“A work of art has no societal significance. It just matters to the specific.”
When rating the most art pieces of all time, we must remember that painting is an ancient platform, going back to 40,000 years ago, since early humans used ochre and charcoal to take pictures of animals or colored pencils of their handprints on cave walls. It was, in other words, present at the birth of critical thinking, some 35,000 years before the written word.
1. Sandro Botticelli, 1484–1486
Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus, created for Lorenzo de Medici, was the first full-length, non-religious nude painting since antiquity. The Deity of Love is said to be modeled after Simonetta Cattaneo Vespucci, whose favors were reportedly shared by Lorenzo and his brother, Giuliano. The Birth of Venus was slated for detonation, but it ran. Botticelli, on the other hand, was so disturbed by the incident that he stopped painting for a while.
2. Gustav Klimt, The Kiss, 1907–1908
The Kiss, Gustav Klimt’s fin-de-siècle depiction of passion, is lavishly adorned and lavishly patterned, a mix of Symbolism and Vienna Jugendstil, the Austrian variant of Art Nouveau. Klimt portrays his topics as mythological beings modernized by opulent surfaces of contemporary graphic motifs. The work is a highlight of the artist’s Golden Phase, which lasted from 1899 to 1910 and was inspired by a 1903 visit to the Basilica di San Vitale in Ravenna, Italy, where he saw the church’s famous Byzantine mosaics.
3. Jan van Eyck, The Arnolfini Portrait, 1434
This composition, one of the most important works produced during the Northern Renaissance, is thought to be one of the first paintings performed in oils. It is a full-length double portrait of an Italian merchant and a lady who may or may not be his mistress. Erwin Panofsky, a renowned art historian, suggested in 1934 that the painting is essentially a wedding contract. What can be said with certainty is that the work is one of the first representations of an interior using an analogous viewpoint to create a sense of space that appears contiguous with the viewer’s own; it feels like a canvas you might walk into.
4.The cursed woman, the cursed woman painting 1859:
Nicolas Francois Octave Tassaert, a French artist, was a social justice activist. He was the grandson of a sculptor, and his father and older brother provided him with his first artistic training. He later attended an art school from 1817 to 1825, where he gained fame but did not achieve significant acclaim. In most of his roles, he made money and portrayed the life of a dysfunctional, poor, and sick society. The Cursed Woman (La Femme Damnée, or The Damed Woman), born in 1859, was the painting in an exhibition that ended his career.
5.Hieronymus Bosch, The Garden of Earthly Delights, 1503–1515:
This fanciful triptych is widely regarded as a forerunner to Surrealism. In reality, it is the work of a late medieval artist who believed in God and the Devil, Heaven, and Hell. This riot of symbols has largely been impervious to analysis, which may explain its popular appeal.
Final Words:
We are undoubtedly influenced by art. It usually results in a flood of thoughts and feelings coursing through our minds, causing us to cry or laugh. However, some people believe that there is artwork that can have truly negative consequences but art is never forgettable for its positive impact on the mind of art lovers. The cursed woman, the cursed woman painting 1859 inspires the mind of an art lover with a lot of thoughts.