We as a species love fascinating and interesting things. Sometimes we even need to suspend our disbelief upon seeing an unbelievable picture. Surely, that bonsai can't be just growing randomly in the middle of a lake!
There is a community for enthusiasts of those kinds of pictures. It's called r/CantBelieveThatsReal and has amassed over 47k members since its inception in 2020. It features real pictures from nature, history, and many different parts of the world. Some are spooky, some mind-blowing, others might make you say, "How is this even possible???" Let us know which entries you find the most fascinating and unbelievable by upvoting them!
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Frozen Bamboo Path In Kyoto
The Glasswing Butterfly. One Of The Most Delicately Beautiful Creatures To Exist
DMX Wearing Anti-Paparazzi Scarf That Ruins Photos By Affecting Flash Photography
that would be amazing for celebrities to wear to ward of unwanted paparazzi
Some things we can't believe are real due to their aesthetic value. "The beauty found in art and nature is so intense that sometimes you just have to pause and take it in," psychologist Gema Sánchez Cuevas writes for Exploring Your Mind.
A beautiful landscape, a fascinating work of art or a moving poem have the power to trigger a positive emotion in us. Professor at the University of Barcelona Rafael Bisquerra refers to them as "aesthetic emotions." According to him, "art – or any object creating beauty – can spark numerous responses in people, both positive and negative – which have their roots in emotional response."
This Bonsai Tree Naturally Growing In The Middle Of A Lake
The Moon Looks Like Saturn
This Polish Statue Looks Like Darth Vader After A Snowy Day
In reality, we're not only moved or interested in things that are pleasing to the eye. "The brain is also fascinated by mysterious things that arouse an intense interest in us," psychologist Valeria Sabater writes.
When there's a stimulus that combines the known with the unknown, it inspires, interests and arouses our brains. Our minds love a mystery and strive to solve it. Let's take that picture of the frozen bamboo in Kyoto. It automatically makes us ask: "How does this happen?"
A Single Drop Of Sea Water Under A Microscope
Thinks of all the seawater she’s accidentally swallowed over the years….
A House In Iceland
Srirangam Temple,india!!
How else can we describe this feeling of fascination? It's definitely positive: it makes us feel happy, joyful, inspired, interested and amazed. Sabater calls this "a psycho-physiological state of great transcendence."
Freeze, Thaw And Refreeze Caused This Icicle To Look Like A Hummingbird
Butterfly Eggs Of The Species Nymphalis Antiopa
A Frozen Windshield After A Windy Night
Why is fascination so powerful? As Sabater puts it, "every stimulus that generates fascination in us almost instantly activates our limbic system." That's the part of our brain that regulates our behavioral and emotional responses. "Once this area is stimulated, endorphins (pleasure hormones) are released, which can even help people focus and flow with new ideas," Sabater writes.
Hyperion, The World's Tallest Living Tree (379.7 Feet)
This Is A Crack In Steel Through An Electron Microscope
The Pathways At Ohio State University Were Paved Based On The Routes Students Took Before There Were Paved Paths
The psychologist also pulls out an interesting fact related to the origin of the word "fascinate". It has its roots in the Latin word "to bewitch." It had a negative connotation in the past and people associated it with controlling a person against their will. However, nowadays the word "fascinate" has a light-hearted connotation, referring to feelings of well-being.
Valonia Ventricosa, Also Known As Bubble Algae Or Sailor's Eyeballs Is A Species Of Alga Found In Oceans Throughout The World In Tropical Regions. It Is The Largest Single Cell Organism. That's Right. What You're Looking At Here Is A Single Cell
This Photo Of Cemetery Looks Like 2 Photo Put Together
A Copy Of The Mona Lisa Painted Alongside Da Vinci By His Apprentice. Unlike The Original, The Paint Was Preserved, Showing What The Iconic Painting Would Have Looked Like In 1517
While i doubt it applied to davinci, there's a lot of evidence that many of the so called "masters" used Camera Obscura to aid in creating their work. Camera Obscura, are pin-hole camera's, which project an inverted image onto a surface, such as a canvas, allowing you to easily trace out the image. The first recorded description of Camera Obscura dates back to 400bc.7
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How come I see the difference in the shape of her face but I can't put my finger on it?!
Exactly. They are not the same at all but it’s hard to figure out how. That’s the difference between a very good piece of art and a masterpiece.
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Amazing to see the actual colours. I'd always assumed that the picture had always been... well, drab.
Looks like Da Vinci had at least a 3-pack-a-day habit
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In most places the preserved one shows more detail, as you would expect. And in general it appears to be a very close copy. But I find it interesting that in the background the road on the left and the aquaduct on the right show more detail on the faded one. It makes me wonder if those details were enhanced during some prior restoration process.
It is not preserved. it is restored Although there are dozens of surviving copies of the Mona Lisa from the 16th and 17th centuries,[3] the Prado's Mona Lisa may have been painted simultaneously by a student of Leonardo in the same studio where he painted his own Mona Lisa,[4] so it is said to be the copy with the most historical value.[5] Among the pupils of Leonardo, Salaì or Francesco Melzi are the most plausible authors of the Prado's version, though other experts argue that the painting could have been executed by one of Leonardo's Spanish student
It was a comissioned portrait, so there is not much about it that would "speak" to anyone except for the recipient. (Funny enough Da Vinci never fulfilled the comission but liked it so much that he kept it and took it with him wherever he traveled.) The "hype" stems from the techniques he used, the way he worked with light and shadows and how he painted her expression. Another part of the hype is due to the fact that for a very long time no one knew who the model was.
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Previous to its restoration, the painting was catalogued as an anonymous copy from the first quarter of the 16th century. However, it usually hung in the Prado alongside masterpieces of Italian artists such as Raphael or Andrea del Sarto. A lithograph of the painting also exists,[9] which is unusual for an anonymous copy. Although there were elements that clearly distinguished the copy from the Louvre's version, the most striking point was the fact that until the restoration of the Prado's version, no landscape background was visible. That landscape was fully recovered through the restoration carried out by the Prado between 2011 and 2012,[10] for a request to include the Prado's work in a temporary exhibition in the Louvre called Leonardo's last masterpiece: The Sainte Anne, from 29 March to 25 June 2012.[11] The oxidized varnishes indicated that the black repaint had been made 200 years after the copy was painted, that is to say, not before 1750.[12] During this restoration process,
Restored, not preserved. The Mona Lisa is covered in dirty varnish that has yellowed over time, and is believed too delicate to restore. The apprentice's painting has been restored - the yellowed varnish has been removed and a new archival (and fully reversible) varnish has been added, showing the original colours of the paint. If curious about the process involved in fine art restoration, Baumgartner Restoration on youtube does documentaries of the process.
They restored the painting by recovering the original background that was behind a black background painted later.
Load More Replies... The face on the left looks somehow to me much younger, more innocent, and open.
I stumbled across this by accident in Madrid at the Prado just when I was about to leave.
I think that's just a matter of perspective and preferences. I think the one on the left looks really pretty but the one on the right just has a warmer expression.
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So the apprentice piece is just as good as the original and I bet it's only worth a fraction.
Subtle differences, colors not withstanding, shows why Da Vinci was the Master. . .
Painting on the left appears younger and more energetic. How do we know when and who did what painting, for real?
The left one has a different look in her eyes, like she's thinking: "Why does she get all the attention?"
I saw the original, when it was on loan to the Museum of Fine Art in DC. It was still pretty cool.
Probably not as it is considered too delicate to remove the discolouration from the old varnish.
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Perhaps the apprentice cracked jokes with the model?
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If the Mona Lisa was a Hollywood movie, with some scenes set in Mexico
It’s one of five from the bricked up basement of Scaroth, last of the Jagaroth.
Fascination's not-so-distant cousin awe also has its own impressive amount of research. "People can experience awe when confronted with a vast natural landscape, like Zion or the Grand Canyon, or when listening to extraordinary, complex music. People might also feel awe when witnessing an extraordinary act by another person or while viewing art that changes how they see the world," according to the Arizona State University.
The World's Biggest Horse, Brooklyn "Brookie" Supreme
Mount St. Helens Before And After Its 1980 Eruption
This Building Has Cartoon Windows
Researcher Michelle Shiota says that awe is exclusively a human experience. "The capacity for awe relies on something that humans are certainly best at," she explains. "That is taking a mental map of things and people in the world and forming an internal mental representation of those things."
Ancient Rome Aqueduct
The Best Preserved Dinosaur Fossil Ever Discovered- A 110 Million Year Old Nodosaur
In Germany You Can Play Pong With The Person On The Other Side Of Traffic Lights
"When we're in an awe state, part of what our minds are telling us is that prior experience doesn’t necessarily apply here," she continues. "What we think it's doing is promoting a cognitive and behavioral state – and perhaps even a physiological state – that makes it easier to take in information."
A Bison Still Alive After Being Struck By Lightning
A US Coin That's Been Cut Out
Children Living In Siberia Getting UV Light Exposure During The Long Dark Winter Months
Motorcycle Built From An Old Tractor
My brother had a pickup with a tractor engine. Had to sit and idle for like 10 minutes on really cold days before it even moved. I asked him "man why the hell did you buy this" he says "a 200 dollar truck's a good deal"
Spectators At The Fagradalsfjall Eruption, Getting As Close As They Can To Lava Without Getting Singed
Basketball Court In A Cave
imagine the (maybe ) echoing of the ball THUMP (THump) (Thump) (thump)
So let yourself focus on these pictures from nature and elsewhere that we found on the r/CantBelieveThatReal subreddit. Don't be afraid to "stop moving", as Liota said, and bask in the awe that these images elicit. Apparently, it's really good for your well-being.
Old Meets New In China
Comparison Of The Tip Of A Hypodermic Needle, Viper's Fang, Spider's Fang And The Stinger Of A Scorpion
Port Jackson Shark
This Is What Two-Time Olympic Gold Medalist, Alex Gregory's Hands Looked Like After Rowing 600 Miles In The Arctic In 2017
A House Built Under A Large Boulder (Portugal)
Ever Wondered How They Install Those Huge Power Line Towers ?
Tree Bent As A Sapling Has Grown With A Twist
500 Circulated $1 Bills Next To 500 Un-Circulated $1 Bills
This Is What Happens To Aluminum When A 1/2 Oz Piece Of Plastic Hits It At 15,000 Mph In Space
Googled - In case you were wondering about the thickness - this was not in space. It is a land based test NASA did to show the damage. And another source said the projectile was 1.2 ounce, not 1/2 ounce. But that's still a big hole from a little thing moving really fast. -- Bonus info, to thig is " the act of begging". I typoed thing as thig and wondered why it didn't flag as a spelling error. I didn't know thig was a word.
Salt Ponds In San Francisco Bay; Red From Algae That Thrive In Salty Water (Aerial By Nearmap)
Tell me why Bored Panda now has pop-up ads, ads between posts, and content trying to sell everyone things? This is annoying
Nature is unbelievable. So, my favorites are the Dragonsaur, the big Horse and the sapling with the twist.
Tell me why Bored Panda now has pop-up ads, ads between posts, and content trying to sell everyone things? This is annoying
Nature is unbelievable. So, my favorites are the Dragonsaur, the big Horse and the sapling with the twist.
