Characters from Renaissance paintings photoshopped into the present
March 9, 2017 9:49 AM Subscribe
In an ongoing series entitled "Art History in Contemporary Life,” artist Alexey Kondakov skillfully photoshops characters from Renaissance paintings into present day photos he has taken around Europe. (via Twisted Sifter)
More from his ongoing series on Facebook and Instagram.
Previous delightful collisions of Renaissance and modern images on Metafilter:
Auto mechanics pay homage to the legendary Renaissance painters.
"Accidental Renaissance": A small subreddit that finds photos (many soccer-related) that look like they're from the Renaissance.
More from his ongoing series on Facebook and Instagram.
Previous delightful collisions of Renaissance and modern images on Metafilter:
Auto mechanics pay homage to the legendary Renaissance painters.
"Accidental Renaissance": A small subreddit that finds photos (many soccer-related) that look like they're from the Renaissance.
It's always fascinating to me how certain facial features - the Greek nose, the rosebud mouth, the U-shaped face - go out of style so thoroughly that you don't seem to see people who look like that anymore. You do, of course; it's just an illusion. I recently came across a 19th-century painting of a twelve-year-old girl who looked exactly like I did when I was twelve. This is not a compliment to either of us. But it shows that the artist had a good eye for insufferable tweens.
posted by Countess Elena at 10:04 AM on March 9, 2017 [9 favorites]
posted by Countess Elena at 10:04 AM on March 9, 2017 [9 favorites]
Objection! You got your pre-raphaelites in my rennaissance paintings! (You got my renaissance paintings in my pre-raphaelites!)
posted by soren_lorensen at 10:16 AM on March 9, 2017 [14 favorites]
posted by soren_lorensen at 10:16 AM on March 9, 2017 [14 favorites]
These are wonderful. I particularly like the ones sleeping in the bus station / on the train because of course.
posted by travertina at 10:34 AM on March 9, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by travertina at 10:34 AM on March 9, 2017 [2 favorites]
Oh yeah, I forgot that I also meant to link to the post about that photo of New Years Eve in Manchester that looked like a painting! http://www.metafilter.com/155980/The-Creation-of-Manchester
posted by aka burlap at 10:42 AM on March 9, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by aka burlap at 10:42 AM on March 9, 2017 [2 favorites]
Thank you for pointing that out, soren, I was like "nah there's some 19th-century shit going on there."
Countess Elena I know what you mean. I also am fascinated when I see a new person and their face is familiar because it's a recognizable "type", like I've seen 10 other people with a similar type of face and I wonder how that works/how closely they are related. And how many "types" there actually are.
You sure don't see many little rosebud mouths except on babies, I always wondered if there were any grown women with that look or if it was always an unattainable Victorian ideal.
posted by emjaybee at 10:43 AM on March 9, 2017 [2 favorites]
Countess Elena I know what you mean. I also am fascinated when I see a new person and their face is familiar because it's a recognizable "type", like I've seen 10 other people with a similar type of face and I wonder how that works/how closely they are related. And how many "types" there actually are.
You sure don't see many little rosebud mouths except on babies, I always wondered if there were any grown women with that look or if it was always an unattainable Victorian ideal.
posted by emjaybee at 10:43 AM on March 9, 2017 [2 favorites]
This picture is begging for a Tom Waits song.
posted by AlonzoMosleyFBI at 10:50 AM on March 9, 2017 [4 favorites]
posted by AlonzoMosleyFBI at 10:50 AM on March 9, 2017 [4 favorites]
I always wondered if there were any grown women with that look or if it was always an unattainable Victorian ideal.
you don't seem to see people who look like that anymore. You do, of course; it's just an illusion.
I think it was Anne Hollander, in the amazing book Seeing Through Clothes, who theorized that women have always existed in a variety of shapes and features (and are dressed and made up in current styles), but that women who don't fit the current beauty standards literally become less visible so that's why we don't "see" them.
posted by Hypatia at 11:03 AM on March 9, 2017 [8 favorites]
you don't seem to see people who look like that anymore. You do, of course; it's just an illusion.
I think it was Anne Hollander, in the amazing book Seeing Through Clothes, who theorized that women have always existed in a variety of shapes and features (and are dressed and made up in current styles), but that women who don't fit the current beauty standards literally become less visible so that's why we don't "see" them.
posted by Hypatia at 11:03 AM on March 9, 2017 [8 favorites]
I wish they'd linked to the paintings too, so I could compare the original context with the improved one. I think it would heighten the hilarity.
posted by Galaxor Nebulon at 11:36 AM on March 9, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by Galaxor Nebulon at 11:36 AM on March 9, 2017 [3 favorites]
I love these. They only way I could love them more is if they had captions by Mallory Ortberg.
posted by Gorgik at 12:08 PM on March 9, 2017 [11 favorites]
posted by Gorgik at 12:08 PM on March 9, 2017 [11 favorites]
Objection! You got your pre-raphaelites in my rennaissance paintings! (You got my renaissance paintings in my pre-raphaelites!)
Not to mention smudges of Neoclassicism and sprinkles of Beaux-Arts Classicism...
posted by jim in austin at 12:44 PM on March 9, 2017 [3 favorites]
Not to mention smudges of Neoclassicism and sprinkles of Beaux-Arts Classicism...
posted by jim in austin at 12:44 PM on March 9, 2017 [3 favorites]
You sure don't see many little rosebud mouths except on babies, I always wondered if there were any grown women with that look or if it was always an unattainable Victorian ideal.
I know someone who looks so pre-Raphaelite it hurts. She has that perfect rosebud mouth and limpid eyes. I was in an art museum once and saw a painting of someone who looked exactly like her and had to take a picture to send her.
posted by apricot at 1:58 PM on March 9, 2017 [3 favorites]
I know someone who looks so pre-Raphaelite it hurts. She has that perfect rosebud mouth and limpid eyes. I was in an art museum once and saw a painting of someone who looked exactly like her and had to take a picture to send her.
posted by apricot at 1:58 PM on March 9, 2017 [3 favorites]
I always wondered if there were any grown women with that look or if it was always an unattainable Victorian ideal.
I seem to recall that in books about the lives of children in the late 19th or early 20th century, young girls were always trying to sleep with clothespins on the bridge of the nose to lengthen it, or to make their lips more picturesque by reciting tongue-twisters with "p"s in them.
Once I looked at a girl I knew and realized she had the face of a marble Madonna -- long nose, long face, heavy eyes. I don't know if she knew that, but she certainly did not act like someone who thought she was an exceptional beauty. Hundreds of years ago, artists would have swooned. I, of course, said nothing.
posted by Countess Elena at 2:07 PM on March 9, 2017 [1 favorite]
I seem to recall that in books about the lives of children in the late 19th or early 20th century, young girls were always trying to sleep with clothespins on the bridge of the nose to lengthen it, or to make their lips more picturesque by reciting tongue-twisters with "p"s in them.
Once I looked at a girl I knew and realized she had the face of a marble Madonna -- long nose, long face, heavy eyes. I don't know if she knew that, but she certainly did not act like someone who thought she was an exceptional beauty. Hundreds of years ago, artists would have swooned. I, of course, said nothing.
posted by Countess Elena at 2:07 PM on March 9, 2017 [1 favorite]
New York-style CPR -- "GET UP BEFORE YOU FUCKIN' DIE!"
posted by Devils Rancher at 2:10 PM on March 9, 2017 [5 favorites]
posted by Devils Rancher at 2:10 PM on March 9, 2017 [5 favorites]
I feel for the ladies who are just, like, trying to go about their day carrying a baby and are constantly pursued by angels or having to carry a spare lamb. BECAUSE OF COURSE. Just what I need, a choir of fuckin' angels bugging me on the subway when the baby's asleep, and also weirdly naked, because I'm apparently weirdly chillaxed about having a naked infant on a dirty subway but let's return to the main point here which is that ANGELS ARE STALKING ME AND SHOUTING SONGS AT MY BABY TO WAKE IT UP. I guess when you're a messenger of God you don't have to worry about FUCKING NAPTIME. You know who's going to be taking care of this baby at 2 a.m. when his sleep schedule gets thrown all off? NOT THE ANGEL GABRIEL THAT'S FOR DAMN SURE.
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 10:11 PM on March 9, 2017 [11 favorites]
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 10:11 PM on March 9, 2017 [11 favorites]
Gorgik: I love these. They only way I could love them more is if they had captions by Mallory Ortberg.
Or Eyebrows McGee. please please please
posted by rawrberry at 3:46 AM on March 10, 2017 [2 favorites]
Or Eyebrows McGee. please please please
posted by rawrberry at 3:46 AM on March 10, 2017 [2 favorites]
MetaFilter: Just trying to go about your day, having to carry a spare lamb.
posted by wenestvedt at 7:41 AM on March 10, 2017
posted by wenestvedt at 7:41 AM on March 10, 2017
Eyebrows McGee: You know who's going to be taking care of this baby at 2 a.m. when his sleep schedule gets thrown all off? NOT THE ANGEL GABRIEL THAT'S FOR DAMN SURE.
I love that you posted this at 1:11AM.
posted by wenestvedt at 7:42 AM on March 10, 2017 [2 favorites]
I love that you posted this at 1:11AM.
posted by wenestvedt at 7:42 AM on March 10, 2017 [2 favorites]
#2 is Pilate from Ciseri's Ecce Homo, 1871. As it's possibly my single favorite painting, I recognized it instantly. Seeing the original was one of the highlights of my trip to Florence a few years ago. It's fairly large, ~4m x 3m.
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 6:49 PM on March 12, 2017
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posted by DevilsAdvocate at 6:49 PM on March 12, 2017
Objection! You got your pre-raphaelites in my rennaissance paintings! (You got my renaissance paintings in my pre-raphaelites!)
Not to mention smudges of Neoclassicism and sprinkles of Beaux-Arts Classicism...
Some of these are from very famous academy paintings from the nineteenth century. Number 18 is Flaming June, for goodness's sake!
Several of the others look like they come from Bouguereau. No 17 definitely is. So is 20 and 26.
Not to be a snob, but "Renaissance" just strikes me as the wrong word to use. Not that it matters very much.
posted by lucien_reeve at 4:03 AM on March 13, 2017
Not to mention smudges of Neoclassicism and sprinkles of Beaux-Arts Classicism...
Some of these are from very famous academy paintings from the nineteenth century. Number 18 is Flaming June, for goodness's sake!
Several of the others look like they come from Bouguereau. No 17 definitely is. So is 20 and 26.
Not to be a snob, but "Renaissance" just strikes me as the wrong word to use. Not that it matters very much.
posted by lucien_reeve at 4:03 AM on March 13, 2017
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posted by greenhornet at 9:53 AM on March 9, 2017 [3 favorites]