Every Picture Hides a Story

William Cane is the author of more than a dozen books, among them such contemporary classics as The Art of Kissing, Fiction Writing Master Class, and Clubhouse Confidential. He has had a distinguished career as a professor of English at CUNY and Boston College, where he helped a generation of students discover the hidden content in works of literature and art. A former Massachusetts trial attorney, he is a highly sought-after speaker on the college lecture circuit. He has appeared on almost every major television talk show, including Today, The View, and CBS This Morning. A native of New York City, he lives in Westchester County.Anna Gabrielle earned a certificate in world art history from the Smithsonian Associates in Washington, DC. She also holds a master’s in English, with her primary area of research focusing on the hidden symbolism in J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of The Rings. A former commercial pilot for a major airline, she has studied paintings in museums on six continents. She lives in New York City.

The hidden messages embedded in acclaimed paintings are exposed in this effective examination of the work of 22 artists. Drawing on Wilson Bryan Key’s Subliminal Seduction, a 1973 book about advertising techniques, Cane and art historian Gabrielle focus on the subliminal—that which ‘lies below the threshold of conscious awareness’—in their analysis of paintings such as Johannes Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring; the authors write that the girl’s teardrop-shaped earring is 'a symbol of chastity' that ‘conveys a message about the girl’s interior life.' On Gustav Klimt’s The Kiss, the authors conclude that “the couple pressed together forms an erotic shape that represents sexuality.’ The breezy narrative features the authors’ humorous asides (in praise of John William Godward’s use of perspective: ‘Put that in your pipe, Picasso, and smoke it!’) and vivid descriptions of each painting (on John Singer Sargent’s Madame X: ‘Those two oval-shaped loops on top of the bodice of Madame’s black velvet evening dress rise up to cover her chest like Mickey Mouse ears’). This accessible study of the messages hidden in plain sight will challenge readers to rethink familiar works of art.

• Introduction1. Leonardo da Vinci2. Michelangelo3. Raphael 4. Hans Holbein5. Caravaggio6. Titian7. Artemisia Gentileschi 8. Diego Velázquez 9. Johannes Vermeer 10. Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres11. William Bouguereau 12. John Everett Millais 13. Édouard Manet 14. Edgar Degas 15. Berthe Morisot 16. Mary Cassatt 17. Thomas Eakins 18. John William Waterhouse 19. Vincent van Gogh 20. John Singer Sargent 21. John William Godward 22. Gustav Klimt AcknowledgementsIndex