Art + cross stitch

We usually meet art through solemn masterpieces and hushed galleries. Behind the paintings, though, were real people: grumpy, eccentric and sometimes ridiculous. Here are ten of the funniest moments from the art world, proof that even geniuses had off days.

1. Michelangelo Loathed the Sistine Chapel Job

The Sistine Chapel is Michelangelo‘s crowning glory, but he thought of himself as a sculptor and grumbled bitterly. He wrote a comic poem about it, moaning that his beard pointed at the sky, paint dripped on his face and his body was bent “like a Syrian bow”. Four years of neck-craning gave us The Creation of Adam, so maybe it was worth it.

2. A Guard Gave a Priceless Painting Eyes

In 2021, on his very first day at the Yeltsin Center in Yekaterinburg, Russia, a bored security guard took out a ballpoint pen and drew eyes on two faceless figures in Anna Leporskaya’s Three Figures, a painting insured for about a million dollars. The museum restored it and the guard lost his job. Not his best first day.

3. Picasso’s Full Name Is Ridiculously Long

We say Picasso, but his baptismal name honoured a long roll of saints and relatives: Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso. Imagine signing that on every canvas. Read about his playful side in Feeling Blue: Picasso’s Playful Masterpiece.

4. Leonardo Could Not Resist a Caged Bird

According to early biographer Giorgio Vasari, Leonardo loved animals so much that he bought caged birds at the market just to release them. The sellers must have been thrilled to see him coming.

5. Leonardo’s To-Do Lists Were Gloriously Odd

His notebooks overflow with reminders to himself, some of them riddles. One famous entry says to “describe the tongue of the woodpecker”. Others tell him to ask a hydraulics master how to repair a lock, or find out how people skate on ice in Flanders. His curiosity had no off switch, and his paintings still fuel theories, as we explore in The Last Supper’s Hidden Stories.

6. Monet Destroyed Paintings in a Fit of Frustration

Claude Monet was famously hard on himself. If a canvas fell short of his vision, he would slash, scrape or burn it. In 1908 he reportedly destroyed a batch of water lily paintings just before an exhibition because he was dissatisfied. His story of near-blindness is just as striking: read The Man Who Painted Water Until He Went Blind.

7. Dalí Drew on Cheques So They Would Never Be Cashed

Salvador Dalí loved a scheme. A popular story says he paid for meals with a cheque and sketched something on the back, and restaurant owners preferred to keep a Dalí original than cash it, so he reportedly ate for free. Discover more of his eccentricity in The Surreal World of Salvador Dalí.

8. The Mona Lisa Hung in Napoleon’s Bedroom

Before becoming the world’s most famous painting, the Mona Lisa spent a few years on Napoleon Bonaparte’s bedroom wall in the Tuileries Palace in the early 1800s. She went back to the Louvre, where millions queue to see her now. Learn more in The Mona Lisa: Leonardo da Vinci’s Timeless Enigma.

9. Picasso Was Questioned About the Mona Lisa Theft

In 1911 the Mona Lisa vanished from the Louvre. In the confusion, police briefly arrested the poet Guillaume Apollinaire and questioned his friend Pablo Picasso. Neither was involved. The real thief was a museum handyman who hid in a cupboard and walked out with the painting under his smock. It was recovered two years later.

10. “Whistler’s Mother” Is Not Its Real Title

Everyone knows it as Whistler’s Mother, but James McNeill Whistler called it Arrangement in Grey and Black No. 1. He insisted it was a study in colour and composition, not a sentimental portrait. The public ignored him entirely, and the nickname stuck.

Laugh First, Then Stitch

Every masterpiece has a human story, and sometimes a funny one. If you enjoyed these, dive into The Mysteries of the Art World or 10 Fascinating Facts About American Gothic.