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Overheard a tour guide say the Vikings never wore horned helmets
I was at the local history museum last Saturday and heard a guide tell a group that the whole horned helmet thing was a myth from the 1800s. Apparently an artist added them to a Viking illustration for a opera and it just stuck. Made me wonder how many other common things we think we know about old cultures are just wrong.
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wright.richard2d ago
Yeah "an artist added them for an opera" - so where did THAT artist get the idea?
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alicehernandez1d ago
Did you ever just look at old paintings or drawings and notice how people are posed the same way in things like fashion magazines today? @wright.richard, I started paying attention to that after taking a basic art history class and it really opened my eyes. Artists borrow ideas from other artists all the time, it's like a big game of telephone across centuries. So whoever designed that opera costume probably looked at an old painting or sculpture for inspiration. Help me figure out which older artwork that costume might be based on, maybe something from a museum.
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