Classical artworks featuring intriguing UFO-like elements

The debate over the existence of extraterrestrial life is centered around two basic questions, whether life exists on other planets and whether any of that life has ever visited Earth, say, in the Midwest somewhere. There are some who believe that aliens are not only real, but have been visiting us for so long that people have been hiding evidence of those mini-ET spinoffs in famous works of art for centuries. So today, we're going to take a look at some classical paintings that appear to contain UFOs. OK, does the X-Files have an art history department? In the Hitachi region of Japan in 1803, a saucer-shaped vessel with glass windows and metal plates washed ashore. The object came to be called Utsurobune, which means hollow boat. The event and accompanying illustrations were immortalized in three major texts, Toen Shosetsu in 1825, Hyōru Kishu in 1835, and Ume no Chiri in 1845. before, and the accompanying sketches really do resemble what we tend to think of as a UFO. According to some legends, a beautiful woman emerged from the ship wearing unusual clothes and carrying a mysterious box with strange lettering on it. This has led some experts to classify the tale as a myth that grew out of Japan's isolationism and hostility towards the outside world. Or it was a ghost spaceship. What? Well, they must have them. Domenico Ghirlandaio painted the Madonna with Saint Giovannino in the 15th century during the height of the Italian Renaissance. If you look closely in the background, you can see a shepherd with his dog pointing at an object in the sky. We don't know who this 15th century Roy Neary is, but his dog seems to be barking at the strange object. And the Madonna is painted with her back to it, which has led some to conclude that she's protecting the baby, Saint Giovannino, from seeing it. Maybe because he'd want one for himself and she would be stuck running all over town looking for one. While some say the scene is a record of a UFO sighting, experts believe that given the subject of the painting, it's more likely to be some type of religious symbolism. Theories include that the object is an angel, a star, a planet, or some archaic bit of Christian iconography that has since been forgotten. Cave paintings have been discovered in Cherma, India that seem to depict flying saucers and creepy faceless humanoid figures. Despite being created around 10,000 years ago, the drawings and carvings bear a striking resemblance to the UFOs and aliens we see in science fiction movies and TV shows made since the mid-20th century. Guess they haven't updated their spaceship technology in a while. Citizens of Cherma and their government have been so compelled by these findings that they've gone to NASA to request further investigation. And some believe the images depict the inhabitants of the area worshipping the figures emerging from UFOs, leading to the conclusion that extraterrestrials may have ruled Earth at one point in history. Hey, maybe good samosas are hard to find in Andromeda. Mazzolino de Panicali painted a scene of snowfall in August at the Church of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome during the 15th century. The painting is a depiction of the legend of Pope Liberius and Giovanni discovering a patch of unmelted snow in Rome in August of 352. Today, we call that a ski resort. So far, this story just sounds like the ancient weather channel, but it's incredibly rare to have snow in Rome, even in the winter. In other words, for snow to fall in August would require divine intervention. According to the story, the patch of snow was a sign from Mother Mary, who among her many other qualities could apparently control the weather like Storm in X-Men. She wanted them to build a church in that spot. And since she was Mary, they felt pretty enthusiastic about fulfilling her wishes. Above the patch of snow, there are what seems to be dozens of saucer-shaped flying objects. According to conventional wisdom, despite how much they look like UFOs, these objects were really just meant to depict more snow. But in an interesting postscript on October 27, 1954, in Florence, Italy, thousands of people reported sightings of UFOs in the sky, followed by a light dusting of a white cotton-like substance that disintegrated when it touched people's hands. In fact, a football match was stopped as an entire stadium looked up at what appeared to be a floating egg above Stadio Artemio Franchi. Athlete Artico Magnini even reported seeing silver glitter rain down from the sky after the UFO appeared. Ooh, an interstellar glitter bomb. The strange incident from October 1954 remains unexplained, but many have noted that it does bear a striking resemblance to the legend depicted in Panicale's Miracle of the Snow. That's life imitating art, all right. In the early 18th century, painter Art de Gelder painted an image of John the Baptist living up to his namesake by baptizing Jesus. But you might not notice the baptism part, since most of the painting is devoted to what Fox Mulder sees behind his eyelids every night, what appears to be a flying saucer in the sky, beaming light toward Jesus and John. The Scullys of the world, on the other hand, believe the image is a reference to Matthew 3:16, which describes the baptism of Jesus. As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment, heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. In this reading, the alleged UFO would actually be the Spirit of God. Despite the fact he wasn't an eyewitness to the baptism, believers maintain that Art de Gelder was using his skill to depict his belief that aliens were present during the baptism of Christ. Let's hope they brought a good gift, like a Fortnite gift card. The Svetitskhoveli is an Eastern Orthodox cathedral near Tbilisi, the current capital of Georgia. The country, not the state. The cathedral's construction began in the fourth century BCE by King Mirian III, but was completed between the years 1010 and 1029. The cathedral's frescoes faded over time. But the one that has come to the attention of UFO enthusiasts is believed to have been painted in the 1600s by an unknown artist. If you look below each of Jesus's arms in the fresco, you'll see what looks like a jellyfish. one red on the left and one white on the right. As many have pointed out, however, they also look like they could be UFOs, with beams of light shooting under them. Maybe he was just blessing some invertebrates. According to art historians, Eastern Orthodox religious art from this time featured a sun and a moon in every depiction of the crucified Christ. And the two objects commonly taken to be UFOs are probably just stylized depictions of those astronomical bodies. But you know what famous movie has two suns? Star Wars. And what's Star Wars full of? Aliens. Checkmate, Svetitskhoveli Cathedral fresco. Italian artist Carlo Crivelli painted the Annunciation with St. Demetrius in 1486 during what was pretty much the height of the Italian Renaissance. In this depiction of the angel Gabriel telling the Virgin Mary she would give birth to Jesus, there seems to be a flying saucer emerging from the sky, shooting a beam of light directly at Mary's head. While this structure looks very much like a flying saucer, art historians argue that it's actually intended to be a cloud of angels. And sure enough, if you zoom in close enough, you can see what appears to be angels' wings in a circle. Of course, that only begs the question, are angels extraterrestrials? Technically, right? Because they don't live on Earth. Whoa, we just blew our own minds. This 17th century painting was found in a medieval church in Transylvania. So before we get to aliens, we're going to go ahead and assume it has something to do with Dracula. Who else would torch a church in vampire country? Beyond that, the painting, Israel, Put Your Hope in the Lord, was made for the monastery church in the medieval citadel of Sighișoara. And it seems to be clearly depicting a burning church surrounded by billowing smoke with a strange flying saucer above it. The saucer even seems to have a trail of exhaust following it, sort of like a medieval version of the Independence Day poster. Under the painting, the words scrawled in calligraphy read, Israel, which translates to Israel, put your hope in the Lord. So if the UFOs are blowing up the church, would that make the Lord the Will Smith of this story or the Jeff Goldblum or maybe even the Randy Quaid? This fresco is located at the Visoki Dečani Monastery in Kosovo, Serbia. And in the upper corners of the left and right panels, there seem to be flying objects controlled by visible pilots and streaming rays of light. It's honestly hard to imagine how something from this era could depict a more obvious spaceship than this. But experts don't think you should get too excited. As we previously mentioned, somewhere in all Eastern Orthodox depictions of Christ on the crucifix, there is a sun and a moon. Those experts believe that the two objects, which look like they could grace the cover of any 1950s sci-fi comic book, are once again just highly stylized depictions of the sun and moon. UFOlogists, on the other hand, believe it's proof that the artist was trying to capture an alien visitation. What do you think? OK, so if all these pictures of UFOs are near misses, surely a totally unambiguous painting of a dude squaring off with an alien that would make Ridley Scott take a step back will silence the naysayers, right? Well, this painting was created by Michael Pacher, a painter who played a role in introducing the Renaissance to Germany in the 15th century. It depicts St. Wolfgang, who was hoping to build a church but was having issues finding generous benefactors to help him pay for it. So in the painting, the devil presents him a deal. He'll help the bishop build the church as long as the bishop promises to hand over the first soul to step inside. According to the legend, Saint Wolfgang took the deal, which seems wildly out of character for a saint. Then he tricked the devil by using a loophole, which, OK, there's the saint stuff we've read about. The story goes that a hunter emerged from the forest chasing a wolf. So Wolfgang opened the door to let the wolf in. A heck of a break, but it worked. The wolf was claimed by the devil, and a human soul was spared. Churchgoers could now sit through services smugly knowing that the devil himself built the church. Although from what we know of the devil, he probably made the pews a little too small or something. The painting shows a winged creature with hooved feet and another face on its backside. Given how much more it looks like an alien than a demon, some hypothesized that the artist was depicting an extraterrestrial visitor. Or he may have just been the H.R. Giger of drawing demons. Either way, you probably wouldn't try to shake that creature down for a free church. So kudos to Wolfgang.