A Sign of Insanity

New day, new meme. This has me particularly interested though.

It starts with this:


(Click it for a larger version. The discontinuity in the middle is only a scanning defect.)

This painting, of a lovely looking winter day, was posted in a Russian blog with a cryptic sort of explaination. According to the poster, the person who painted this had a rare and severe mental disorder; constantly seeing his own fantasies manifest around him. He also suffered from a phobia. The exact phobia was not shared.

The poster first saw this painting in a lecture given by his Psychiatry professor, who told the class that there was one tell-tale sign in the painting that showed the artist's insanity. The professor left discovery up to the students, keeping the answer to himself, but sharing some clues. Clues that internet geeks have been sucking dry for the last couple of days now. I'll detail them later. Digg, Slashdot, Fark and SomethingAwful users have been guessing their pseudo-psychiatrist hearts out.

The professor said that during the 15 years of his teaching, only one student had figured it out.

Before the clues, let's start with this:



Apparently, our crazy friend copied this image. It was painted by a Soviet artist named Antonov in the 1970s, and appeared on postcards. Use this to compare to his as a way of determining what's insanity, and what he was copying. He does a remarkable job with some details, but misses others. That may have nothing to do with it at all though. Another interesting point is that the professor was unaware of this painting. Still haven't heard if that means the "insanity" existed originally in this one, and was simply copied/falsly diagnosed.

-The Clues-

• Don’t look for small details, look at the whole
• If you figure out what the phobia was, you’ve got the answer
• Ask yourself what could have preceded this scene
• Think of what the place would look like with all the objects removed
• What would you hear if you were inside the painting
• The keywords are water and air

• One more clue. Someone made this guess. The painting depicts the Maslenitsa (Shrovetide, the feast on the last day before the Lent — the Brazilian carnival is the same holiday). It’s one of the holidays with pagan roots, and the celebration involves burning a strawman — symbolising, if I remember correctly, the ending winter. Now, could it be that you’re the burning strawman?

  To which the professor allegedly replied, “not a strawman — but close”.

-Other Stuff-

• Digger Ansomatica photoshopped some images based on the "all objects removed" clue.
  
  
  
  
  

• Digger jtrost's Russian friend re-translated the original posting, which offers a bit more information:

  The poster is a student in a university. Their professor taught them Freud and showed a bunch of paintings. Then he showed them this one. It was painted by a person who did not see anything around him. All he saw were his fantasies and wishes. One detail in that picture shows that he has a severe mental illness. He also says that if you try to imagine yourself in the picture, you would never feel at ease because the depicted world is a manifestation of a sick person's fantasy.

• The original painting was based on the Maslenitsa
• And, as I'm looking for more information, I've found someone else has also made a blog to collect information, and he's done a damn fine job: http://akuplin.blogspot.com/

-The Answer-

...will hopefully come before this simple image renders us all insane. If all the latest information is to be believed, the professor himself has caught wind of the huge amount of interest generated on the net. He's even made his own livejournal http://larimurmbi.livejournal.com/ where he will announce the answer -- but he wants to read all of the comments first. Hopefully he just means on the original Russian blog.

-Links-

Let me make it clear that all of the information on this page is from other sources, both blogs and readers. I made this entry out of my own personal intrigue, as a way to share it with friends, and a place to collect information. Also, this could all be a hoax, or a really lame over-hyped answer, so there. Right now though, not only is the idea very interesting, but also the insane amount of attention it's gotten in only a few days. A whole lot of people are going to be blown away with it's profounditude, or incredibly disappointed.

Here are links to various sites covering this, and there's a wealth of query in their comments:

The one that started it (for the english speaking, at least): http://www.veryrussian.net/category/russian-blogs-and-web-culture/the-painting/

Digg:
http://digg.com/health/What_is_the_insane_secret_of_this_painting

Metafilter:
http://www.metafilter.com/mefi/56678

If you know of more with a ton of comments, let me know.