Chapter 21 FASHION AND THE ARTS Art I'll bet you don't know Rembrandt's last name. Read on, you'll find out in a minute. The painting that won second place in a competition held by the U.S. National Academy of Design was hanging upside down when it was judged. Next time you see a statue of a war hero on a horse, notice how many feet the horse has on the ground. If the horse has only three legs on the ground the rider died of wounds suffered in war. If the horse has two legs in the air, the rider died during the battle. If the rider is not on the horse, but standing next to it, the horse died too. And, if the horse has all four feet on the ground and the rider is on the horse, the man is a hero who died naturally. These are international rules that sculptors follow. The famous painter Vincent Van Gogh sold only one painting during his lifetime. Renoir had arthritis so severe that in the latter part of his life he couldn't use his hands. He tied brushes to his arms to paint. If you have ever looked at old Chinese art, you will note that they were very free in painting eroticism. However, you will never ever see a naked woman's foot. In their culture, that would have been incredibly shocking. Rembrandt's last name was van Rijn. The Mona Lisa is the most valuable painting with an estimated value of over 100 million. King Francis I paid Leonardo $50,000 for the Mona Lisa and had it displayed in the Louvre. It has been there ever since except for two years that it was stolen. (1911-1913) During the time it was missing, 6 different Americans paid $300,000 each for fakes they thought were the stolen painting. If you look carefully at the Mona Lisa you may be surprised to discover that she has no eyebrows. It was fashionable in her time to remove them entirely. X-ray examination of that painting determined that the painting is three layers deep. Leonardo da Vinci repainted her three times to get it just right. Fashion In Italy, another custom that was in vogue for awhile was that women would shave the hair off the front of their heads. 3,500 years ago, not only did women in Egypt remove all the hair from their heads, they also polished their heads to a mirror-like finish. It would have been easier if they had Lemon Pledge in those days. At one time in Japan fashionable women painted their teeth black. Some women in India paint their teeth bright red. Mayan Indians used to shape their teeth. They would make their front teeth pointed and carve holes into which were mounted jewels. In the late 1500's, among the people of England sadness became fashionable. People practiced and preened in the art of acting melancholy. To dress all in black was common. One Disgusting Character There was a guy who hated bathing in any form. Instead, he covered over the dirt and sweat on his face every day with red paint. He was Frederick the Great of Prussia. Sometimes people go to what others consider ridiculous lengths to make themselves look appealing. Some women about 1,000 years ago squirted a plant juice into their eyes, believing that the way this dilated their pupils was attractive. "Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months." -Oscar Wilde According to research by a British fashion design firm and by Sears Roebuck, yesterday's fashions will no longer fit modern women. There has been a gradual trend of breasts and hips becoming smaller, and waists thicker. Generally, women are becoming more tube-shaped. Until 1818 shoes were interchangeable, there was no difference between right and left shoes. King George IV of England changed the tradition by ordering a set of boots made to fit specific feet. In a survey, 20 percent of American men said they wear uncomfortable shoes because they look fashionable. 50 percent of women said they put up with uncomfortable shoes in trade for style. In other research it has been determined that three out of every four women wear the wrong size bra. American women spend $900 million per year on lipstick. When sailors used to wipe their noses on their coat cuffs, it tended to gross out their captains. This is why buttons on coat cuffs were invented. The tuxedo gets its name from the place it was first worn, Tuxedo Park, New York. The brassiere was patented in 1914. 10,000 mink are killed each day to make clothing. The average American spends $1.23 per day, or $448.95 per year on clothing. Men in New Guinea tribes want to be stylish too, but they have no razors. They shave with sharp blades of grass. When Fath Ali Shah was coronated in 1797 he wore 170 pounds of clothing covered with gold and jewels. The Van Moppes diamond, which has 58 (traditional number) facets, is a very small diamond. It was created in 1949 and took four months to finish. It was lost 16 times, and recovered each time by burning all the dust collected from the floor with gasoline, leaving the diamond. Since it is too small to see with the unaided eye unless conditions are just right, it comes with a microscope to see it, which has a magnification of 630 times. It was once sent to America to be seen on television, but customs held it for 2 months, until after the show was to be filmed, because they could not manage to assign a value to it. In India jewelry is sold by weight (by grams) no matter how much handwork has gone into it.