Have you heard about the legend of the paintings of the crying children? Moving but also chilling images that were sold throughout the world and that continue to cause a stir today. We tell you what is the story that is hidden under these paintings and who is their author.
Origin of the legend of the crying children
We have to go back to the 1970s and 1980s, when the paintings known as “the crying children” were a huge success throughout the world. In these paintings, as you can imagine and see in the photographs that we share with you, they were portraits of crying children, tearful scenes that provoke a feeling of nostalgia, tenderness and, in turn, creepy.
Hand in hand with his great success also came an overwhelming black legend. Many families chose these paintings to decorate their houses but… They say that behind these images a darkness was hidden that was capable of giving off not only the viewer but also the future of said house.
The reason? They say that the protagonists of these paintings were children who lived in orphanages or charity homes, in a context where the Second World War had made its appearance, so the sadness and suffering reflected in their eyes was, to say the least, overwhelming.
Things got bloodier when the legend began to circulate that the painter of these paintings, Bruno Amadio -better known as Giovanni Bragolin-, had sold his soul to the devil to make his work successful. As a consequence of this act, the works he created would be cursed and bring misfortune to anyone who placed one of his paintings, or reproductions thereof, in his home.
They say that the first incident happened in the orphanage where he had painted yno of the children. After finishing the work he had wanted to present the institution with one of his paintings and although it is not known how much time passed after that, a fire broke out that burned the place, including all those who lived inside, where he was still the frame model. It is not only the tragic fact that they say that among the ashes they found the picture of the crying child in perfect condition. After that, it began to be said that that painting contained the boy’s soul.
Later, between the 70s and 80s, they say that misfortunes continued to happen to all those who had pictures of these children in their homes. In most cases there were fires that reduced both the house and its inhabitants to ashes while the paintings remained in good condition, there was also talk that they caused bad luck to their inhabitants or that they could lead to the death of a or another way. They were constantly being talked about as haunted paintings.
The legend did not end there. Testimonies began to emerge from people who declared themselves witnesses of everything that happened, carriers or owners of the paintings and images that had managed to survive and who described that when the painting arrived at the house, the paranormal phenomena began. For example, some said that when night came they heard wails, sinister laughter from children, unexplained noises and, also, the feeling of feeling watched by the child in the painting.
What happened had so much weight that it was not only word of mouth, but news about it was published in the newspaper “The Sun” where it was strongly requested that everyone who read it send the pictures they had in their possession. to produce a collective burning under the supervision of firefighters.
Who was Bruno Amadio
Many knew him as Giovanni Bragolin, but his real name was Bruno Amadio, an Italian painter and sculptor who used a pseudonym for certain works.
Bruno Amadio was born in 1911, in the city of canals, Venice. He studied plastic arts and, later, developed his own technique, with a brushstroke and his own style that would differentiate him from other authors of his time.
On a personal level, his political ideology has also been part of the history that has enveloped this man to posterity. As a young man he joined the Mussolini movement, like many others, and it is believed that this led to his relationship with the futurist plastic artists of that movement, who were led by Marinetti. In turn, due to the historical time in which he lived, he was called up and was part of the Italian army fighting in World War II. It is believed that this had a great impact on his way of seeing the world, especially how he witnessed in each of the contests that took place the suffering and desolation of children due to war and all that it implies.
Proof of this dent left by war, suffering and childhood we have the portraits of 27 children, known as Los Ninos Llorones, to whom his authorship is attributed. Images that, beyond the legend, connect and move the viewer, as they transmit all the children’s suffering in their eyes, their faces and their tears. They say that to sign these paintings is when he used the pseudonym Giovanni Bragolin.
These paintings were reproduced on sheets of paper and boards, achieving international success in the 1970s and 1980s. If you’re interested, some reproductions are still for sale today.
That said, Bruno Amadio not only painted The Crying Children, but a 1941 work was also recovered in which he portrays a beautiful woman while shooting an arrow with a bow.
He also painted still lifes in the academic style.
what happened to the painter
After the Second World War he went to live in Seville, where it is believed that he would paint The Crying Children, just as they place him in Madrid at some point.
Later, in the 1970s, he would return to Italy to settle in a villa in Papua. They say that he would spend this time painting pictures for tourists, in the same way that he would later do in Florence.
More exact data affirm that in 1979 he would continue painting and that it would be in 1981 when he would die in Papua.