15 Clever Easter Eggs Hidden in Classic Works of Art

Sep 19, 2023

Everyone gets bored, even geniuses. Extraordinarily talented people need to do what they need to do to keep themselves entertained, and sometimes that involves sneaking little private jokes and extra bits of stuff into their work.

These Easter eggs might be immediately obvious to a select few, or they might lay undiscovered for years, known only to the ever-so-pleased-with-themselves artist. “Hee hee hee,” they think, “Not only am I a genius, but nobody’s spotted that I sneaked a little picture of myself into one of my masterpieces.”

Sometimes, things become Easter eggs retroactively, details from a work being removed or obscured for reasons to do with changing social mores, and only coming to light again centuries later.

But with the deliberate ones, just imagine how pleased you’d be, hiding details on a Where’s Waldo? scale within enormous oil paintings that were going to be displayed 60 feet up. “I’m doing all this extra work, and nobody will ever know!” you’d chuckle.

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Source / Uffizi

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Source / Art UK

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