Dead grasshopper discovered in van Gogh painting | Hacker News Reader

Dead grasshopper discovered in van Gogh painting

theguardian.com

77 pointsbrudgers25 comments

"Van Gogh used a type of red pigment that gradually faded over time. That suggests the painting looks slightly different today than when it was completed."

There's something kind of cool about older art changing over time and the process of trying to determine what it might have originally looked like. Reminds me of Philip Mould's work removing a yellowed varnish to uncover a painting (more) as it would have looked 500 years ago: https://twitter.com/philipmould

The way art transforms over time is fascinating and can completely alter our perception of entire classes of art and culture. Check out ancient Roman and Greek statuary and architecture:

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/true-colors-1788...

The Greeks and the Romans prized realism in art above all else. We know this from literature (e.g. the story of Zeuxis and Parrhasius), from surviving paintings (frescoes, portraits, etc.) which show skillful and realistic use of color, and from the shape of the sculptures themselves. They painted their statues because reality is colorful, yes. But they painted them realistically.

The notion that they painted statues with flat, unrealistic colors, without using all the realistic painting skills we know they had, is absurd. It goes against everything we know (from primary sources, not as modern opinions) about classical art, and it is simply not reasonable to believe.

Brinkmann paints reconstructions in the most garish and unrealistic way possible because controversy draws attention, and magazines repeat his claims uncritically for the same reason.

If you haven't seen it already, check out the NHK documentary: "The Lost Hokusai." A masterpiece by Hokusai (the guy who did the famous woodblock print of the ocean wave) was destroyed in a fire, but a single black-and-white photo of it remained. Analysts worked with artists and other specialists to try to recreate what the original colors might have looked like.

https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/special/episode/201705271...

Huh, I thought this was going to be about how old dyes sometimes used insects as a base, like Carmine.

Nope, it is about a dead grasshopper. In a Van Gogh painting.

(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carmine)

Did you know Carmine is still in use as food coloring (E120)? The thought of having ground up bugs in my food is a little offputting, honestly...

And hey, at least you can't accuse them of clickbait-ism ;)

I severely doubt they still grind up insects for this. Likely, they use a microbe that has been modified to produce E120 in huge quantities or otherwise synthesize it. Insects are expensive. A bunch of chemical producing bacteria are easy and cheap.

No mention of any such more industrialized process on Wikipedia [1], it's bugs all the way.

[1]: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carmine

That's interesting indeed.

I guess that's kinda cool we haven't been able to synthesize this chemical yet for mass production

"Producing a kilogram of it requires 80-100'000 insects. Because of its high cost and the risk of allergic reactions, it's often replaced by synthetic dyes like E122, E124 or E132".

Note that both E122 and E124 are Azo dyes, which severely impact mental development. Those are two of the six dangerous food colorings that give all food colorings a bad name.

In fact, the ground up bugs (E120) are much healthier than the synthetic products.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azo_dye

Hmm would I rather have Carmine or Castoreum today?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castoreum

I heard it's just used in some traditional kind of liquor to color it red.

I guess it would be too expensive to actually use for mass produced goods. Why collects and kill those bugs, when you can just use other red dyes?

It's used in the Italian liqueur Alchermes, which is commonly used in pastries, notably Zuppa Inglese.

This was mentioned on the 8 o'clock news in the Netherlands yesterday, which is usually the most watched TV show in the country on weeknights. I was extremely surprised to see this show up on HN and I have no idea why this is getting so much attention.

The real surprise would be if they found it alive.

I thought this was going to be about some crushed insects used to make dyes, for the art inclined almost a click bait title ha. I've pulled another Guardian article which is about crushed bugs and cow urine used for paintings.

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2017/jun/13...

Small insects landing on fresh paint is rather annoying when you're painting stuff. Nice to see someone getting excited about it ;-)

Reminds me of Bug-Getter by R. Bretonor (a short short science fiction story)

Link for convenience: http://www.bretnor.com/BugGetter.html

Why don't they mark where the grasshopper is on the big image?

Post it on Facebook with the text

"Einstein said 99% of all people cannot find the grasshopper in this picture. Can you?" ;-)

OMG wen u see it!

"The grasshopper may not help in any art historical research but it has become a talking point for museum visitors, peering closely in to the painting to see if they can spot the dead insect."

Url changed from https://pictorial.jezebel.com/found-a-dead-bug-in-a-van-gogh..., which points to this.

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