WEBVTT - Seven - No, Wait, Five - Mysteries of the Art World 0:00:01.520 --> 0:00:07.760 Welcome to Stuff you Should Know, a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:11.320 --> 0:00:14.000 Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, and 0:00:14.000 --> 0:00:17.240 there's Charles w Chuck Bryan over there, and Jerry's here somewhere. 0:00:17.280 --> 0:00:21.080 So this is Stuff you should know, the Art World edition. 0:00:23.040 --> 0:00:26.840 Yeah, you know what, I just realized. We record these 0:00:26.840 --> 0:00:32.760 in two's and we just recorded the Pog's episode, right, 0:00:33.000 --> 0:00:35.560 and you didn't say welcome to the podcast. 0:00:37.240 --> 0:00:38.000 I didn't have. 0:00:38.200 --> 0:00:40.520 Missed opportunity for a great dad joke. 0:00:41.320 --> 0:00:43.480 That sounds like something I would skip though, even had 0:00:43.479 --> 0:00:45.640 I thought of it, Or I don't know that I 0:00:45.680 --> 0:00:46.920 would have pulled the trigger. 0:00:46.600 --> 0:00:48.320 On I think or I could see you pulling the 0:00:48.360 --> 0:00:52.279 trigger and then making fun of yourself, right, but. 0:00:52.280 --> 0:00:54.920 I would have just been engaged in self loathing for 0:00:54.960 --> 0:00:56.160 the rest of the podcast. 0:00:56.560 --> 0:00:59.920 Well, retroactively, I'm gonna say, I hope everyone enjoyed the podcast. 0:01:01.760 --> 0:01:03.800 Now let's talk about art mysteries. 0:01:04.959 --> 0:01:08.039 I love this one, man, this is great. This reminds 0:01:08.080 --> 0:01:11.319 me of a Stuff you Should Know episode from years back. 0:01:11.440 --> 0:01:13.480 For some reason, Well, it's because we don't do these 0:01:13.520 --> 0:01:17.040 top lists anymore. Are part of it, you know. Very 0:01:17.040 --> 0:01:19.120 famously we used to have top tens on our old 0:01:19.120 --> 0:01:23.199 House Stuffworks website, of which usually there were maybe seven 0:01:23.560 --> 0:01:28.200 decent entries, so we never did I don't think we 0:01:28.200 --> 0:01:30.319 ever did a full ten on anything. Maybe somebody could 0:01:30.360 --> 0:01:33.760 probably correct us, but this one actually came in at seven. 0:01:34.480 --> 0:01:35.760 They didn't even try. 0:01:35.680 --> 0:01:37.200 And I don't even know. We may do like five 0:01:37.240 --> 0:01:39.039 of these. We haven't even figured it out yet. 0:01:39.280 --> 0:01:41.360 We'll see. We're gonna play it fast and loose. I 0:01:41.360 --> 0:01:43.320 think that's another reason why it reminds me of an 0:01:43.319 --> 0:01:47.400 old stuff You should know episode Fast and Loose. Yeah, 0:01:47.440 --> 0:01:50.760 fast and loose. First you got the fast, then you 0:01:50.800 --> 0:01:51.640 got the loose. 0:01:51.640 --> 0:01:56.640 But never furious because he wants to be mad. I 0:01:56.680 --> 0:02:00.200 don't know they should have called out series Fast and Loose. 0:02:01.760 --> 0:02:04.760 That. I think I've heard it before that that series 0:02:04.840 --> 0:02:08.200 is the highest grossing movie franchise in the history of 0:02:08.240 --> 0:02:09.839 film like worldwide. 0:02:10.280 --> 0:02:13.040 Yeah. You know what's funny is at one point we 0:02:13.040 --> 0:02:15.560 were this is years ago, we were talking with Ludicrous 0:02:15.600 --> 0:02:19.720 about doing something with a network, and I, uh, because 0:02:19.720 --> 0:02:21.560 he's he's a local guy here in Atlanta, And I 0:02:22.240 --> 0:02:25.280 talked to our boss and said, what's he what's he 0:02:25.360 --> 0:02:27.960 doing these days? Like I haven't heard any music? And 0:02:28.040 --> 0:02:31.880 he went he makes fast and furious movies, like that's 0:02:31.880 --> 0:02:35.639 his job now, Yeah, because he's just getting rich off 0:02:35.680 --> 0:02:37.639 of making these movies, like. 0:02:37.600 --> 0:02:40.280 I can't even imagine. And plus also, I mean they're 0:02:40.360 --> 0:02:43.800 pretty it's pretty involved movie making. I would guess, like 0:02:43.840 --> 0:02:47.440 I'm sure because there's so many stars involved that, you know, 0:02:47.560 --> 0:02:51.280 the shooting schedule for each one isn't necessarily you know, 0:02:51.360 --> 0:02:53.600 a year long endeavor or anything like that, and they 0:02:53.639 --> 0:02:56.440 probably have it down to like a pretty fast science 0:02:56.480 --> 0:02:58.639 by now. But like, I would think that would eat 0:02:58.720 --> 0:03:00.640 up a pretty decent amount of your time. I'm shooting 0:03:00.680 --> 0:03:03.160 one of those films every few you know, a couple 0:03:03.200 --> 0:03:06.320 of times, well, I guess every few years. 0:03:06.400 --> 0:03:07.359 I only saw one of those. 0:03:07.360 --> 0:03:11.079 I think, Man, I'm slowly like degenerating into Bob Newhart. Man, 0:03:11.200 --> 0:03:11.639 have you known? 0:03:11.840 --> 0:03:12.600 Man? Good? 0:03:13.680 --> 0:03:16.280 Yeah, you could degenerate into worse things than that. But 0:03:16.520 --> 0:03:19.840 I mean, like I've really I'm really hitting that new 0:03:19.880 --> 0:03:20.920 Heart note these days. 0:03:20.919 --> 0:03:23.120 I've noticed that's a great note. I love it. I've 0:03:23.120 --> 0:03:25.560 always wanted Bob Newhart as my podcasting partner. 0:03:25.639 --> 0:03:30.800 So well, you you've you've there, you go, You've got it, buddy. 0:03:31.040 --> 0:03:33.640 All right. Number one on the list you want to 0:03:33.680 --> 0:03:35.920 talk a little cut of Agio. 0:03:36.720 --> 0:03:42.120 So Caravaggio is my new favorite painter. Oh yeah, not 0:03:42.280 --> 0:03:49.360 just because he was a scummy lowlife swordsman from the Murderer. Yeah. Uh, 0:03:50.320 --> 0:03:54.760 he was a gambler. He would he had weapons charges 0:03:54.800 --> 0:03:58.760 against him while he was alive. He was not a 0:03:58.800 --> 0:04:03.000 good guy by any stretch of the imagination. Very troubled 0:04:03.080 --> 0:04:06.000 person is a really polite way to put it. But 0:04:06.480 --> 0:04:09.760 if you look at his art, like, I had no idea, 0:04:09.920 --> 0:04:12.240 I've seen like so many works of his art and 0:04:12.280 --> 0:04:14.480 I never pieced together that they were the same person. 0:04:14.520 --> 0:04:17.160 And then when I really started to read some criticism 0:04:17.160 --> 0:04:19.080 of his work, I'm like, oh my god, this guy 0:04:19.520 --> 0:04:22.080 he's considered one of the fathers of modern art. And 0:04:22.120 --> 0:04:24.880 this guy was painting at the beginning of the seventeenth century, 0:04:24.920 --> 0:04:29.719 the early sixteen hundreds, and just like POGs, he burned 0:04:30.080 --> 0:04:33.680 hot and bright and fast and furious. 0:04:34.000 --> 0:04:38.520 Actually, sadly, oh that's right, that wasn't even forced. Nice work, 0:04:38.560 --> 0:04:45.680 Bob so. Michelangelo Marisi de Caravaggio was an Italian Baroque painter. 0:04:47.360 --> 0:04:50.520 He at one point in sixteen oh six, killed a 0:04:50.560 --> 0:04:55.600 man name Ramuccio Tomasani and said I got to get 0:04:55.600 --> 0:04:58.640 out of here because I'm in big trouble now, and 0:04:58.760 --> 0:05:02.240 went to went away from Rome and fled to Malta, 0:05:03.160 --> 0:05:08.400 where he had a pretty brief but I guess notable stay. 0:05:08.480 --> 0:05:11.800 He was only there about six months and kind of 0:05:11.839 --> 0:05:14.680 hiding out and quickly hooked up with the Knights of 0:05:14.760 --> 0:05:18.360 Malta and was briefly one of the Knights of Malta, 0:05:19.720 --> 0:05:22.039 like for a month. Yeah, and painted one of his 0:05:22.120 --> 0:05:27.640 most famous paintings there, the oil on canvas twelve feet 0:05:27.640 --> 0:05:31.240 by seventeen feet, the Beheading of John the Baptist. 0:05:32.040 --> 0:05:34.520 Yeah, it was an altarpiece for the Order of Saint John, 0:05:34.560 --> 0:05:37.480 also known as the Knights of Malta. They were going 0:05:37.520 --> 0:05:40.400 to again put this behind the altar in their church 0:05:41.000 --> 0:05:45.120 on Malta, and it was actually his little entry fee. 0:05:45.160 --> 0:05:48.360 They charged an entry fee, usually money to their initiates. 0:05:49.080 --> 0:05:53.000 They accepted, yeah, but they accepted this altar beeces giant 0:05:53.240 --> 0:05:57.080 painting of Saint John the Baptist being beheaded, and it 0:05:57.200 --> 0:05:59.920 was actually I mean, as far as the car Vaggio goes, 0:06:00.120 --> 0:06:03.039 especially toward the end of his life, it's actually fairly 0:06:03.120 --> 0:06:07.560 tame because there's not you know, like jets of blood 0:06:07.560 --> 0:06:10.000 spurting out. It's a pool of blood that's being shown. 0:06:11.320 --> 0:06:15.200 He paints some really violent stuff and and like you 0:06:15.240 --> 0:06:18.480 said that that kind of that. He was a master 0:06:18.560 --> 0:06:23.160 of light and shadow. It's called Kira scuro and and 0:06:23.200 --> 0:06:25.880 he used it to really dramatic effect, including in that painting, 0:06:26.680 --> 0:06:28.760 and in fact, one of the other paintings that you 0:06:28.839 --> 0:06:33.960 might have seen of his chuck it's called Judith beheading Halofernes. 0:06:34.320 --> 0:06:38.120 Have you seen it? I have so Judith, the woman 0:06:38.160 --> 0:06:42.680 who's in that painting, the woman who modeled for that 0:06:43.320 --> 0:06:47.120 for Judith, that was the woman that he killed. Bernuccio 0:06:47.240 --> 0:06:48.800 TOMISONI over. 0:06:49.920 --> 0:06:52.720 Right, did you know that I did? 0:06:53.720 --> 0:06:54.640 Oh? You did? Okay? 0:06:54.839 --> 0:06:57.120 Well, at any rate, they really in this House of 0:06:57.240 --> 0:06:59.280 Works article they called it a petty squabble and that 0:06:59.279 --> 0:07:00.560 that really doesn't the story. 0:07:01.160 --> 0:07:03.680 Yeah. Another explanation I saw was that it was over 0:07:03.760 --> 0:07:07.839 a tennis wager. And this is real tennis, not lawn tennis, 0:07:07.880 --> 0:07:12.800 and real tennis is kind of like this kooky mix 0:07:12.920 --> 0:07:19.680 between squash and racquetball and tennis, and it's all indoors 0:07:19.720 --> 0:07:23.760 and there's like horse sheds basically involved that you can 0:07:23.840 --> 0:07:26.400 play off the roofs of it's really interesting stuff. And 0:07:26.440 --> 0:07:28.960 he used to play that a lot too, But so 0:07:29.080 --> 0:07:32.120 it was either over a wager or it was over 0:07:32.520 --> 0:07:33.040 this woman. 0:07:34.040 --> 0:07:37.040 Her name was what was it, Judith. 0:07:37.320 --> 0:07:41.360 No Felide Felide I believe was the actual woman's name 0:07:41.520 --> 0:07:44.440 who modeled for Judith. So he ends up on Malta. 0:07:44.920 --> 0:07:48.360 He becomes a knight, and when he becomes this night 0:07:48.360 --> 0:07:51.160 he paints this altarpiece and he signs his name in 0:07:51.200 --> 0:07:53.640 the pool of Blood, which you're like, well, he's an artist. 0:07:54.080 --> 0:07:57.120 That seems like something an artist would do, not Caravaggio. 0:07:57.280 --> 0:07:59.840 This is actually the first and only work of his 0:08:00.080 --> 0:08:02.320 that he ever signed, which a lot of people are like, Okay, 0:08:02.480 --> 0:08:04.000 wait a minute, let's examine this. 0:08:04.480 --> 0:08:06.320 Yeah, And it kind of took a while for it 0:08:06.360 --> 0:08:11.120 to be even very visible because it underwent some restorations 0:08:11.120 --> 0:08:14.080 over the years, and in the nineteen fifties they did 0:08:14.120 --> 0:08:18.280 a restoration where they really could see the signature and 0:08:18.360 --> 0:08:20.600 what it said I don't know about for the first time, 0:08:20.640 --> 0:08:23.840 but like super clearly at least, and it said F 0:08:24.920 --> 0:08:31.800 period god, F mitche lang M I C H E 0:08:31.960 --> 0:08:35.040 l A N G. And then you know, of course, 0:08:35.960 --> 0:08:38.520 everyone's like, well, what does this mean because there is 0:08:38.559 --> 0:08:41.680 no F in his name. It's not like his initial. 0:08:42.240 --> 0:08:47.360 Is he saying, you know, hey, screw Michelangelo, myself, screw me, 0:08:47.800 --> 0:08:50.280 or I'm screwed. No, no one really said that. They 0:08:50.360 --> 0:08:52.360 thought that F. There are a couple of different theories. 0:08:52.640 --> 0:08:56.559 Thought it was shorthand for fratter or which means brother, 0:08:57.440 --> 0:08:59.760 because he was one of the knights, and maybe he 0:08:59.880 --> 0:09:03.800 just meant like brother Michelangelo or whatever. And then some 0:09:03.880 --> 0:09:07.960 other people said no, maybe it means stands for fesset fec, 0:09:09.160 --> 0:09:14.079 which is Latin for did, translating basically into I did it, 0:09:14.240 --> 0:09:16.240 and it's spelled out in blood, kind of confessing to 0:09:16.320 --> 0:09:16.800 his crime. 0:09:18.080 --> 0:09:20.439 Right, So that's kind of like where the mystery comes in. 0:09:20.640 --> 0:09:24.960 Was he confessing to the crime of murdering Renuccio Tomosoni? 0:09:27.000 --> 0:09:30.280 From what I saw most I can't say most, but 0:09:30.440 --> 0:09:33.439 the art historians and critics that I saw basically said no, 0:09:33.559 --> 0:09:37.600 he almost certainly wasn't doing that. For one, everybody knew 0:09:37.600 --> 0:09:40.199 that he did it. He'd already been coated in absentia. 0:09:40.240 --> 0:09:42.480 That's so it's not like he was confessing to it. 0:09:42.679 --> 0:09:45.240 Although you can make the case that he was confessing 0:09:45.280 --> 0:09:47.640 in the Catholic sense of the word. Do you know 0:09:47.679 --> 0:09:52.680 what I mean right like before God, Yeah, exactly, or 0:09:52.800 --> 0:09:53.760 de Bear's. 0:09:55.160 --> 0:09:58.319 That painting still hangs at Saint John's Co Cathedral in Multitude. 0:09:58.800 --> 0:10:01.040 Okay, yeah, yeah, well, I mean it was the altar piece, 0:10:01.080 --> 0:10:02.679 like they like, it was a big deal that they 0:10:02.720 --> 0:10:04.400 got their hands on it, because he was a celebrated 0:10:04.440 --> 0:10:07.480 painter at the time already in his lifetime. But the 0:10:07.600 --> 0:10:10.960 other interpretation that he was saying f as in Freighter 0:10:11.080 --> 0:10:18.360 or Brother Michelangelo about himself, that's probably the likelier version 0:10:18.440 --> 0:10:21.760 because he was at the time seeking a pardon from 0:10:21.800 --> 0:10:25.560 the Pope so he could return to Rome, and by 0:10:25.679 --> 0:10:28.960 saying like I'm in this holy order, I'm basically like 0:10:29.080 --> 0:10:33.520 a Catholic holy man now a leader of the church 0:10:34.120 --> 0:10:36.320 because the Order of Saint John, the Knights of Malta 0:10:36.360 --> 0:10:40.440 have inducted me. He was basically shouting at loud and 0:10:40.520 --> 0:10:45.240 proud by signing that one particular very holy painting that 0:10:45.320 --> 0:10:45.680 he did. 0:10:45.880 --> 0:10:49.280 But they said, nice, try, buddy, and they kicked him 0:10:49.320 --> 0:10:53.360 out for being a quote foul and rotten member end quote. 0:10:53.400 --> 0:10:54.079 So it didn't work. 0:10:54.120 --> 0:10:57.640 A month after a month, dude, he lasted a month 0:10:57.800 --> 0:10:59.800 in the Order of Saint John's. And it's not like 0:10:59.840 --> 0:11:04.239 they ran around willy nilly inducting people like they basically 0:11:06.000 --> 0:11:10.839 had no idea that they had. What was Vic's last 0:11:10.920 --> 0:11:11.680 name in The Shield? 0:11:12.120 --> 0:11:15.880 Victay Beck, No, not victay Back, I don't know. I 0:11:15.880 --> 0:11:17.800 didn't watch The Shield, Oh you didn't. 0:11:17.800 --> 0:11:20.040 It was good. I rewatched like the last seven episodes 0:11:20.080 --> 0:11:22.760 the other night, over a couple of nights. It still 0:11:22.880 --> 0:11:25.280 holds up, actually, But anyway, they didn't realize that they 0:11:25.640 --> 0:11:28.560 had inducted him, the guy from the Shield, and they 0:11:28.559 --> 0:11:31.199 figured it out pretty quickly. So he made his way 0:11:31.240 --> 0:11:34.760 back from Malta to I believe sicily on his way 0:11:34.800 --> 0:11:36.600 to Rome, and I think he actually got a pardon 0:11:37.320 --> 0:11:40.640 and got into yet another squabble, another sword fight, and 0:11:41.640 --> 0:11:45.679 sustained some wounds, and between infected wounds, they think he 0:11:45.760 --> 0:11:50.600 got a staff infection, lead poisoning. He apparently had gone 0:11:50.679 --> 0:11:53.200 rather mad from being exposed to the paints that he 0:11:53.240 --> 0:11:57.800 painted with, and then sun exposure sunstroke on the beach 0:11:57.880 --> 0:12:01.120 in Tuscan. He finally killed him, and so it goes, 0:12:02.520 --> 0:12:05.080 yes it does, but his paintings are still just amazing. 0:12:05.120 --> 0:12:06.920 I can look at him all day, you know, Yeah, 0:12:07.040 --> 0:12:07.360 me too. 0:12:07.559 --> 0:12:08.840 I like this. I like this stuff. 0:12:09.440 --> 0:12:12.920 I do too, So that's Caravaggio. 0:12:13.600 --> 0:12:16.440 How about Vermire, Well, I think we should take a break. 0:12:17.080 --> 0:12:39.960 Oh gosh, and we'll be back right after this. All right, 0:12:40.240 --> 0:12:44.360 we had a great cliffhanger with Vermire. Vermire, the very 0:12:44.360 --> 0:12:49.960 famous Dutch artist Johannes Vermire, had a very famous painting, 0:12:50.000 --> 0:12:51.960 a lot of very famous paintings, but one in particular 0:12:52.880 --> 0:12:54.760 that has had a bunch of names over the years. 0:12:55.480 --> 0:12:57.640 In fact, it did not get the name Girl with 0:12:57.679 --> 0:13:00.800 a Pearl ear Ring until the twentieth century. It was 0:13:00.840 --> 0:13:05.160 called everything from a Girl with a Turban to Girl 0:13:05.160 --> 0:13:08.120 with an Earring, had lots of different names because it 0:13:08.160 --> 0:13:13.000 was not officially titled by Vermir Noor dated even though 0:13:13.200 --> 0:13:15.080 they think it was around sixteen sixty five. 0:13:16.000 --> 0:13:18.800 Yeah, he was just like this, this dude who lived 0:13:18.840 --> 0:13:22.280 in delt in the Netherlands and never left his hometown 0:13:22.440 --> 0:13:28.000 and had a wife and fifteen kids fifteen, yeah, fifteen kids, 0:13:28.840 --> 0:13:33.280 and just kind of painted and he made probably a 0:13:33.400 --> 0:13:36.680 comparatively small number of works. I think around thirty six 0:13:36.720 --> 0:13:40.200 are attributed to him, and there's a theory that as 0:13:40.200 --> 0:13:42.440 many as a fifth of those were done by his 0:13:42.559 --> 0:13:47.440 oldest daughter, Maria. But he's kind of like this enigma 0:13:47.520 --> 0:13:50.640 at the time, not just personally, but also the stuff 0:13:50.679 --> 0:13:55.400 he was painting. There was a huge movement among the 0:13:55.440 --> 0:13:59.160 Dutch painters at the time that they would paint like these, 0:13:59.400 --> 0:14:03.880 you know, horror, thick healscapes or there was a lot 0:14:03.920 --> 0:14:09.040 of like obvious narrative and symbolism just all over the paintings. 0:14:09.040 --> 0:14:11.040 There was just a lot going on. Vermere went a 0:14:11.040 --> 0:14:14.720 different way where he would almost peek in on very 0:14:15.000 --> 0:14:20.400 normal daily life and capture like these these really just 0:14:20.680 --> 0:14:25.560 kind of boring her otherwise mundane moments. But he did 0:14:25.600 --> 0:14:28.080 it in a way that this guy was like the 0:14:29.000 --> 0:14:32.320 Master of light. He makes he makes Thomas Kinkaid look 0:14:32.400 --> 0:14:35.880 like puke as far as like you know, light Master. 0:14:36.040 --> 0:14:39.760 He goes So girl with a pearl earring. Everyone has 0:14:39.920 --> 0:14:42.080 seen it, Like I said, it's very famous. It's a 0:14:42.080 --> 0:14:45.200 young girl looks to be sort of like mid teenage 0:14:45.240 --> 0:14:49.080 years looking over her shoulder, she's wearing a dress, she's 0:14:49.120 --> 0:14:53.600 wearing that turban. Very prominent ear rings, large pearl ear 0:14:53.640 --> 0:14:55.720 rings and pearls factored into quite a few of his 0:14:55.760 --> 0:14:58.280 works over the years, and it's one of those paintings 0:14:58.280 --> 0:15:01.600 where the eyes follow you supposedly, which we've talked about 0:15:01.600 --> 0:15:05.160 in one of our short Stuff episodes on Mona Lisa. 0:15:05.680 --> 0:15:08.480 I think so, yeah, it's you know, the effect of 0:15:08.880 --> 0:15:12.080 the eyes following, which doesn't happen in all paintings with eyes. 0:15:12.280 --> 0:15:14.640 Oh no, the Mona Lisa's eyes actually don't follow you. 0:15:14.680 --> 0:15:16.480 I think that was the big reveal of that one, 0:15:16.680 --> 0:15:17.920 was it. Yeah? 0:15:18.200 --> 0:15:20.520 All right, So he paints his painting, and then, of 0:15:20.560 --> 0:15:23.760 course the mystery of this one is who is this person. 0:15:24.680 --> 0:15:27.000 There has been speculation that it might be a mistress. 0:15:28.480 --> 0:15:31.000 A lot of people think it was his daughter, Maria, 0:15:31.600 --> 0:15:34.720 who would have been about fifteen or sixteen, and like 0:15:34.760 --> 0:15:39.720 you said, who some people believe painted about a fifth 0:15:39.760 --> 0:15:42.680 of the works attributed to him, because about a fifth 0:15:42.760 --> 0:15:47.000 of his collected works aren't I mean this sounds mean 0:15:47.000 --> 0:15:49.600 to say, but they aren't as they aren't up to 0:15:49.600 --> 0:15:52.600 snuff compared to us other works, so they sort of 0:15:52.640 --> 0:15:54.440 stand out from the rest, so they think that they 0:15:54.480 --> 0:15:56.080 may have been Maria's good painting. 0:15:56.160 --> 0:15:58.440 Still, yeah, there's still a lot better than anything I 0:15:58.480 --> 0:15:58.800 could say. 0:15:58.880 --> 0:16:01.040 Yeah, it's not like there were stick fit years, you know, 0:16:01.120 --> 0:16:01.760 out of nowhere. 0:16:02.320 --> 0:16:04.080 They're like this Vermere seems off. 0:16:04.800 --> 0:16:07.520 But you know, if you've there was a nineteen ninety 0:16:07.560 --> 0:16:11.240 nine novel from Tracy Chevalier, The Girl with a Pearl Earring, 0:16:11.280 --> 0:16:15.560 and then the two thousand film adaptation starring Scarlett Johansson, 0:16:16.040 --> 0:16:18.680 who was perfectly cast. She looks, you know, quite a 0:16:18.720 --> 0:16:21.000 bit like The Girl with a Pearl Earring. But this 0:16:21.160 --> 0:16:24.360 was historical fiction. If you've seen that movie and you're like, no, 0:16:24.520 --> 0:16:28.160 she was the family's maid's assistant and love interest to Vermire, 0:16:28.800 --> 0:16:30.760 that was just I don't even think that was based 0:16:30.760 --> 0:16:32.280 on anything. It's just historical fiction. 0:16:33.320 --> 0:16:37.600 Yes, from what I've seen, the art critics and historians 0:16:37.640 --> 0:16:41.080 basically tend to think that there was no person that 0:16:41.120 --> 0:16:44.680 this was modeled on. There. It wasn't even necessarily his daughter. 0:16:45.040 --> 0:16:49.000 And in fact, it was kind of a trend at 0:16:49.000 --> 0:16:52.120 the time a painting called a trony, which was an 0:16:52.160 --> 0:16:56.200 imaginary figure, a person who didn't actually exist, and the 0:16:56.240 --> 0:16:59.560 point was to kind of show off things like costumes 0:16:59.840 --> 0:17:05.400 and jewelry, which is ostensibly the point of that painting. 0:17:05.440 --> 0:17:09.160 But the thing is the Vermire, the face that he did, 0:17:09.640 --> 0:17:13.960 and where the place that he put her, Like we 0:17:13.960 --> 0:17:16.439 were talking about how she gets compared to Mona Lisa. 0:17:16.440 --> 0:17:18.800 She's called the Mona Lisa of the North. Mona Lisa 0:17:18.880 --> 0:17:21.679 is like sitting back in the painting. The girl with 0:17:21.720 --> 0:17:24.400 the pearl earring is like right in the foreground, like right, 0:17:24.760 --> 0:17:27.840 there's very little between you and her, and she's turned 0:17:27.840 --> 0:17:30.639 around and her mouth's open, which apparently was very unusual 0:17:30.680 --> 0:17:34.680 for painting Dutch painting at the time, and it looks 0:17:34.680 --> 0:17:36.480 like she's going to say something. I guess that that 0:17:36.680 --> 0:17:41.159 is what entrances people with this image that you know, 0:17:41.200 --> 0:17:43.640 what's she going to say? What did he capture her 0:17:44.160 --> 0:17:46.160 about to say? You know, it looks like she's turning 0:17:46.160 --> 0:17:49.199 around like oh, and you know this other thing I 0:17:49.240 --> 0:17:50.080 hadn't told. 0:17:49.840 --> 0:17:55.560 You maybe she was an improv comedian. And she was, yes, yes, 0:17:55.600 --> 0:17:58.520 and you never know. But this is a mystery they'll 0:17:58.560 --> 0:18:01.480 never be saw, which I like those kind of mysteries 0:18:01.480 --> 0:18:02.520 when it comes to stuff like this. 0:18:03.200 --> 0:18:05.240 Yeah, and I saw that argued as well, that it 0:18:05.280 --> 0:18:07.359 was like, you know, if we knew who she was, 0:18:07.440 --> 0:18:09.880 it would just it would we would lose a lot 0:18:09.880 --> 0:18:10.800 of the interest in. 0:18:10.760 --> 0:18:12.280 It, and we would have found out by now. 0:18:12.320 --> 0:18:16.080 I think, yes, yeah, and you're right, we probably won't 0:18:16.080 --> 0:18:18.640 ever know. But because of this so like it wasn't 0:18:18.680 --> 0:18:23.040 like very well thought of or nobody really thought much 0:18:23.080 --> 0:18:25.440 of it until nineteen ninety five and the National Gallery 0:18:25.520 --> 0:18:28.679 used it as the poster for their big exhibit. But 0:18:28.800 --> 0:18:30.520 since then a lot of people have really kind of 0:18:30.560 --> 0:18:33.080 examined it. And I hadn't noticed this before, but I 0:18:33.080 --> 0:18:34.840 saw it, pointed out Chuck. If you look at the 0:18:34.880 --> 0:18:38.000 pearl earring. First of all, it's improbably large, is how 0:18:38.040 --> 0:18:41.240 I saw it described, like the ear couldn't physically hold 0:18:41.320 --> 0:18:46.119 up a pearl that size. But then secondly, it's really 0:18:46.160 --> 0:18:50.440 basically made with two brushstrokes. Both of them are reflecting light. 0:18:50.720 --> 0:18:53.280 One is from the light source and then the lower 0:18:53.320 --> 0:18:56.439 one is reflecting the light off of the caller. And 0:18:56.480 --> 0:18:58.639 it's pretty amazing that, you know, we talk about this 0:18:58.920 --> 0:19:01.840 the girl with the pearl earing this pearl itself is 0:19:01.840 --> 0:19:05.159 is like a kind of a cultural icon too, and 0:19:05.200 --> 0:19:08.640 it's basically just two brushstrokes, which is kind of goes 0:19:08.680 --> 0:19:10.439 to show how great Vermir was. 0:19:10.640 --> 0:19:11.080 Amazing. 0:19:11.800 --> 0:19:16.680 Have you ever seen Tim's Vermuir the documentary? I have not, Oh, Chuck, 0:19:16.720 --> 0:19:19.680 You've got to see it. It's directed by Teller from 0:19:19.720 --> 0:19:22.760 Penn and teller, which makes you think, like, how did 0:19:22.800 --> 0:19:25.800 he direct if he doesn't talk, you know, but he 0:19:25.920 --> 0:19:26.520 somehow did. 0:19:26.880 --> 0:19:27.280 I think. 0:19:28.640 --> 0:19:32.720 It's about what that's just a bit and it's about 0:19:33.320 --> 0:19:36.120 It's about a guy who basically figured out that Vermir 0:19:36.440 --> 0:19:41.840 somehow projected images that he built in real life onto 0:19:41.840 --> 0:19:44.040 a canvas and then painted him that way. And he 0:19:44.080 --> 0:19:48.600 actually replicates a Vermir like perfectly. It's really just one 0:19:48.600 --> 0:19:50.320 of the better documentaries you'll ever see. 0:19:50.680 --> 0:19:51.120 Very cool. 0:19:51.880 --> 0:19:54.040 Yeah, so what do you think? 0:19:54.359 --> 0:19:59.119 And rafe yell, Yeah, so the mystery here and this 0:19:59.200 --> 0:20:01.680 is one of our This actually has a Simpsons crossover 0:20:01.720 --> 0:20:07.320 as well, which is kind of fun because Raphael painted 0:20:07.520 --> 0:20:10.160 a very famous painting called Portrait of a young Man 0:20:10.840 --> 0:20:15.000 and is largely described as one of the most famous, 0:20:15.040 --> 0:20:17.480 if not the most famous pieces of art to go 0:20:17.560 --> 0:20:21.600 missing during the plundering of great art in World War 0:20:21.600 --> 0:20:25.879 Two by Hitler in The Gang. And this is a 0:20:25.920 --> 0:20:29.360 crossover with The Simpsons in that in the Fighting Hellfish 0:20:29.359 --> 0:20:34.600 episode when Grandpa Abe and Burns are stealing art, this 0:20:34.680 --> 0:20:37.160 is one of the paintings Portrait of a young Man. Oh, 0:20:37.359 --> 0:20:40.440 it's one of the paintings that they stole. Wow, Which 0:20:40.480 --> 0:20:42.640 shows that you know Simpsons writers back then at least 0:20:42.640 --> 0:20:46.440 were definitely doing their work, like their research work, because 0:20:46.440 --> 0:20:48.000 that's a nice little easter egg, I think. 0:20:48.160 --> 0:20:51.440 Yeah, totally. Doesn't it even talk? Doesn't it say something 0:20:51.600 --> 0:20:55.080 like someone's guilty conscience or something. I don't remember making 0:20:55.080 --> 0:20:55.399 that up. 0:20:55.440 --> 0:20:56.919 I don't know. I don't remember. I mean, it's been 0:20:56.920 --> 0:20:58.280 a long time since I've seen that one. But it 0:20:58.320 --> 0:21:00.159 was one of the great episodes, I think. 0:21:01.040 --> 0:21:03.640 So the Portrait of the young Man, which they think 0:21:04.280 --> 0:21:07.399 was a Raphael self portrait, and actually we have no 0:21:07.480 --> 0:21:10.000 idea what the colors were because the only photographs we 0:21:10.040 --> 0:21:12.399 have of it were in black and white. But he 0:21:12.480 --> 0:21:17.359 used to hang in the Prince's zar Torski Museum in Poland, 0:21:18.040 --> 0:21:22.199 along with two other really important paintings, Leonardo's Lady with 0:21:22.240 --> 0:21:26.159 an Ermine, which is a scout stoat I can't remember, 0:21:26.440 --> 0:21:30.160 kind of a weasel like animal, and then Rembrandts Landscape 0:21:30.160 --> 0:21:34.280 with the Good Samaritan. And all three of those and 0:21:34.320 --> 0:21:37.800 everything else in the Prince's zar Torski Museum were swiped 0:21:37.840 --> 0:21:40.320 by the Nazis when they came to Poland and placed 0:21:40.320 --> 0:21:43.520 in the office of a guy named Hans Frank who 0:21:43.600 --> 0:21:47.280 was the head of the government for the Nazis in Poland, right. 0:21:47.520 --> 0:21:50.199 Yeah, And you know, they almost they almost got these 0:21:50.280 --> 0:21:54.040 hidden away successfully when Poland was being invaded. They knew 0:21:54.040 --> 0:21:56.520 that the art was going to be plundered, and so 0:21:56.760 --> 0:22:00.399 those three paintings were actually rescued by the Prince hidden 0:22:00.440 --> 0:22:04.359 away in a house in a place that I can't 0:22:04.359 --> 0:22:08.760 even pronounce, Sienawa. I'm not sure what that is. But 0:22:09.240 --> 0:22:12.960 they were ultimately found by the Gestapo and handed over 0:22:13.080 --> 0:22:17.040 to Frank and Frank. You know, they were supposed to 0:22:17.040 --> 0:22:19.240 go to Hitler. Hitler's going to open a museum, the 0:22:19.240 --> 0:22:22.760 Furia Museum, and Lenz and Frank actually kind of kept 0:22:22.800 --> 0:22:25.320