15 Clever Easter Eggs Hidden in Classic Works of Art

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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Caravaggio

Van Eyck’s Beastie Boys Spot

Seurat’s Embarrassing Cover-Up

Holbein’s Badass Reminder of Death

Giotto’s Hidden Devil

Ghirlandaio Wants to Believe

Leonardo’s Musical Bread

Bosch’s Ass Music

Van Antonissen’s (Moby) Dick Pic

Brueghel’s Dumping Dog

Michelangelo

Botticelli’s Check-Me-Out

Raphael’s Prescient Architecture

Peeters’ Rim Job

Von Ostade’s Squatting Shitter
