Seeing is believing. Has anyone found a man holding a smartphone in a classic painting from more than 3 centuries ago. And everything seems to indicate that he could be a time traveler, if we are willing to use our imagination to a peculiar extreme.
The Internet is experiencing a recent obsession with time travelers. We have been able to verify it with the latest viral sensation in TikTok with the videos of the supposed time traveler who comes from the 27th century and who ensures that we are a few months away from seeing the Michael Jordan.
But now things have gone to a new extreme, with a curious find inside a classic portrait painted in 1670 that people today have marveled at, turning the piece into a viral phenomenon.
All after they began to notice that the painting is starring, apparently, an individual holding a smartphone in his hand. Something completely impossible if we take into account that the painting dates back hundreds of years and smartphones are not even two decades old.
The painting showing a time traveler holding a smartphone
The portrait in question bears the title of Man Handing a Letter to a Woman in the Entrance Hall of a House (Man delivering a letter to a woman at the entrance to the living room of a house). It was completed in the year 1670 by the Dutch painter Pieter de Hooch, belonging to the same school of style as Rembrandt, and is perhaps the most recognized piece by this author.
In the painting, as its name suggests, we see a messenger delivering a letter to a 17th century Dutch high society lady. For centuries that was the description and that was the connotation of the work. But now someone has noticed that what the messenger carries in his hand would not be a letter, but a smartphone:
The lighting and the angle due to the nature of the painting style leads to giving the letter a dark lighting, which makes the envelope look practically black.
This detail has led many to interpret it as not really a letter, but a smartphone, perhaps a Samsung or a high-end iPhone, because we are dealing with a portrait of the high society of that time.
The idea is obviously funny, but it is striking how the idea that a smartphone was hidden in that portrait for centuries has grown.