Almanac chapter 21: Fashion and the Arts

                                     Chapter 21

                                FASHION AND THE ARTS

                                        Art

              I'll  bet  you  don't  know  Rembrandt's  last name. Read on,
         you'll find out in a minute.

              The painting that won second place in a competition  held  by
         the  U.S.  National Academy of Design was hanging upside down when
         it was judged.

              Next  time  you see a statue of a war hero on a horse, notice
         how many feet the horse has on the ground. If the horse  has  only
         three legs on the ground the rider died of wounds suffered in war.
         If  the  horse  has two legs in the air, the rider died during the
         battle.  If the rider is not on the horse, but  standing  next  to
         it, the horse died too. And, if the horse has all four feet on the
         ground  and  the rider is on the horse, the man is a hero who died
         naturally.  These are international rules that sculptors follow.

              The famous painter Vincent Van Gogh sold  only  one  painting
         during his lifetime.

              Renoir had arthritis so severe that in the latter part of his
         life  he  couldn't  use  his hands. He tied brushes to his arms to
         paint.

              If you have ever looked at old Chinese  art,  you  will  note
         that  they were very free in painting eroticism. However, you will
         never ever see a naked woman's foot. In their culture, that  would
         have been incredibly shocking.

              Rembrandt's last name was van Rijn.

              The Mona Lisa is the most valuable painting with an estimated
         value of over 100 million.

              King  Francis  I  paid Leonardo $50,000 for the Mona Lisa and
         had it displayed in the Louvre.  It  has  been  there  ever  since
         except  for  two  years that it was stolen. (1911-1913) During the
         time it was missing, 6 different Americans paid $300,000 each  for
         fakes they thought were the stolen painting.

              If  you  look carefully at the Mona Lisa you may be surprised
         to discover that she has no eyebrows. It was  fashionable  in  her
         time  to  remove them entirely. X-ray examination of that painting
         determined that the painting is three  layers  deep.  Leonardo  da
         Vinci repainted her three times to get it just right.

                                      Fashion

              In  Italy,  another  custom  that was in vogue for awhile was
         that women would shave the hair off the front of their heads.

              3,500 years ago, not only did women in Egypt remove  all  the
         hair  from  their  heads,  they  also  polished  their  heads to a
         mirror-like finish.  It would have been easier if they  had  Lemon
         Pledge in those days.

              At  one  time  in Japan fashionable women painted their teeth
         black.

              Some women in India paint their teeth bright red.

              Mayan Indians used to shape their  teeth.   They  would  make
         their  front teeth pointed and carve holes into which were mounted
         jewels.

              In the late 1500's,  among  the  people  of  England  sadness
         became  fashionable.   People  practiced and preened in the art of
         acting melancholy. To dress all in black was common.

                              One Disgusting Character
              There  was  a  guy who hated bathing in any form. Instead, he
         covered over the dirt and sweat on his face  every  day  with  red
         paint. He was Frederick the Great of Prussia.

              Sometimes  people  go  to  what  others  consider  ridiculous
         lengths to make themselves look appealing. Some women about  1,000
         years  ago  squirted a plant juice into their eyes, believing that
         the way this dilated their pupils was attractive.

              "Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to
         alter it every six months." -Oscar Wilde

              According to research by a British fashion design firm and by
         Sears Roebuck, yesterday's fashions  will  no  longer  fit  modern
         women.   There  has  been  a  gradual  trend  of  breasts and hips
         becoming  smaller,  and  waists  thicker.   Generally,  women  are
         becoming more tube-shaped.

              Until   1818   shoes   were  interchangeable,  there  was  no
         difference between right and left shoes. King George IV of England
         changed the tradition by ordering a  set  of  boots  made  to  fit
         specific feet.

              In  a  survey,  20  percent  of  American  men said they wear
         uncomfortable shoes because they look fashionable. 50  percent  of
         women  said  they  put  up  with  uncomfortable shoes in trade for
         style.

              In other research it has been determined that  three  out  of
         every four women wear the wrong size bra.

              American women spend $900 million per year on lipstick.

              When sailors used to wipe their noses on their coat cuffs, it
         tended  to  gross  out their captains. This is why buttons on coat
         cuffs were invented.

              The tuxedo gets its name from the place it  was  first  worn,
         Tuxedo Park, New York.

              The brassiere was patented in 1914.

              10,000 mink are killed each day to make clothing.

              The  average  American  spends  $1.23 per day, or $448.95 per
         year on clothing.

              Men  in  New  Guinea  tribes want to be stylish too, but they
         have no razors.  They shave with sharp blades of grass.

              When Fath Ali Shah was coronated in 1797 he wore  170  pounds
         of clothing covered with gold and jewels.

              The  Van  Moppes  diamond,  which has 58 (traditional number)
         facets, is a very small diamond. It was created in 1949  and  took
         four  months  to finish.  It was lost 16 times, and recovered each
         time by burning  all  the  dust  collected  from  the  floor  with
         gasoline,  leaving  the diamond. Since it is too small to see with
         the unaided eye unless conditions are just right, it comes with  a
         microscope  to see it, which has a magnification of 630 times.  It
         was once sent to America to be seen  on  television,  but  customs
         held  it  for  2  months,  until  after the show was to be filmed,
         because they could not manage to assign a value to it.

              In India jewelry is sold by weight (by grams) no  matter  how
         much handwork has gone into it.