A woman depicted in a painting from 1860 bears an uncanny resemblance to someone from our modern times as she appears to be captivated by a cell phone in her hands.
The strange scene, spotted by a visitor to an art museum in Munich, can be found in Austrian painter Ferdinand Georg Waldmuller's work 'The Expected One.'
As is often the case when 'cell phones' appear to pop up in old paintings, the remarkable discovery has some imaginative individuals suggesting that there is some element of time travel involved in the piece.
However, art historians insist that, despite how it may appear, the woman is holding a prayer book which she is looking at with great reverence.
Since the 'cell phone' is almost the centerpiece of the painting, the prosaic explanation makes sense, since it otherwise would have been a pretty poor attempt by Waldmuller to hide a secret clue about time travel and future technology.
Nonetheless, one can't help but marvel at how the woman's body language and the positioning of the prayer book so closely match how people hold their cell phones today.
No doubt Waldmuller never intended for his work to spark a discussion on how religion has seemingly been usurped by the worship of technology, but it appears that his painting is poised to do just that.
And, while that may not be as tantalizing as time travel, it's a pretty remarkable testament to how the meaning of artwork can sometimes evolve over time to say something well beyond what its creator intended.
Source: Motherboard