Top 10 Iconic Paintings
For the following ten or so minutes, your monitor is a museum! Join http://wwww.WatchMojo.com as we count down our picks for the top 10 famous paintings! For this list, we've looked at the most famous paintings in the world. Of course, art is a very subjective subject, so we've ranked our entries based upon the recognizability and global reputation of each piece. We've also limited these to individual pieces, so any smaller parts of a larger whole are not up for consideration.
Special thanks to our users Daniel Fong, Princess Caticia, jacinth peters and Director22 for submitting the idea through our Suggest Tool at http://www.WatchMojo.comSuggest
Top 10 Famous Paintings
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For the following ten or so minutes, your monitor is a museum! Welcome to WatchMojo.com, and today we’re counting down our picks for the top 10 famous paintings! For this list, we’ve looked at the most famous paintings in the world. Of course, art is a very subjective subject, so we’ve ranked our entries based upon the recognizability and global reputation of each piece. We’ve also limited these to individual pieces, so any smaller parts of a larger whole are not up for consideration.
#10: “The Kiss” (1908-09) Gustav Klimt
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Painted between 1908 and 1909, “The Kiss” is Gustav Klimt at the height of his ‘Golden Period’, so-called because of his tendency to use the color. A combination of oil paint and gold leaf, the effect is a striking, Art Nouveau, intimate image, that retains its modernity today. A man and woman locked in an embrace, the couple may be the center of attention, but the colors are the painting’s emotion. The lines between luxury and decadence are blurred, as are the barriers between love and lust.
#9: “The Persistence of Memory” (1931) Salvador Dalí
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It’s 1931, and Dalí has struck Surrealist perfection with “The Persistence of Memory.” The melting clocks and desolate beach have been burned into the modern sub-conscious, making this one of the most recognizable paintings ever created. It could be an exploration of the fixed (or unfixed!) cosmic order, it might be Einstein’s theory of relativity seen through the bristles of a brush-stroke, it may be, as Dali himself has suggested, the surrealist perception of a soft cheese melting beneath the sun’s rays… Whatever it is, it’s a famous and memorable pop culture staple – and it deserves to be!
#8: “Girl with a Pearl Earring” (c. 1665) Johannes Vermeer
Granted, our next entry’s recent claims to fame have been greatly enhanced by a best-selling Tracy Chevalier novel and a Scarlett Johansson film adaptation. However, Vermeer’s “Girl with a Pearl Earring” had caught the eye long before she’d been made into a movie. The eponymous ‘pearl earring’ is the picture’s focal point, as the girl’s plain face is caught as though unprepared. It’s provocative voyeurism that has had many a viewer speculate on the subject’s thoughts, and her back-story.
#7: “Olympia” (1863) Édouard Manet
Heading into the 19th century for our next painting, “Olympia” caused massive controversy upon its completion in 1863. A reworking of Titian’s 1538 “Venus of Urbino” and Giorgione’s 1510 “Sleeping Venus,” Manet’s relaxing nude is less innocent than her predecessors. The woman displays indicators of prostitution, and a confrontational gaze that shocked her audiences. The black hair, black cat, unwanted flowers and loosely worn slippers show us that she’s a woman in control of herself - the closed hands and abrupt stare warn us to remember that fact!
#6: “The Birth of Venus” (c. 1486) Sandro Botticelli
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Painted in the 1400s, this Uffizi Gallery offering remains one of Florence’s most treasured possessions. Commissioned by the Medici family to work on “The Birth of Venus,” Botticelli depicts the goddess emerging out of the sea, standing upon an improbably large shell. She’s nude as we see her, but a handmaid is soon to clothe and cover her. A beautiful figure, the artist presents her as an icon of Neoplatonism. A movement attempting to connect Greek and Roman thought with Christianity, ‘Venus’ is a concoction of classical influences that has made it was into modern culture on more than one occasion.
#5: “The Scream” (1893) Edvard Munch (moonk)
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Often considered as a masterpiece of modern art, “The Scream” was a forerunner for the Expressionism that dominated the early 20th Century. Painted in 1893, it reflects the end of photo-realistic, technical efforts, and the beginning of metaphoric, emotional pieces. The inspiration for the ghostly figure is not conclusively known, but the pain, fear and horror that it feels are definitely felt. In fact, the form is so mesmerizing, it inspired several pop culture imitators. The wispy subject looks trapped inside the painting, and inside our world - the original picture that spoke louder than words!
#4: “Guernica” (1937) Pablo Picasso
Finished in 1937, with our next painting Picasso brought to the world’s attention to the bombing of the Basque town of Guernica, and the ongoing Spanish Civil War. An act of war inflicted by the emerging fascist forces of Germany and Italy, the typically Picasso piece shows devastation and destruction in an abstracted way. “Guernica” is grey, black and white, it’s mural-size, and it is intensely dramatic. Some interpretations find Picasso’s own ego in the disfigured creatures, others note the horse and bull as important Spanish symbols, while still others view simply the rampaging rise of Nazism.
#3: “The Last Supper” (1495-98) Leonardo da Vinci
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In terms of fame, our third placer has again been recently aided by other medias - namely Dan Brown’s novel ‘The Da Vinci Code’ and the subsequent Tom Hanks film adaptation. But that’s hardly the end of this famous piece’s pop culture domination– many scenes from movies and TV have replicated the iconic arrangement. Da Vinci’s depiction of Jesus and his disciples is perhaps the most recognizable recreation of the Son of God ever painted. Capturing the moment at which Jesus tells his followers that one will betray him, and the alarm that ensues, it is a painting that has fallen in and out of disrepair, and inspired plenty of conspiracy theories. An epic piece of art!
#2: “The Starry Night” (1889) Vincent van Gogh
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Another painting that has broken out of its original frame and into the merchandise-laden world of reproductions, this Van Gogh image stands alongside Munch’s “The Scream” as an all-out game-changer. The viewer cannot help but become involved with the swirling, circling clouds, moon and stars of the night sky. In turn, it’s easy to place oneself in the village below. Painted from within the Saint-Paul de Mausole lunatic asylum in Southern France, it’s an exaggerated scene, but a beautiful one! Accept no imitations! Before we unveil our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions: - “Napoleon Crossing the Alps” (1801) Jacques-Louis David - “The Night Watch” (1642) Rembrandt van Rijn - “American Gothic” (1930) Grant Wood - “The School of Athens” (1509-10) Raphael - “No. 5, 1948” (1948) Jackson Pollock - “Water Lilies” (1920-26) Claude Monet
#1: “Mona Lisa” (c. 1503-17) Leonardo da Vinci
Could the gold medal truly be hung around anyone else’s neck? “Mona Lisa” is the most famous painting in the world, and she’s one of the most recognizable women on the planet. Another da Vinci piece, this time the great Italian gives us a portrait, the subject of which remains under considerable debate. She’s an object of extreme fascination because of her inescapable stare, her unreadable expression and her incredible detail. She resides in the Louvre Gallery in Paris, and despite her relatively small size she brings in record amounts of visitors still. An undisputed, absolute icon! Do you agree with our list? Which painting did we miss? For more artistic Top 10s published daily, be sure to subscribe to WatchMojo.com.
