This painting is the ultimate proof how technology has influenced our thinking and our point of view on different subjects.
I see this painting, created in 1860, as evidence that today’s society–which is engulfed by technological gadgets–sees art differently than people 20, 30 or 50 years ago.
A painting called ‘Die Erwartete’ or the Expected, by Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller. Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons
The first time I saw this painting was a few days ago. Immediately after seeing it, my mind started racing: “What is that young woman holding,” I asked myself.
Then I thought… well this looks how young people in today’s society act like… holding onto their mobile until the battery drained out.
The painter illustrated in 1860 the 21st-century lifestyle: People walking on the street, holding their smartphones tightly while texting or browsing social networks.
Except there’s one small thing.
The woman depicted in the painting isn’t actually holding a smartphone, despite the fact that there are many people who for a minute thought so.
The woman in the paiting—created by Austrian artist Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller, and called ‘The Expected One’ or Die Erwartete—depicts a young woman walking down a rocky path towards a man, with a flower in his hand, ‘expecting’ the young woman.
In her hands, the young woman is depicted holding an object that many confuse for a smartphone.
What she is holding onto is either a hymnbook or a bible.
This painting and the entire buzz created around it is perhaps the greatest evidence how technology changes people, and apparently, it also changes our interpretation of art.
If you had seen this painting 20 years ago, you’d probably have never even though it was some sort of technological gadget.
Most people would have concurred, without hesitation, that the woman was holding onto a Bible, and there wouldn’t be debate or doubts about what she was holding.
However, in today’s society things are different.
We look at things from another point of view, and our mind sees countless objects in ancient art that are eerily familiar to things like smartphones, rockets, spaceships, UFO’s and even aliens.
Some of these things are the result of Pareidolia, while other things, like this painting and the object the woman is holding, is the result how technology can influence our point of view.
Let me know what you think about this, by posting your comment below.
Do you agree that technology has influenced the way we see things?
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