{"id":3922107,"date":"2025-09-26T09:03:40","date_gmt":"2025-09-26T14:03:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mikedyess.info\/para\/people-claim-this-1860-time-travel-painting-seems-to-show-a-woman-holding-a-smartphone\/"},"modified":"2025-09-26T09:03:40","modified_gmt":"2025-09-26T14:03:40","slug":"people-claim-this-1860-time-travel-painting-seems-to-show-a-woman-holding-a-smartphone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/mikedyess.info\/para\/people-claim-this-1860-time-travel-painting-seems-to-show-a-woman-holding-a-smartphone\/","title":{"rendered":"People claim this 1860 \u2018time travel\u2019 painting seems to show a woman holding a \u2018smartphone\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

In fact, it\u2019s not a smartphone, its just evidence how we interpret art differently in today\u2019s modern society.<\/strong><\/p>\n

When you look at the painting it immediately strikes you: A woman staring at a smartphone while walking, a scene not too unfamiliar with today\u2019s way of life. However, despite the fact that many people would find that this scene shows what seems to be a smartphone, the truth is that this is ONLY evidence of how technology changes our interpretation of art.<\/strong><\/p>\n

And no, it is not time travel, and she\u2019s not holding a smartphone, I mean, after all, reception in 1860 would have been a pain in the ass, right?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

How many of us have walked along the street, firmly grasping our precious piece of technology while sending texts or watching YouTube videos?<\/p>\n

The scene depicted in this 19th-century Waldmuller<\/strong> painting<\/strong> seems to show the exact same thing, but\u2026 smartphones didn\u2019t exist in 1980, did they?<\/p>\n

The truth is no, they did not, but as noted by retired\u00a0Glasgow\u00a0local government officer Peter Russell<\/strong> who spotted the scene at the Neue Pinakothek<\/strong> museum<\/strong> in Munich<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

\n

Just like her on the dating app in Walm\u00fcller\u2019s Die Erwartete (c. 1850): pic.twitter.com\/Lakl0vCkri<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Peter A. Russell2291 (@Planet_Pedro) October 23, 2017<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u201cWhat strikes me most is how much a change in technology has changed the interpretation of the painting, and in a way, has leveraged its entire context. The big change is that in 1850 or 1860, every single viewer would have identified the item that the girl is absorbed in as a hymnal or prayer book. Today, no one could fail to see the resemblance to the scene of a teenage girl absorbed in social media on their smartphone.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Die
A painting called \u2018Die Erwartete\u2019 or the Expected, by Ferdinand Georg Waldm\u00fcller. Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons<\/a><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The painting is believed to have been created sometime between 1850\u20141890 by Austrian artist Ferdinand Georg Waldm\u00fcller.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s called \u2018The Expected One\u2019 and shows a woman walking down a rocky path towards a kneeling man, with a flower in his hand, \u2018expecting\u2019 the young woman.<\/p>\n

The young lady is illustrated firmly grasping a small rectangular object\u2014strikingly similar to a modern-day smartphone.<\/p>\n

\"Close
A close-up of the painting.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

However, despite the fact that some may find a similarity between the object held by the young woman and a modern-day smartphone, the truth is that it isn\u2019t a technological gadget but rather a hymnbook.<\/p>\n

The painting is evidence that today\u2019s society, which is engulfed by technological gadgets sees art in a different way than people 20, 30 or 50 years ago.<\/p>\n

Had you shown this scene to someone 50 years ago, you would have never obtained an answer saying: \u201coh look that must be some sort of futuristic artifact\u2026\u201d, but rather; \u201c\u2026she\u2019s holding a hymnbook or a bible\u2026\u201d
\nTechnology changes people, and apparently, it also changes our interpretation of art.<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t the first time we\u2019ve gotten confused when looking at ancient paintings.\u00a0Not long ago, we wrote about a painting depicting a scene from the 17th century, where a Native American man is portrayed holding in his hand a device that according to many is eerily similar to a modern-day Smartphone.<\/p>\n

Speaking about the alleged smartphone in the painting in an interview with Motherboard<\/a><\/strong>, Dr. Margaret Bruchac from the University of Pennsylvania told\u00a0said: \u201cIt does bear a rather uncanny resemblance, both in the way, it\u2019s being held and the way it focuses his attention, to a smartphone.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, Dr. Bruchac\u00a0explained how instead of being an actual smartphone, the object is more likely to have been an iron blade, saying that the painting was a \u2018romanticized artistic genre\u2019 which made it hard to tell.<\/p>\n

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Source: Motherboard<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Go to Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\n

In fact, it\u2019s not a smartphone, its just evidence how we interpret art differently in today\u2019s modern society.<\/p>\n

When you look at the painting it immediately strikes you: A woman staring at a smartphone while walking, a scene not too unfamiliar with today\u2019s way of life. However, despite the fact that many people would […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3922107","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ancient-code","odd"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/mikedyess.info\/para\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3922107","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/mikedyess.info\/para\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/mikedyess.info\/para\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mikedyess.info\/para\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mikedyess.info\/para\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3922107"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/mikedyess.info\/para\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3922107\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/mikedyess.info\/para\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3922107"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mikedyess.info\/para\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3922107"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mikedyess.info\/para\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3922107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}