mid-nineteenth century. The mass uprising was brutally suppressed by police forces - the memory of that period is too burning and therefore those in power forbade even thinking about it with all their might.

"Black Shack"

This is the creation of Zdzislaw Weksinka, a Polish artist whose favorite theme was deformed people and collapsing worlds. For a long time in England there has been a legend about a huge black dog, he has flickering red eyes, and he appears only at night. The traveler, finding himself alone in the night, first hears the sound of his heavy tread, and then sees two red eyes looking at him from the darkness. The dog never attacks, but its appearance is a sign that the passerby's days are numbered - he will die within a year.

"Saturn Devouring His Children"

When the elderly court artist lost his hearing, he became even more unsociable. Francisco Goya was the name of the eccentric old man. When he died, in his house, which no one had access to during the artist’s lifetime, canvases were discovered, the likes of which art had never known before. The most famous and most terrible of them is “Saturn Devouring His Children.”

"King and queen"

The Polish artist who painted these pictures was a very shy guy, but quite pleasant to talk to. But the work of Zdzislaw Beksinski was quite gloomy. He never gave names to his paintings and painted them to the sounds of classical music. The artist died because he refused to lend money to the son of the commandant of the house. Angered by the refusal, the young man inflicted 17 stab wounds on the artist - 2 of them cost Zdislav his life.

When it comes to painting, the imagination tends to draw pastoral scenes and majestic portraits. But in fact, fine art is multifaceted. It happened that the brushes of great artists produced very controversial paintings that hardly anyone would want to hang in their home. In our review of the 10 most terrible paintings by famous artists.

1. The Great Red Dragon and the Beast from the Sea. William Blake

William Blake is known today for his prints and romantic poetry, but was largely unappreciated during his lifetime. Blake's prints and illustrations are classics of the Romantic style, but today we'll look at a series of Blake's watercolor paintings that depict the great red dragon from the Book of Revelation. This painting depicts a large red dragon, the embodiment of the devil, standing on a seven-headed beast in the sea.

2. Study of the portrait of Innocent X by Velazquez. Francis Bacon

Francis Bacon was one of the most influential artists of the 20th century. His paintings, striking in their boldness and darkness, sell for millions of dollars. During his lifetime, Bacon often painted his own interpretations of the portrait of Pope Innocent X. In the original work by Velazquez, Pope Innocent X looks thoughtfully from the canvas, and Bacon depicted him screaming.

3. Dante and Virgil in Hell. Adolphe William Bouguereau

Dante's Inferno, with its depiction of terrible torture, has inspired artists since the publication of this work. Bouguereau is best known for his realistic depictions of classical scenes, but in this painting he depicted the circle of hell where imposters continually fight to steal each other's identities through biting.

4. Death of Marat. Edvard Munch

Edvard Munch is Norway's most famous artist. His famous painting “The Scream,” which personifies melancholy, is firmly ingrained in the consciousness of any person who cares about art. Marat was one of the leading political leaders of the French Revolution. Since Marat suffered from a skin disease, he spent most of the day in the bathroom, where he worked on his works. It was there that Marat was killed by Charlotte Corday. More than one artist has depicted the death of Marat, but Munch’s painting is especially realistic and cruel.

5. Severed heads. Theodore Gericault

Géricault's most famous work is "The Raft of the Medusa" - a huge painting in the romantic style. Before creating major works, Géricault painted “warm-up” paintings like “Severed Heads,” for which he used real limbs and severed heads. The artist took similar material from morgues.

6. Temptation of Saint Anthony. Matthias Grunewald

Grunewald often painted religious images in a medieval style, although he lived during the Renaissance. Saint Anthony went through several tests of his faith while living in the desert. According to one legend, Saint Anthony was killed by demons living in a cave, but was later reborn and destroyed them. This painting depicts Saint Anthony, who was attacked by demons.

7. Still life of masks. Emil Nolde

Emil Nolde was one of the first Expressionist artists, although his fame was soon eclipsed by a number of other Expressionists such as Munch. The essence of this movement is the distortion of reality to show a subjective point of view. This painting was made by the artist after researching masks in the Berlin Museum.

8. Saturn devouring his son. Francisco Goya

In Roman myths, which are largely based on Greek mythology, the father of the gods devoured his own children so that they would never dethrone him. It is this act of killing children that Goya depicted. The painting was not intended for the public, but was painted on the wall of the artist's home along with several other dark paintings, collectively known as "Black Painting."

9. Judith and Holofernes. Caravaggio

In the Old Testament there is a story about the brave widow Judith. Judea was attacked by an army led by the general Holofernes. Judith left the city walls and headed to the camp of the army besieging the city. There she seduced Holofernes with the help of her beauty. When the commander slept drunk at night, Judith cut off his head. This scene is quite popular among artists, but Caravaggio's version is especially creepy.

10. Garden of earthly delights. Hieronymus Bosch

Hieronymus Bosch is usually associated with fantastic and religious paintings. "The Garden of Earthly Delights" is a triptych. The three panels of the painting respectively depict the Garden of Eden and the creation of mankind, the Garden of Earthly Delights and the Punishment for sins that occur in the earthly garden. Bosch's works are some of the most gruesome yet most beautiful works in the history of Western art.

Everyone in this hectic life is afraid of something. Some are afraid of shame, some are afraid of death, some are afraid of more global things like war, floods, cholera epidemics and all that. In general, let's not argue - most of the average person's fears are related to death. Hence, the reasons why certain paintings are cursed and avoided by entire generations of people are quite obvious.

Compared to other works on the list, creativity Stephen Gammell(Stephen Gammell) - children's pencil and charcoal drawings. But little children cannot look at his paintings without tears.

As soon as Bruno Amadino(Bruno Amadino) finished painting his painting "The Crying Boy" from life, his studio burned to the ground, and only the last painting he painted survived. And the orphan boy, after whom she was drawn, was hit by a car. Later, many times firefighters found copies of this painting in houses damaged by devastating fires, although the painting was never redrawn by anyone, since, according to rumors, the soul of the dead boy lives in it.

One of the most terrible pictures that humanity has seen. Its owners say that the painting comes to life, some details disappear from it, and people who are somehow connected with it have a tendency to tragic and painful deaths.

Francis Bacon is a British artist renowned for his surreal and homoerotic paintings in his signature mind-blowing style. It doesn’t seem scary when looking at them, but after looking closely, you want to curl up into a ball and hide somewhere far away.

Jane Alexander is known for her unusual sculptures. One of them, "The Butcher Boys", shows us three men without genitals in a semi-relaxed position. Their horns are broken, they are blind, they have no ears to hear, and mouths to speak about something - these are all symbols of misunderstanding and ignorance of the environment and people around.

Joel-Peter Witkin is a strange American photographer. He is famous for his love of photographing dwarfs, transvestites, transsexuals, hermaphrodites, disabled people, and even dead people.

Zdzislaw Weksinski is a Polish artist who depicted deformed people and collapsing worlds in his canvases. He calls the best period of his work the “period of the fantastic”, it was during this time, from the 60s to the 80s of the 20th century, that Zdzislaw painted these strange gothic paintings with skeletons amid the total horror of death, destruction, decay and post-apocalypse.

Among the noble works of art that delight the eye and evoke only positive emotions, there are paintings that are, to put it mildly, strange and shocking. We present to your attention 20 paintings by world-famous artists that will make you feel horrified...

"Failure of Mind to Matter"

A painting painted in 1973 by the Austrian artist Otto Rapp. He depicted a decomposing human head placed on a birdcage containing a piece of flesh.

"Hanging Live Negro"

This grisly creation by William Blake depicts a black slave who was hanged from the gallows with a hook threaded through his ribs. The work is based on the story of the Dutch soldier Steadman, an eyewitness to such a brutal massacre.

"Dante and Virgil in Hell"

The painting by Adolphe William Bouguereau was inspired by a short scene of a battle between two damned souls from Dante's Inferno.

"Hell"

The painting “Hell” by the German artist Hans Memling, painted in 1485, is one of the most terrible artistic creations of its time. She was supposed to push people towards virtue. Memling enhanced the horrifying effect of the scene by adding the caption: "There is no redemption in hell."

"The Great Red Dragon and the Sea Monster"

The famous 13th-century English poet and artist William Blake, in a moment of insight, created a series of watercolor paintings depicting the great red dragon from the Book of Revelation. The Red Dragon was the embodiment of the devil.

"Spirit of Water"

The artist Alfred Kubin is considered the greatest representative of symbolism and expressionism and is known for his dark symbolic fantasies. “The Spirit of Water” is one such work that depicts man’s powerlessness in the face of the sea.

"Necronom IV"

This scary creation by famous artist Hans Rudolf Giger was inspired by the movie Alien. Giger suffered from nightmares and all of his paintings were inspired by these visions.

"The Flaying of Marcia"

Created by Italian Renaissance artist Titian, The Flaying of Marsyas is currently housed in the National Museum in Kroměříž in the Czech Republic. The artwork depicts a scene from Greek mythology where the satyr Marsyas is flayed for daring to challenge the god Apollo.

"The Temptation of Saint Anthony"

Matthias Grunewald depicted religious subjects of the Middle Ages, although he himself lived during the Renaissance. St. Anthony was said to have faced tests of his faith while praying in the desert. According to legend, he was killed by demons in a cave, then he resurrected and destroyed them. This painting depicts Saint Anthony being attacked by demons.

"Severed Heads"

Theodore Géricault's most famous work is The Raft of the Medusa, a huge painting painted in a romantic style. Géricault tried to break the boundaries of classicism by moving to romanticism. These paintings were the initial stage of his work. For his works, he used real limbs and heads, which he found in morgues and laboratories.

"Scream"

This famous painting by Norwegian expressionist Edvard Munch was inspired by a serene evening walk during which the artist witnessed the blood-red setting sun.

"The Death of Marat"

Jean-Paul Marat was one of the leaders of the French Revolution. Suffering from a skin disease, he spent most of his time in the bathroom, where he worked on his notes. There he was killed by Charlotte Corday. Marat's death has been depicted several times, but it is Edvard Munch's work that is particularly brutal.

"Still life of masks"

Emil Nolde was one of the early Expressionist artists, although his fame was eclipsed by others such as Munch. Nolde painted this painting after studying masks in the Berlin Museum. Throughout his life he has been fascinated by other cultures, and this work is no exception.

"Gallowgate Lard"

This painting is nothing more than a self-portrait of Scottish author Ken Currie, who specializes in dark, social-realistic paintings. Curry's favorite subject is the dull city life of the Scottish working class.

"Saturn Devouring His Son"

One of the most famous and sinister works of the Spanish artist Francisco Goya was painted on the wall of his house in 1820 - 1823. The plot is based on the Greek myth of the Titan Chronos (in Rome - Saturn), who feared that he would be overthrown by one of his children and ate them immediately after birth.

"Judith Killing Holofernes"

The execution of Holofernes was depicted by such great artists as Donatello, Sandro Botticelli, Giorgione, Gentileschi, Lucas Cranach the Elder and many others. The painting by Caravaggio, painted in 1599, depicts the most dramatic moment of this story - the beheading.

"Nightmare"

The painting by Swiss painter Heinrich Fuseli was first shown at the annual exhibition of the Royal Academy in London in 1782, where it shocked both visitors and critics.

"Massacre of the innocents"

This outstanding work of art by Peter Paul Rubens, consisting of two paintings, was created in 1612 and is believed to have been influenced by the works of the famous Italian artist Caravaggio.

"Study of the Portrait of Innocent X Velazquez"

This terrifying image of one of the most influential artists of the 20th century, Francis Bacon, is based on a paraphrase of Diego Velázquez's famous portrait of Pope Innocent X. Splattered with blood, his face painfully contorted, the Pope is depicted seated in a metal tubular structure that, upon closer inspection, appears to be a throne.

"Garden of Earthly Delights"

This is Hieronymus Bosch's most famous and frightening triptych. To date, there are many interpretations of the painting, but none of them have been conclusively confirmed. Perhaps Bosch's work personifies the Garden of Eden, the Garden of earthly pleasures and the Punishments that will have to be suffered for mortal sins committed during life. 15 January 2013, 20:34

1. "Crying Boy"- painting by Spanish artist Giovanni Bragolin. There is a legend that the boy’s father (who is also the author of the portrait), trying to achieve brightness, vitality and naturalness of the canvas, lit matches in front of the baby’s face. The fact is that the boy was deathly afraid of fire. The boy was crying - his father was drawing. One day the kid couldn’t stand it and shouted at his father: “Burn yourself!” A month later, the child died of pneumonia. And a couple of weeks later, the artist’s charred body was found in his own house next to a painting of a crying boy that had survived the fire. This could have been the end of it, but in 1985, British newspapers continued to report that in almost every burnt-out building, firefighters found reproductions of “The Crying Boy,” which were not even touched by the fire. 2. "The hands resist him"- painting by American artist Bill Stoneham. The author says that the painting depicts himself at the age of five, that the door is a representation of the dividing line between the real world and the world of dreams, and the doll is a guide that can guide the boy through this world. The hands represent alternative lives or possibilities. The painting became a famous urban legend in February 2000 when it was put up for sale on eBay with a backstory saying that the painting was "haunted." According to legend, after the death of the first owner of the painting, the painting was discovered in a landfill among a pile of garbage. The family that found her brought her home, and already on the first night the little four-year-old daughter ran into her parents’ bedroom shouting that “the children in the picture are fighting.” The next night - that “the children in the picture were outside the door.” The next night, the head of the family installed a motion-sensitive video camera in the room where the painting hung. The video camera worked several times, but nothing was captured. 3. "Rain Woman"- painting by Vinnytsia artist Svetlana Telets. Even six months before the painting was created, she began to have visions. For a long time, Svetlana thought that someone was watching her. Sometimes she even heard strange sounds in her apartment. But I tried to push these thoughts away. And after some time, an idea for a new painting appeared. The image of the mysterious woman was born suddenly, but Svetlana felt as if she had known her for a long time. Facial features as if woven from fog, clothes, ghostly lines of a figure - the artist painted a woman without thinking for a minute. It was as if her hand was being guided by an invisible force. Rumor spread throughout the city that this painting was cursed after the third buyer returned the painting a few days later without even taking the money. Everyone who had this picture said that at night it seemed to come to life and walk like a shadow nearby. People began to have headaches and, even after hiding the painting in a closet, the sensation of presence did not go away. 4. During Pushkin’s time, the portrait of Maria Lopukhina, painted by Vladimir Borovikovsky, was one of the main “horror stories”. The girl lived a short and unhappy life, and after painting the portrait she died of consumption. Her father, Ivan Tolstoy, was a famous mystic and master of the Masonic lodge. That is why rumors spread that he managed to lure the spirit of his deceased daughter into this portrait. And that if young girls look at the picture, they will soon die. According to the salon gossips, the portrait of Maria destroyed at least ten noblewomen of marriageable age... 5. "Water lilies"- landscape by impressionist Claude Monet. When the artist and his friends were celebrating the completion of the painting, a small fire broke out in the workshop. The flame was quickly doused with wine and they did not attach any importance to it. The painting hung in a cabaret in Montmartre for just a month. And then one night the establishment burned to the ground. But “Lilies” managed to be saved. The painting was bought by Parisian philanthropist Oscar Schmitz. A year later his house burned down. The fire started in the office, where the ill-fated painting hung. It miraculously survived. Another victim of Monet's landscape was the New York Museum of Modern Art. “Water Lilies” were transported here in 1958. Four months later, there was a fire here too. And the damned picture was heavily charred.
6. In a painting by Edvard Munch "Scream" a hairless suffering creature is depicted with a head resembling an inverted pear, with her palms pressed to her ears in horror and her mouth open in a silent scream. The convulsive waves of this creature’s torment, like an echo, disperse in the air around its head. This man (or woman) seems trapped in his own scream and has covered his ears in order not to hear it. It would be strange if there were no legends around this picture. They say that everyone who came into contact with her suffered from an evil fate. A museum employee who accidentally dropped a painting began to suffer from severe headaches and eventually committed suicide. Another employee, who apparently also had crooked hands, dropped the painting and had an accident the next day. Someone even burned a day after coming into contact with the painting. 7. Another canvas that constantly accompanies trouble is "Venus with a Mirror" Diego Velazquez. The painting's first owner, a Spanish merchant, went bankrupt, his trade deteriorating every day until most of his goods were captured by pirates at sea and several more ships sank. Selling everything he had by auction, the merchant also sold the painting. It was acquired by another Spaniard, also a merchant who owned rich warehouses in the port. Almost immediately after the money for the canvas was transferred, the merchant’s warehouses caught fire from a sudden lightning strike. The owner was ruined. And again there is an auction, and again the painting is sold along with other things, and again a wealthy Spaniard buys it... Three days later he was stabbed to death in his own house during a robbery. After that, the painting could not find its new owner for a long time (its reputation was too spoiled), and the canvas traveled to different museums, until in 1914 a madwoman cut it up with a knife.
8. "Demon Defeated" Mikhail Vrubel had a detrimental effect on the psyche and health of the artist himself. He could not tear himself away from the picture, he continued to add to the face of the defeated Spirit and change the color. “The Defeated Demon” was already hanging at the exhibition, and Vrubel kept coming into the hall, not paying attention to the visitors, sat down in front of the painting and continued to work, as if possessed. Those close to him became concerned about his condition, and he was examined by the famous Russian psychiatrist Bekhterev. The diagnosis was terrible - tabes spinal cord, near madness and death. Vrubel was admitted to the hospital, but the treatment did not help much, and he soon died.