What really makes a piece of art controversial? Does it attack religious sentiments or maybe because it’s nude that it is termed ‘controversial’?

Well, I guess, none of the ideas about ‘controversy’ are wrong! Different people have different ideologies and it’s perfectly all right for each one of us to have them. But, here’s the catch! Even though ideologies change from person to person but there are a set of some common notions that the society is based on. And anything that questions these notions creates a controversy because it is something that people don’t usually believe in. When it comes to talking about a controversial piece of art and more specifically, a painting, I would say, controversial paintings are the ones that bring into question the dominant set of ideas that prevailed at that particular span of time or era. Something that created a controversy in the 1950s might not create a controversy if it came up in the 2000s.

Also, controversial paintings have always made big headlines. Always! Whether it was for their painting style, or the art form or maybe the depictions in them, they have brought a lot of ‘normal things’ into question. Historical analysts have been outraged by paintings that have created ‘inappropriateness’ in the social, or religious or the political world.

In this article, I have tried to enlist some of the most controversial paintings in the history of mankind!

10. Rokeby Venus by Diego Velazquez

It’s the only work of the artist Diego Velazquez that survives till date. The Spanish inquisition discouraged such nude paintings at that time. But Diego was King Philip IV’s painter and he had no reason to be scared of anybody else. This painting created controversies long after it was made. In 1914, a woman attacked the painting and said she did not like the way men gazed at the painting for so long.

9. Virgin Of the Rocks by Leonardo Da Vinci

As most critiques look at it, Renaissance was the ‘Golden Period where knowledge was reborn’. Every aspect of science, art, literature etc. was brought into question as there was a constant air of scepticism in the environment. It is during this time that Da Vinci made Virgin of the Rocks. There are two paintings, one of which was completed in 1486. The paintings depicted Immaculate Conception, the belief which says Jesus Christ was conceived by Mother Mary while she was still a virgin.

The painting became controversial because it showed Mary, who was revered greatly by the Catholics at that time; is depicted without a halo and there is an angel that pints at John the Baptist. This was seen as diminishing the importance that was given to Mary or Christ.

8. Les Demoiselles d’Avignon by Pablo Picasso

It’s an absolutely unnerving and startling painting by Picasso. The painting shows five prostitutes who are naked and are demonstrated in a very unnatural style for which Picasso was well-known. Critics called this painting a pioneer in both cubism and modern art.

7. Sick Bacchus by Caravaggio

Caravaggio was an artist who had a scandalous life. He was someone who killed his lover and was a run from the authorities. But that was not all!

After having multiple sexual partners in his life, he caught Syphilis. What is interesting about this painting is that it’s the self portrait of the artist himself. Another thing that is really interesting (and quite ironical) about this piece of art is that Bacchus is known as the Greek mythological symbol for sexual liberation.

6. The Trench warfare by Otto Dix

This is a painting that depicts the effects of the First World War, a war that shook the entire Earth. The artist, Otto Dix himself was a German soldier and he was wounded on the war front and sent home where he eventually started painting. When the Nazis took over Germany, Otto Dix was asked to step down from his job as an art teacher and some of his paintings were burnt as the Nazis believed that his paintings depicted war in a gruesome and horrid way.

5. The Last Judgement by Michelangelo

Michelangelo painted this in the altar wall of Sistine Chapel. This painting became controversial because it made the Catholic Church really angry. Because the painting depicted nude figures, the church said that it was ‘inappropriate for a sacred place’. After Michelangelo died, a lot of the painting was covered and censored.

4. The Gross Clinic by Thomas Eakins

Again, as Caravaggio, even Thomas Eakins’ life was scandalous and controversial. This painting was initially rejected as it was considered too ‘gruesome’. The very startling and shocking depiction of a surgery became controversial when this painting was made public for the first time.

3. The Nude Maja by Francisco Goya

Surprisingly, the fist painting was the ‘Nude Maja’ and the second painting that came out was ‘The Clothed Maza’ for obvious reasons. The painting became controversial because of its portrayal of nudity. It was termed obscene and Goya had to redo the whole painting and paint a clothed Maza.

2. Mona Lisa by Leonardo Da Vinci

This painting is mysterious and has always caught the interest of scholars and other art lovers alike. Some people said that they could see different kinds of animals in the background of the painting and that Mona Lisa epitomizes envy. The smile of Mona Lisa has been such a mystery for so many years as it seems different to each person who looks at the painting.

If Vinci could see or hear the speculation his painting has created, he would have decided to think a hundred times before making his next masterpiece.

1. The Origin Of The World by Gustave Courbet

It is an extremely bold painting by Gustave Courbet. It is realistic, graphically erotic and it still has the power to raise eyebrows and create issues and controversies. Gustave always tried to violate public sentiments and his paintings were is weapons to do that.