vincent van gogh painted 900 paintings in 10 years. he originally wanted to be a pastor. his most famous paintings were completed while he was a patient in an insane asylum.

 van gogh's painting the starry night depicts his view from the st. paul de mausole lunatic asylum.

as far as we know, only 15 of leonardo davinci's paintings survive.

painting was an olympic event for 36 years.

students at oberlin college can rent original paintings from the allen memorial art museum - including works by picasso, dali, and lichtenstein - to hang in their dorm rooms for just us$5 per semester.

in the more than 70 years since the program began, no painting has ever been damaged or stolen.

between 1912 and 1948, olympic medals were awarded for architecture, music, painting, and sculpting, in addition to sports.

in 1964, art critics praised the work of painter pierre brassau, saying, "brassau paints with powerful strokes, but also with clear determination. his brush strokes twist with furious fastidiousness. pierre is an artist who performs with the delicacy of a ballet dancer."

they took it all back when they found out he was a chimpanzee.

part of the intrigue of the mona lisa's smile is that she has no eyebrows. in 2007, an engineer performed a high resolution scan of the painting, and found that she originally had eyebrows - and eyelashes - but that they had been gradually worn away by overzealous cleaning.

when they were originally made, greek statues were all brightly painted.

religious art from the renaissance often depicts demons as having faces in place of their genitals and/or backsides.