One thing in this painting...painter's insanity. Updated with "answer"

A

Apossum

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http://www.veryrussian.net/2006/could-this-be-the-new-da-vinci-code.html

insanepainting-large.jpg

(the crease in the middle is from the scan)
* This was painted by a person with a rare and severe mental disorder. He was constantly seeing his own fantasies all around him. He also had a certain phobia (undisclosed).

* His (the poster’s) psychiatry professor showed this painting in a lecture, and said there was one tell-tale sign in it that showed the painter’s insanity.

* The professor didn’t say what that sign was, leaving the students to do the guesswork. The only clues he gave was, “don’t look for small details, look at the whole; if you figure out what the phobia was, you’ve got the answer; ask yourself what could have preceded this scene; think of what the place would look like with all the objects removed“.

* The professor said that during the 15 years of his teaching, only one student had figured it out.
Click to expand...



I say it's a fear of being buried alive/sever claustrophobia.

Some more hints at the link. Apparently the professor is going online tomorrow (er, whenever it's that time in russia, i guess) to answer questions and reveal the answer.

Update:
pretty much confirmed to be a hoax

http://www.veryrussian.net/2006/the-final-meltdown-probably.html#more-158


well played, person who started it!


oh, there is an answer from a person who claims to be a former student of the supposed professor:

“In this painting, we are Spring. You can see water, melting snow, in the lower left corner. The people are looking at us, afraid that their little world is about to melt down. They’re escaping from us, from Spring, in those sleds. It’s also why all the doors of all the houses are shut.”

yes, very succinct and satisfying! Best ending since Halo 2!

Moral of the story: you can look at anything, come to any conclusion you feel like by creating evidence with your mind, ???, profit.
 
[quote name='Moxio']Horses? Snow?[/QUOTE]


WHOA! YOU'RE THE 2ND GUY TO GET IT IN 15 YEARS! jk
 
The baby stroller in the snow is kinda weird.

Maybe heights, since the horizon line is extremely high up on the canvas, and the perspective is extremely low (safety, but the intimidation of the hill is enhanced).
 
The one blacked out building and it seems like all the horses/people are fleeing from it?

*insane too*
 
I moved around portions inside Photoshop. Like I cut it down the middle and put tmhe left side on the right side, etc. I also tried to replicate folding "Mad Magazine" trick, and part of it looks like it might actually form a new image. 'Course it's total complete guessing at the moment so it's hard to know if I'm wasting my time or not.

I started doing this because the middle bothers me. I know it's a crease, but the painting looks unfinished in the middle. There's a house that kinda comes out of nowhere and a fence that doesn't seem to exist elsewhere.
 
[quote name='Moxio']Only white people?[/quote]

I was going to say that he's Xenophobic. But I also think he might dislike spheres or circular objects.
 
[quote name='2Fast']I was going to say that he's Xenophobic. But I also think he might dislike spheres or circular objects.[/quote]
Xenophobic is good also but isn't he russian so naturally it's all white?

As for the spheres/circulars he'd have eliminated the stroller if that be the case (I think)

[quote name='Strell']Lots of things in groups of 3.

Just sayin'.[/quote]
I will also agree with this. Everything is in triplicate here.
 
[quote name='Moxio']...[/QUOTE]


sorry, I've had a few beers and am a bit rambunctious.


part of me thinks the answer is going to be really dumb...it's going to take a lot of evidence for me to think this won't just be some of the old confirmation bias at work...
 
[quote name='Magehart']Xenophobic is good also but isn't he russian so naturally it's all white?

As for the spheres/circulars he'd have eliminated the stroller if that be the case (I think)[/quote]

Well, xenophobia is a fear of outsiders/strangers, they don't necessarily have to be of a different race or nationality.

The main hint the professor gave was to not focus on minor details and imagine if nothing was there; that's where my sphere/circular thing came from. It seems that if he drew something that bothered him, he would want to cover it up, and the picture looks like the top of a sphere.
 
Looking at the faces of everyone they look so... depressed. Save for the few people in control (of the horses). Hmm... :whistle2:k
 
[quote name='2Fast']Well, xenophobia is a fear of outsiders/strangers, they don't necessarily have to be of a different race or nationality.

The main hint the professor gave was to not focus on minor details and imagine if nothing was there; that's where my sphere/circular thing came from. It seems that if he drew something that bothered him, he would want to cover it up, and the picture looks like the top of a sphere.[/QUOTE]


the angle is weird. I thought it had something to do with being buried in an avalanche...if you take away the horses and sleighs the people look like they are buried up to their waists. and the house on the far right looks sunken or partially buried. if everything is gone, then it looks kinda like the hill goes down a decent distance. on the other hand, there's no mountain behind it, so that's probably wrong.
 
The professor said what would you hear in this scene.

I'm thinking you'd be hearing bells on the sleighs.

What would bells coincide with, in terms of what happened earlier?
 
[quote name='Strell']The professor said what would you hear in this scene.

I'm thinking you'd be hearing bells on the sleighs.

What would bells coincide with, in terms of what happened earlier?[/quote]

I think what he means by what would you hear is that you would hear nothing in this. Everything seems so inanimate.
 
I'm thinking maybe it's being alone or abducted.
The whole multiples of 3 things is throwing me off though. I wouldn't be surprised if it was some sort of mathmatical related issue.
 
[quote name='WeaponX2099']there are no doors on the houses. Its gotta be related to that.[/QUOTE]


nope, there's one behind the people with the yellow baby carriage.
 
I say losing his family/leaving home. The professor said what would precede that. It would be leaving home to get on the sleigh. When you leave home you leave your family. Also none of the homes have doors. So without doors you can't leave.


Also for my 2nd guess It might be getting hit, or whooped. Why is the one horseman without a whip. You see
 
the insane artist's painting is loosely based on a famous postcard painting by Antonov.
for comparison, the insane artist's painting is below
maslenica.jpg

insanepainting-large.jpg
 
fear of squirrels, i dont see any in the painting

wait wtf, how are those houses getting electricity, in the original there are powerlines, not in the psycho one
 
maybe the fear of being alone since all of the people in the pic are with someone even the horses are paired up. or it could be fear of the holidays coupled with being alone on the holidays.
 
The main thing I noticed that was odd that all these people are performing these activities at night in the dark. Why would they be racing horses down a hill in the darkness? Also, it seems that in both scans the left sled is out of control.
 
In teh insane one, look at the middle sled, and the left, gray horse. His leg color is different from the rest of his body
 
paranoid schizophrenia? yea yea totally pullingit out of the hat here..i mean, look at the people in the sleighs,..they look like angry men, wearing very similar things, and they're all taking women away, maybe he didnt like women very much to the point of being scared of them and hoped that they would be taken away, "venusophobia" is the fear of beautiful woman..and presuming that this picture is old, and going from old text books, old school russian women werent that pretty....plus the horses look scary :l
 
The answer is gonna blow our fucking minds!!!!

Prior to seeing the original painting it was loosely based on, the people behind the horses looked as though they were on fire. Even the coloring of the horses have that color tone to it. And going off of that thought, it feels like the rest of the painting is used to cover up a previous scene having to do with that. The layering just looks odd. Usually the background stuff is added first and you work your way to the foreground, but it just feels like the people in the foreground were added first and then the rest added around them to cover something up.

Eh, I can bullshit some semblance of veracity in any theory.
 
[quote name='Quackzilla']think about it with all the stuff and houses gone and it will be clearer[/quote]Damn you, if you know the answer, spill it. Otherwise, kindly refrain from stating previously disclosed tips.
 
I wouldn't be surprised if this is an experiment to teach you about perception by having the class/CAG dissect this painting which is entirely normal by reading all sorts of sinister things into it. I also wouldn't be surprised if the painting is normal and psychologists have read things into it simply because they know an insane person painted it. If I had to find something strange it would be the following.

Its hard to say, but it looks like the houses all have bars or something strongly suggestive of them and are somewhat like a prison, concentration camp or institution. The riders all look scared like they are being taken away against their will and those driving look like insane jesters. There is also the strong suggestion of flames from behind the carriage. The horses also look demonic or out of control. Its also very symmetrical and orderly it slopes up from the bottom left to upper right. The trees which were more wild in the original seem to be mirror images in this one. I would say this painting suggests a "cruel form of order" like a prison or institution.

p.s. please post the answer when you get it as I find this interesting.
 
I notice the picture minus the people has all the trees and plants looking kinda odd. The snow covered bushes right infront of the houses stand out and you can kinda see like maybe he was drawing something in them, but thats just my two cents.
 
You can throw that door idea out the window, because as someone already said, the couple with the baby are blocking a door.
 
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