Minecraft players are excited to see new paintings coming in the 1.21 update

Minecraft's 1.21 update was confirmed to receive five new in-game paintings created by Sarah Boeving in a recent set of experimental previews for Bedrock Edition. The paintings come in various sizes, and some are inspired by popular artistic works including American Gothic, Meditative Rose, and The Cowboy. A recent Reddit thread by u/ItsJW531 sought to gage the community's reactions to them:

What do we think about the new paintings coming soon! byu/ItsJW531 inMinecraft

Based on the 6,000+ upvotes for the post, it's hard to imagine players are upset with the 1.21 update's new paintings. Many commenters also voiced their support of new decoration options for their homes and bases. Players particularly loved the "Unpacked" painting, which references pack.png, an iconic image that was once seen on the resource pack and server selection screen.

Comment byu/ItsJW531 from discussion inMinecraft

Comment byu/ItsJW531 from discussion inMinecraft

While players seemed to love the majority of the new Minecraft paintings, some commenters felt a bit unnerved by "Humble", the painting inspired by Grant Wood's "American Gothic" that features two villagers. Fans remarked that it felt a bit creepy or that it didn't fit the Minecraft aesthetic as well as the other paintings, but other players remarked that they still appreciated it as something a little different.

Minecraft players were a bit less receptive to the villager and American Gothic-inspired "Humble" painting (Image via Reddit)

Meanwhile, though most players appreciated the artwork, they did remark that it looked a bit too high-definition and clean compared to the paintings provided for Minecraft prior to update 1.21 created by Kristoffer Zetterstrand, who provided many paintings with lower pixel counts that were often more abstract in nature.

Whatever the case, the flood of comments on the Reddit post was almost unanimously positive of more paintings coming to the game in the 1.21 update and its accompanying Bedrock previews and Java snapshots. Even if fans had their critiques, they certainly weren't opposed to having more ways to decorate their homes, bases, and other builds.

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Every new painting arriving in the Minecraft 1.21 update

Five new paintings have been confirmed for Minecraft's 1.21 update (Image via Mojang)

In total, five new paintings are arriving in Minecraft 1.21, and each one either references a piece of classical artwork or the game itself. Mojang hasn't stated one way or the other if more paintings are on the way and haven't been revealed yet, but even five paintings are a cause for joy since it has been several years since new paintings were introduced to the vanilla game.

A breakdown of the paintings can be found below:

• Meditative - A painting of a rose against a relatively empty backdrop. Inspired by Salvador Dali's "Meditative Rose," and also is a nice reference to Minecraft's early days when red roses existed as a flower type before they were replaced by poppies.
• Praire Ride - A painting of an individual riding a horse, likely a reference to Frederic Remington's "The Cowboy" based on the stance of the character and the horse they're riding.
• Baroque - A painting featuring a pot, a cake, and a sunflower painted in the Baroque style that was made popular during 17th and 18th century Europe.
• Humble - A painting depicting two villagers, one looking straight ahead and the other looking to the first villager. This is likely an homage to Grant Wood's famous painting "American Gothic".
• Unpacked - A painting depicting a hill in Minecraft complete with some trees, a waterfall, and a pig swimming in the water nearby. References pack.png, which was once used as the default icon for the game's resource pack and was also seen on the server select screen in older versions of the game.

All in all, fans aren't likely to turn away new decorations in just about any form, and the addition of more paintings should help players warm up to the upcoming update.