Any reference to High Art by the Lower Arts has to be a good thing.
Tyra Banks’ America’s Next Top Model (ANTM – as the website calls it) made each of her (remaining) five contestants pose as subjects in a classic painting.
The snobbism these days associated with ‘Art’ is really a recent phenomenon. Art has always been for the public. Notice Michelangelo’s ceiling frescoes, his town center David, and Bach’s choral compositions, all for the public.
In fact, some ‘classic’ works have become so popular even in our postmodern days, that they have been mimicked, copied, parodied, satirized and made into any number of greeting cards by the public.
There’s Leonardo’s Mona Lisa, who is just as well know with her mustache as without.
And she figures again in Tyra’s enthusiastic show, although I’m not so sure how Leonardo would feel about his latest copy.
Click on each painting to see the Next Top Model’s rendition. They don’t live up to the originals, but I’m optimistic that they’ll keep the tradition going.
Top row:
Botticelli The Birth of Venus 1445-1510
Leonardo Da Vinci Mona Lisa 1503-1507
Middle Row:
Vermeer Girl with a Pearl Earring - 1665
Whistler Arrangement in Black and Grey, Portrait of the Painter's Mother
1871
Bottom Row:
Leonardo Da Vinci Vitruvian Man 1492