Ferdinand George Waldmuller painted this picture in 1860, “Die Erwartete” (The expected, in Spanish) is one of his most recognized works. But today, more than a century and a half later, one detail surprises us: is there a time traveler in the photo?

Yes, it is that the attitude of one of the characters on the canvas is very surprising. Impossible but real, it seems How disgusting or play with a mobile.

Science fiction or “time traveler”

The graph shows a young woman walking across the field with eyes glued to a square object in his hand. An image that would not surprise us today; in fact, it is the most common postcard Everywhere in the world.

But what Waldmüller could have known in 1860when there were still decades before electricity began to be used in homes with cell phones, app, wifi or data package?

although the critics specialists insist that whatever the woman wears has nothing to do with technology, art lovers eagle eyes are convinced that it looks like that looking at a smartphonemore than 100 years before it was invented, he said The mirror when addressing the subject.

Currently the painting is exhibited in the museum New Pinacotecafrom Munich, Germany, along with hundreds of 18th and 19th century paintings.

In the photo, the girl is seen walking with her frozen gaze down while a young man holds a pink flower in his hand, ready to woo her.

In his opinion Star of the dayexperts say the reason the girl looks down is not because she is using an iPhone but because she is reading a prayer book.

Is it a cell phone or not?

peter russella retiree from Glasgow, he was the first to notice the possible hidden detail while visiting the gallery with his partner.

“What surprises me the most is how to change in technology he has modified interpretation of the painting and, in some way, it has exploited its whole context “, he commented in dialogue with VICE some time ago.

And he added: “The great change is that in 1850 or 1860 all viewers would have identified the element in which the girl is absorbed as a hymn or a prayer book. Today no one could fail to see the similarity with the scene of a teenager engrossed in social media on her smartphone“.

For his part, the managing director of the austrian-paintings.at art agency, Gerald Weinpolterexplained that the girl is not playing with the latest iPhone, but is holding a prayer book on the way to the churchdetailed The mirror.

But this It is not the first time that an alleged smartphone has been seen in an old painting, long before the emergence of this technology.

Six years ago, the chief appleTim Cook claimed to have seen a cellphone in a 17th-century painting in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. “I always thought I knew when the iPhone was invented, but now I’m not so sure,” he joked on the subject at a conference.