If the painting shows a ballerina, you are looking at a work by Edgar Degas. No matter how funny it may sound, in a nutshell you can describe the work of almost every artist. Yes, it will be a kind of manual for dummies, but art is a complex thing, so we’ll start small. How to learn to understand painting - in the “Cultural Investigation” section.

Everything is not as difficult as it seems. For example, the Flemish painter Rubens was very fond of painting plump women. But in fact, he is not the only one - his contemporaries also liked ladies with bodies. At the beginning of the 17th century, it was believed that volumetric shapes were an indicator of physical health and inner greatness. Today, such “beauties” with appetizing curves would be sent to the gym.

Here's another example. If you see bizarre images that look like something out of a dream, rest assured that this is Salvador Dali. Some art critics call him a genius, others - a hack. Caricature artist Vladimir Melnikov explains: there are no difficulties in Dali’s technique, so his style can be easily copied.

“What is surrealism? Label whatever you want. Not a tiger, but another character flies, and not from a rifle, but from a cannon, and a small striped fly leads this procession. And there’s a blurry clock on the washing machine,” shared Vladimir Melnikov.

It turned out to be more difficult to copy the artist Marc Chagall. But it’s easy to draw a cartoon in his style. If you see figures hovering over a city, it’s definitely Chagall.

To ensure you don't get stuck in a world-class museum, here's another tip. If on the canvas you see muscular, handsome men with ideal forms, then you know - this is Michelangelo. The artist glorified the beauty of the body both on canvas and in marble. His famous David, created in the early 16th century, became the ideal of male beauty for many years.

But another Italian, Caravaggio, saw the ideal of male beauty in a completely different way. His representatives of the stronger sex are very similar to women. He chose appropriate poses for his heroes.

The famous Dutchman Rembrandt did not think about the beauty of his heroes. The artist painted realistic paintings - the faces of the characters can be compared to flashes of light against the background of the surrounding darkness. Therefore, if the hero looks like a tramp, illuminated by a dim street lamp, then rest assured - this is Rembrandt.

There is also a simple answer to the eternal question of how the impressionist Claude Monet differs from the impressionist Edouard. If you see blurry outlines of nature, this is Claude Monet, if you see people against the backdrop of nature, this is Edouard Manet.

“Claude Monet is an artist classified as impressionist; he painted mostly landscapes and water lilies. If you see realistic images painted with broad strokes, and at the same time it seems to you that the image is flat, this is Edouard Manet,” explained art critic, senior researcher at MMOMA Olga Turchina.

The style of the artist Hieronymus Bosch cannot be confused with anything. He lived in the 15th century in the Netherlands and remains one of the most mysterious painters. If everything is mixed up in the picture: people, animals, monsters, then this is Bosch.

Of course, any art critic will say that advice on how to distinguish artists at first glance is like a joke. To really understand the works of famous masters, you need to often go to museums and read more than one book.

I constantly run into problems search by photo or paintings. For example, such a situation, clients want to order a portrait based on a historical painting or reproduction of a painting. They have a file that they found on the Internet. They don’t know the title or the author, but they want to know. And they want to know what kind of painting is hanging in their house. It always happens that this file, found by clients, is of very poor quality - it is small in size or the file itself is simply bad. It is necessary to quickly establish the title and author in order, firstly, to educate the customer and yourself, and secondly, to try to find a picture of at least average quality.

Real case. The customer wants to order installation into this picture. Replace this lady's face with the face of your friend. Then print it on canvas measuring 40cm by 50cm, frame it and give it as a gift. She should like it.

installation on a picture

The file he brought weighs 120 KB. In principle, not the worst case. They also printed pictures from worse pictures. At canvas prints all the pictures themselves are blurred and JPEG artifacts are not very noticeable. And if you clean it up, it will be great. But the client really wanted to know the author of the painting and the title. I want that's all. To my shame, I had no idea who the artist was or who was depicted.

I had to use different photo search services.

1. http://www.tineye.com/ Excellent service. Convenient site. I used it before but this time I was disappointed.

Here is the result of a photo search: Or like this:

He found only 2 images. One is very bad, and even framed. The second is exactly the same file that the customer brought. All sizes and parameters were the same. But I clicked on the source links and found nothing. These are some kind of blogs and forums.

2. http://www.google.ru/imghp?hl=ru&tab=wi A relatively new service from Google. Never used it - never had to.

To enable photo search, click on the camera, a window for adding a file and links will open and click “Search”. Everything is elementary.

The pattern search result was great!

I also came across an excellent site on search for similar photos. It is very convenient when you can replace a picture with another, but very similar one. Before that, I only knew http://alipr.com, but it constantly returned such utter garbage with similar pictures that I gave up such searches. But I came across an excellent site for searching similar photos - http://gallerix.ru/roster/. The result is not very impressive, but much better than the first site. You can check it yourself.

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"- A long time ago, in the first year, we had the history of art. Lectures were held on Saturday at 8 in the morning and at five to five the “teacher” stood at the door, and then closed it with a lock. And that’s it. If you didn’t have time, you got a pass. All year he showed us slides of paintings, from cave paintings to Russian artists of the 90s. And he had all these slides in the form of postcards. A stack like that. And at the end of the year, as usual, there is an exam. First two questions, and then an execution in individually. Based on the number of your absences for the year (!), he took postcards out of the stack. At random. And he had to say the author or the title. They all remembered the Mona Lisa and a couple of others quickly. And with the rest of the mulyon, something had to be done. And so, "To guess the author, we in the group came up with a classification. And you know, in 97 cases out of a hundred, it works! Until now!"

If you see a dark background in a painting and all sorts of suffering on their faces, this is Titian.

The exception is this bare-bottomed person with no signs of thought on her face. You can remember one. Venus, not Venus, but there is something venereal in her:

If the picture shows buttocks and cellulite even on men, don’t hesitate - it’s Rubens.

If the men in the painting look like hairy-eyed, curly-haired women, this is Caravaggio.

He generally drew the woman one and a half times. The next picture is of a woman. Gorgonyan Medusa Arutyunovna. Why she looks like a johnide is a mystery purer than the smile of the Mona Lisa.

If there are a lot of little people in the picture - Bruegel.

A lot of little people, and a lot of other things - Bosch.

If all people look like homeless people, at night in the light of a dim lantern, this is Rembrandt.

If you can easily add a couple of fat-butted cupids and sheep to the picture (or they are already there) - this is Boucher.

Beautiful, everyone is naked and their figures are like those of bodybuilders after drying - Michelangelo.

You see a ballerina - you say Degas. If you say Degas, you see a ballerina.

Contrasting, harsh, bluish, and everyone has such skinny, bearded faces - El Greco.

And finally, if everyone, even the aunts, looks like Putin, it’s Jan van Eyck

How to distinguish different artists. Funny, but true!

I’ll be honest: I don’t know the author. If anyone can tell me
his name - I will be very grateful! So, the story itself.
++++
A long time ago, in my first year, we studied art history. The subject itself is terribly interesting, but the teacher is crap that you couldn’t find with a flashlight during the day. As far as I know, there is not a single student who likes him. He gave lectures on Saturday at 8 a.m., and stood at the door at five to five, and then locked it. And everyone who didn’t make it before eight is given a pass. And many absences are a big grief. Now I’ll tell you why: all year he showed us slides of paintings, sculptures, mosaics and other things, ranging from cave paintings to Russian artists of the 80s. And he had all these slides in the form of postcards. Here is such a pack. And at the end of the year, as usual, there is an exam. First, two questions, and then an additional execution on an individual basis, according to the number of your passes in a year (!) He took postcards out of a pack. Out of order. And it was necessary to name the author and the title, or at least the author, or at least the title. They all memorized Mona Lisa and a couple of others quickly, but something needs to be done with the rest of the mullion, especially since everyone went to the retake for the first time. And so, to guess the author, we in the group came up with a classification. And you know, in 97 cases out of a hundred, it works! Still!
By remembering a few simple points, in a company not too close to fine art, you can be considered an expert in general.
So:

1. If you see a dark background in the picture and all sorts of suffering on the faces, this is Titian.

The exception is this naked-assed person with no signs of thought on her face. You can remember one. Venus, not Venus, but there is something venereal in her.

2. If the picture shows buttocks and cellulite even on men, don’t hesitate - it’s Rubens.

3. If the men in the picture look like hairy-eyed, curly-haired women or just Italian fagots, this is Caravaggio.

He generally drew the woman one and a half times. The next picture is of a woman. Gorgonyan Medusa Arutyunovna. Why she looks like Johnny Depas is a mystery purer than the smile of Mona Lisa

4. If there are a lot of little people in the painting - Bruegel

5. A lot of little people + little incomprehensible garbage - Bosch

6. If you can easily add a couple of fat-assed cupids and sheep to the picture (or they are already there in various configurations), without disturbing the composition - these can be
a) Bush

B) Watteau

7. Beautiful, everyone is naked and the figures are like those of bodybuilders after drying - Michelangelo

8. You see a ballerina - you say Degas. You say Degas - you see a ballerina

9. Contrasting, harsh, bluish and everyone has such skinny bearded faces - El Greco

A fun cheat sheet for artists
(style cheat sheet here)

Original taken from vasily_sergeev V

A Brief Guide to Fine Arts

A long time ago, in my first year, we studied art history. The subject itself is terribly interesting, but the teacher is crap that you wouldn’t find with a flashlight during the day. As far as I know, there is not a single student who likes him. He gave lectures on Saturdays, from 8 in the morning until five minutes to five he stood at the door, and then locked it. That's all. Didn't make it before eight - a pass, and many passes - a great grief. Now I'll tell you why. All year he showed us slides of paintings, sculptures, mosaics and other things, ranging from cave paintings to Russian artists of the 80s. And he had all these slides in the form of postcards. Here's a pack.

And at the end of the year, as usual, there is an exam. First two questions, and then additional execution on an individual basis. Based on the number of your absences per year (!), he took postcards out of the stack. At random, it was necessary to name the author and the title. Or at least the author, or at least the title. They quickly remembered the Mona Lisa and a couple of others, but something had to be done with the rest of the mulyon. Especially because everyone went to the retake already in a hurry. And so, in order to guess the authors, we in the group came up with a classification. And you know, in 97 cases out of a hundred it works! Still!

By remembering a few simple points, in a company that is not too close to ISO, you can be considered an expert, and in general.

1. If you see a dark background in the picture and all sorts of suffering on the faces, this is Titian.

The exception is this naked person with no signs of thought on her face. You can remember one. Venus, not Venus, but there is something venereal in her.

2. If in the picture there are buttocks and cellulite even on men, don’t hesitate - it’s Rubens.

3. If the men in the picture look like hairy-eyed, curly-haired women or just Italian fagots, this is Caravaggio.

He generally painted women one and a half times. In the next picture there is a woman: Gorgonyan Medusa Arutyunovna. Why she looks like Jonidep is a mystery worse than Monalisa’s smile.

4. If there are a lot of little people in the picture, this is Bruegel.

5. Many little people, little incomprehensible garbage - Bosch

6. If you can easily add a couple of fat-assed cupids and sheep to the picture (or they are already there in various configurations), without disturbing the composition - these could be:

b) Watteau

7. Beautiful, everyone is naked, and the figures are like those of bodybuilders after drying - Michelangelo.

8. You see a ballerina - you say Degas. If you say Degas, you see a ballerina.

9. Contrasting, harsh, and everyone has such skinny, bearded faces - El Greco.

10. If everyone, even the aunts, looks like Putin, it’s Van Eyck

11. Monet - spots, Manet - people