Alex Heberling

Fall 2007

This a series of 3 images created for a Digital Imaging II project, to create a distorted reality, or a reality more real than real, using digital images. My concept for the project was to take the subjects of historically famous paintings and either transport or translate the content into a modern reality.

The source for this image is the Arnolfini Portrait by van Eyck.

The painting depicts a couple in their finery, and while there is much debate over the subtle imagery and symbolism in the painting, I essentially took it at face value for my interpretation of this project’s prompt.

These days, we all by deify celebrities, so for my Arnolfinis, I drew them as a starlet couple on the red carpet. I used the same basic color pallets for the clothing, made the lady pregnant (which she may or may not be in the original) and added the dog in a purse.

The source work for this image is The Swing by Fragonard, a painting that is considered characteristic of the Rococco period. The lolita fashion culture of Japan, as I’m sure many already know, is based on Rococco and Edwardian period fashions, so I thought it would be amusing to put a lolita girl in one of the paintings that inspired the fashion movement.

For this image, I took Olympia by Manet, and the various depictions of Venus by artists throughout the times (specifically, Botticelli’s Venus) and put them together.

The female figure has been the subject of art pretty much ever since art was created, and women’s bodies are still glamorized today in the form of models, strippers, and sex workers.

I took Olympia and Venus and put them together. This piece is a little ambiguous on what excatly Venus and Olympia are doing, and I prefer it that way. Some people might see beautiful lingerie models and others might see high-class exotic dancers or prostitutes. Either way, these two iconic paintings are examples of how the female figure was glamorized in the past, and my piece brings up ways that we do so today.