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| "Sorridi!" |
At first, I just picked up an image of Leonardo's DaVinci "Mona Lisa". Then, I've isolated the woman from the painting and placed her where she would be today (when making her portrait): a photographic studio. Lastly, I've created a fictional passport for her and composed it with the original painting's background.
Explanations:
Leonardo DaVinci's "Mona Lisa" is one of the most acknowledged pieces of Art in the history. His painting skills are unquestionable.
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| Mona Lisa at the studio. |
But in Leonardo's time, that was his job. Painting was how he made his living. People would pay for him to create images and, with his techniques and talent, shape them into pleasurable pieces. It was not simple reproduction. The subjects were real, but the background and "enhancements" in the subjects' appearance were not. Photographers certainly followed Leonardo's steps. But today, they use an infinity of gadgets, artificial lights, layers of filters and hours of image manipulation.
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| Ready to go anywhere (not). |
Therefore, "Mona Lisa" was a commissioned work. In the end, for the casual viewer, it was just a portrait.
Insights:
The proposal of the assignment is to turn an image into something else. By deconstructing a painting (its depictions and process of creation), a viewer would end up in a room full of canvases, pencils, brushes, paint, drafts (for reference), rags, rulers, gadgets of all kinds and the painter himself. The subject himself could be present in the case of a portrait. It would be a strange feeling to the subject...
How did the subject look at this strange and messed up environment? How was his point of view? How was it for the model to be watched and captured by the artist? Does he feel intimidated? Exposed? His every flaws analysed? Does he feel interrogated?
Being surrounded by this scenario is true even today. The same situation, different equipment. Today, Mona Lisa's portrait would have been created differently: in a photographic studio - maybe an even scarier environment: dark and cold...
In the end, she would have her picture taken. Much faster and banal. A person's image is in any document today. Documents many times required for a person when travelling or even when going not so far. At Mona Lisa's time, I wonder if she could go anywhere. Are we not much more interrogated today?
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Submission: https://class.coursera.org/livearthistory-001/human_grading/view/courses/970641/assessments/15/submissions/1626
Forum thread: https://class.coursera.org/livearthistory-001/forum/thread?thread_id=6303.
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