Top 10 painting facts

Genitals were hidden. It took Michaelangelo seven years to complete the fresco on the altar wall of the Sistine Chapel. Once completed, the depiction of Christ and the Virgin Mary naked was considered sacrilegious, and some cardinals campaigned to have the fresco removed or censored, but the Pope resisted. Eventually, it was decided to obscure the genitals.

It is not known. The identity of the Maja is uncertain The most popularly cited models are the Duchess of Alba, with whom Goya was sometimes thought to have had an affair, and Pepita Tudó, mistress of Manuel de Godoy. Neither theory has been verified, and it remains as likely that the paintings represent an idealized composite.

250. Water Lilies depict Claude Monet’s own flower garden at Giverny and were the main focus of his artistic production during the last thirty years of his life.

Paul Cézanne. The Card Players is a series of five oil paintings by Paul Cézanne. One version of The Card Players was sold in 2011 to the Royal Family of Qatar for a price variously estimated at between $250 million and $300 million, making it (then) the most expensive work of art ever sold.

By mistake. Rembrandt painted the large painting The Militia Company of Captain Frans Banning Cocq between 1640 and 1642. In the 18th century the picture was called The Night Watch, because it was so dimmed and defaced that it looked quite like a night scene. After it was cleaned, it was discovered to represent the broad day.

Rembrandt painted about 100 self-portraits, and among these 20 were drawings. He started in 1627 as a juvenile, and ended in 1669.

Her mysterious smile. Mona Lisa is famous for an optical illusion aka 'the mysterious smile'. The illusion is caused due to peripheral vision as the focus of the viewer shifts from the eyes of the portrait to the lips of the portrait.

Jackson Pollock. No. 5, 1948 is a painting by Jackson Pollock, which was sold for $140M in 2006, making it (then) the most expensive piece of art ever sold. In 1949, right after the painting was sold by Pollock to Alfonso Ossorio, the painting became damaged during the moving process. Pollock patched the painting before it went to Ossorio saying “He’ll never know, never know”.

Cassius Marcellus Coolidge. Dogs Playing Poker, by Cassius Marcellus Coolidge, refers collectively to an 1894 painting, a 1903 series of sixteen oil paintings commissioned by Brown & Bigelow to advertise cigars, and a 1910 painting. All eighteen paintings in the overall series feature anthropomorphized dogs, but the eleven in which dogs are seated around a card table have become well known in the United States as examples of kitsch art in home decoration.

Jan van Eyck. The painting is rich in symbolism. The mirror in the centre of the painting reveals numerous interesting details: in the reflection the table is empty, and the two figures are not holding their hands anymore.