Edvard Munch's 1893 painting The Scream has become iconic, even inspiring an emoji. Everyone knows the painting, even if they don't know who did it. It's the image of a man screaming. Or is it?
A new exhibit at the British Museum seems to clear up a longstanding debate. The figure in the painting is not screaming, but hearing a scream.
Really? The wide-open mouth led us to believe the figure was screaming, but the hands over the ears could be a reaction to a scream. The terrified face lends itself to both interpretations. The evidence for the person hearing a scream is from Munch's diary, which you can read about at Quartz. -via Nag on the Lake