many artists throughout history have
been known for being a little out there
eccentric lifestyles weird quirks
strange behaviors tempers you name it
sometimes to make great art you have to
push the borders of reality and free
yourself from the confines of social
norms but sometimes this can go too far
welcome back to nutty history we're
exploring weird facts about history's
greatest artist from funny quirks to
crimes against humanity
[Music]
viewer discretion is advised for this
video as some of this video may be
offensive or disturbing we the makers of
this video in no way support or condone
the actions of the subjects featured
[Music]
michelangelo medici t caravacho was a
16th century italian painter known for
his dramatic use of lighting and shadows
to create dark emotional scenes that
made his characters come to life he only
painted around 90 pieces but they're
incredibly valuable the martyrdom of
saint ursula alone is worth 190 million
dollars caravacho's dark style mirrored
his own personality he had an explosive
temper and was constantly getting into
drunken brawls while living in rome he
went to court at least 10 times he
really liked assaulting people with
swords this got him in a lot of trouble
and possibly inspired the painting
judith beheading holofernes a gruesome
scene of a woman dismembering a man's
head with a sword to make matters worse
caravacho also went to court for
throwing artichokes at a waiter's face
and throwing stones at policemen by 1605
his life was falling apart his landlady
seized all his furniture because he
couldn't pay rent
yeah they did that back then and he
ended up accidentally puncturing himself
with his own sword
then in may of 1606 caravacho murdered a
man named ranuccio tomosani some say it
was a fight over tennis match others
thought they were fighting over an
escort either way he killed him either
with a sword or knife the coroner's
report said that tomosani had bled out
from the female artery in his groin
which suggests that caravacho had tried
to castrate him
he was given the death penalty by the
pope but managed to flee rome he left
life on the run for a few years ending
up in malta selling back wrapped olives
and lived happily ever after
just kidding in malta he assaulted a
high-ranking military officer and went
to prison he escaped though and fled to
naples eventually he managed to use some
connections to secure pardon back in
rome but died before he could make it
back
some say he died of syphilis others say
he died of a sword wound based on his
erratic life either could have been
possible
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salvador dali created some of the most
striking odd and beautiful paintings the
world has ever known they are complex
packed full of symbolism and supremely
weird
his most famous work is definitely the
persistence of memory its melting clocks
became an instant hit when the painting
went up on the wall of a new york
gallery in 1932
and they remain some of the world's most
widely recognized images in the art
world
good evening tonight we go after the
story of an extraordinary personality
he's salvador dali the great surrealist
painter who sees the world through
surrealist eyes
what's the point of this picture
is there any point this is very
important because
myself work constantly in the moment of
sleep
every of my best ideas coming through my
dreams dolly's paintings have sold for
millions of dollars his most expensive
painting is portrait of paul ellerwar
which went for over 22 million dollars
at an auction in 2011.
elowar one of dolly's surrealist
contemporaries is shown a mystic collage
of freudian symbolism inspired by the
fact that he was the ex-husband of
dolly's future wife the art world eats
up this kind of historical backstory and
it showed at the auction block 22
million sounds quite expensive right
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dolly was also one of the weirdest
characters in art history he would walk
around the streets with his pet ocelot
and steal pins from fans after signing
autographs he even published a cookbook
stranger than that though was the fact
that he thought he was the reincarnation
of his dead brother the idea was planted
by his parents who brought dolly to his
brother's grave when he was just five
and told him their theory
who does that his older brother also
named salvador died about nine months
before the future artist was born and
his parents were convinced their second
son was actually their first
dolly came to believe it as well his
previous incarnation makes several
shadowy appearances in his paintings
including a featured role in one title a
portrait of my dead brother
pablo picasso was one of the most
influential artists of the 20th century
guernica is considered one of the best
anti-war paintings of all time and women
of algiers sold for a whopping 179
million dollars at auction in 2015. when
picasso died in 1973 he was worth an
estimated 250 million dollars when
adjusted for inflation he'd be worth
more than a billion dollars today
all that money seems to have gone to his
head though because apparently picasso
was a pretty mean guy
he apparently enjoyed carrying a gun
around with him and pointed it at anyone
who made him angry he also had several
mistresses or muses throughout his life
and he was no stranger to domestic abuse
maybe some of his anger issues came from
the fact that he had a maddeningly long
name his full name is deep breath here
pablo diego jose francisco di paula juan
nepo mucheno maria dilos ramirios
cipriano de la centissima trinidad
martinez patricio clito ruiz picasso
fortunately he just signed his paintings
picasso otherwise there'd be no space
for the actual artwork
in a final middle finger to his family
picasso died without leaving a will
his wives and ex-wives and children
legitimate and illegitimate were left
fighting over his fortune for years in
messy legal battles
when he died picasso left behind more
than 45 000 works of art so many that it
would take a gallery the size of the
empire state building to display them
all
talk about prolific
johannes vermeer was a 17th century
dutch artist known for his vivid use of
light and color to depict the everyday
life of the middle class his most
valuable painting is also one that might
be lost forever the concert valued at
over 200 million dollars was stolen from
the isabella stewart garner in boston
back in 1990 and hasn't been seen since
because vermeer's paintings are so
valuable there have been a lot of art
forgers looking to cash in on his name
one of the most famous was a guy named
han van meegeren
van meegeren was a failed artist who
happened to be from delft the same town
in the netherlands as vermeer with his
own art career floundering in the early
1900s van meegeren resorted to forging
vermeers and other dutch masters and he
was making a ton of money doing it his
fakes were selling for millions of
dollars in today's money and he was able
to finance a lavish lifestyle and a
debilitating drug habit his forgeries
were so good that in 1942 the nazis took
a liking to them herman gehring hitler's
right-hand man bought one of van
meegeren's fakes christ with the
adulteress thinking it was an original
vermeer when the painting was found by
allied forces in 1945 they traced it
back to van meegeren who was charged
with plundering dutch cultural property
and collaborating with the nazis a
charge that carried the death penalty in
a weird twist van meegeren had to fess
up to being a forger in order to avoid
the death penalty and plead instead to a
lesser charge of counterfeiting his
fakes were so good though that he had to
prove it in front of a dutch court
painting jesus among the doctors while
court appointed witnesses looked on
he was saved from the death penalty but
it would be his last forgery van
meegeren died shortly after from a drug
and alcohol-induced heart attack while
awaiting his new sentence
vincent van gogh was a prolific artist
in just 10 years between the ages of 27
and 37 he created 900 works of art and
countless other sketches
that comes out to about one work of art
every 36 hours
unfortunately he couldn't sell most of
them while he was alive and he lived his
life impoverished and consistently on
the verge of mental breakdowns some of
his best known pieces include starry
night sunflowers and portrait of dr paul
gaucher which sold for 83 million
dollars in 1990. once again the art
world loves a good back story
gashay was an important figure in van
gogh's life as his doctor he helped care
for the dutch artist as he lay dying of
a mysterious gunshot wound was it
suicide a murder or an unfortunate
accident
van gogh was notoriously unstable he of
course famously cut his own ear off in
1888 to give it as a gift to an escort
he was seen at the time some flowers
might have been a better idea though he
was good enough at painting them after a
brief stint in a mental asylum he was
living in auver a village on the
outskirts of paris he was drinking a lot
and staying at an end there where he
managed to continue painting his mental
health was quickly deteriorating and
those around him were concerned he was
also spending a lot of time with two 16
year old teens a strange move for a 37
year old failing artist with one ear one
of the kids renee sekritan began
bullying van gogh it was reported that
renee would put salt in his coffee and
chili powder and his paint to mess with
the poor man renee also liked to carry
around a gun
one day van gogh walked into the inn
with a gunshot wound to the stomach
rambling that his painting supplies had
been stolen he was taken to the hospital
where he died 36 hours later of an
infection
his doctor the famously painted gache
declared it a suicide however nobody
knew how an unstable van gogh could have
gotten his hands on a gun
on his deathbed van gogh remained
mysterious until the end saying simply
do not accuse anybody it was i who
wanted to kill myself he didn't say he
did it but he didn't say he didn't
either
according to the townspeople renee
stopped carrying around his gun shortly
after that did he shoot the legendary
artist or had van gogh taken his gun and
done it himself we'll probably never
know
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michelangelo was one of the greatest
sculptors and painters of all time his
work lines the ceiling of the sistine
chapel in rome his sculpture david of
michelangelo might be the most famous
sculpture in the world he was
commissioned by the vatican to create
artwork for the tombs of popes and
cathedrals across roman florence but the
whole time he was working he apparently
smelled really
really bad michelangelo hated bathing he
was said to go to bed in his clothes
with his shoes on it got so bad that
when he would take his shoes off the
skin on his feet would peel away with
them this habit was supposedly
encouraged by his father who would send
michelangelo letters urging him to care
for his health by avoiding soap and
water and instead just rub himself down
from time to time
it seems he took the advice to heart
when michelangelo died he had been
wearing his clothes for so long that
they had to be peeled off it was the
1500s but even back then this was
probably pretty gross
with great art comes great weirdness
sometimes an artist quirks are funny and
cute other times they are deadly serious
can you think of any other strange facts
about artists that we missed let us know
in the comments and don't forget to like
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