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"The Old Fisherman" painting by Csontvár: mirroring myth and meme, face symmetry, and uncanny valley

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POSTED BY: Vitaliy Kaurov
5 Replies

Hi Vitaliy,

Brilliant idea! I know this painting very well, and, until now, had to do this transformation 'in my head'.

A crucial point on nomenclature: the last name of the painter is Csontváry, not Kosztka. He was born with in the 'Kosztka' family, and later adopted 'Csontváry' as his artistic surname. (I'm not quite certain about his for the choice; in several Slavic language, 'kost' = 'bone' = Hungarian 'csont'. The second part of his name, 'vár' = 'castle', so 'Csontváry' ~ 'of the castle of bones'.) In any case, he is known as Csontváry throughout the art world, so you should probably change the title and the text accordingly.

POSTED BY: Zsombor Méder

Thank you, Zsombor, I corrected the title. Appreciate the added etymology too - hadn’t realized the ‘castle of bones’ meaning, very interesting.

POSTED BY: Vitaliy Kaurov

a 'y' is still missing from the end...

To not appear purely as a spelling authoritarian, I'd add that '-i' and '-y' (pronounced identically) indicates 'of or from a location' in Hungarian, and, especially its '-y' form, is a marker of nobility. C.f., the well-known Esterházy family).

POSTED BY: Zsombor Méder
Posted 1 day ago

This one really stopped me for a moment. The mirrored face gives such a strange feeling — kind of unsettling, but also mesmerizing. It's crazy how something painted over a century ago can feel so connected to today’s memes and digital culture. The expression, the symmetry... it’s like looking at a person and a mask at the same time.

POSTED BY: Paul Web

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