What If Everyone in Famous Paintings
Went Home?
Artist strips out people to create eerie versions of classic works
By Eddie Wrenn: 17 October 2012
By Eddie Wrenn: 17 October 2012
The Last Supper among famous Renaissance works re-imagined as empty scenes by artist Bence Hajdu
Most of us could probably name at least one of the paintings below - but wait, where have all the people gone? For these are some of the greatest works of art by some of the world's greatest artists, but thanks to a little modern technology, Hungarian artist Bence Hajdu has stripped the paintings of their evocative characters.
It leaves us us with static, bleak, yet strangely fascinating portraits - just without any people in them. So now we can see what happens when the disciples get bored with their Last Supper and went home, or what Roman ports look like they are drained of people and animals. And instead of getting to witness the Angel Gabriel meeting the Virgin Mary, we get to watch an empty room being empty.
Hajdu, a student at the University of Fine Arts, Hungary, told DesignBoom:
'At
one of the descriptive geometry classes we had a task to find and draw
the perspective and horizon lines of renaissance and other pictures with
significant perspective space. 'I
thought it is not that interesting to just draw lines, so I decided to
erase all the characters from them and examine how the painter really
created the perspective space and how it actually looks. 'I
saw this could be something exciting and continued thinking and working
on it. 'After a while I found myself interested in the new atmosphere
and the new thoughts the retouched pieces generated without their main
subjects.'
Da Vinci's Last Supper (c.1495)
But all the apostles are gone, just leaving an empty table with a few loafs of bread
And they're back!
The disciples and Jesus finally make their party, and promptly make a mess of their freshly-laid table. But once stripped of people, the paintings take on a new life: we get to focus on the rooms themselves, the geometry of the space, and the atmosphere of each room.
For instance, in the Oath of the Horatii, painted by Jacques-Louis David in 1784, we originally witnessed a tense scene where three Roman brothers from the Horatius family are preparing to duel against the Curiatii family, in a bid to settle a war between the two cities.The original painting shows us a clash of emotions - the tension of the upcoming battle, the patriotic expressions of the brothers, the sadness of the watching mother and sisters who know that death is in the air. But, stripped of the people, we get a quiet room, in stillness, unused and unwitnessed. The arches and pillars loom in silence and darkness.
Le Serment des Horaces - Jacques-Louis David by French artist Jacques-Louis David tells the story of three Roman brothers trying to end a war of three cities by going into battle against another set of siblings. But in this version, they all simply went home.
That's what we were expecting! The brothers are returned to their rightful positions, and prepare to begin battle
The ships are present, and by rights this is a bustling sea-port ... but all is eerily silent, the sea undisturbed by man in this re-imagining of Claude's Seaport with the Embarkation of Saint Ursula (1641)
Back to bustling: Now we can see St Ursula, holding a flag with her emblem, watching her companions embark on a voyage from the footsteps of Tempietto di San Pietro in Montorio, Rome
Fra Angelico's The Annunciation (c. 1438): In the original painting, the Virgin Mary meets the Angel Gabriel to be told she will give birth to Jesus Christ. However, on this occasion, it seems the painter missed the moment
The Virgin Mary finally makes her appointment on the Tuscan-style terrace, and the Angel Gabriel arrives to deliver the announcement of the Immaculate Conception.
The Camera degli Sposi ('bridal chamber'), a highly decorated room in the Ducal Palace, Mantua, Italy (painted between 1465 and 1474), has a giant fresco by Andrea Mantegna on the ceiling, from which angels look down - but oh no! - all the angels have vanished...
But take a look at the original work, and now all the angels are back in this stunning piece of work which took ten years to complete.
The Annunciation, by Sandro Botticelli (c.1489), is again meant to how the Virgin Mary receiving a visit from the Angel Gabriel. But again the Italian Renaissance master has appeated to miss the moment. Instead we get simply a bare room.
A welcome return: Luckily the Angel comes back to greet the Virgin Mary, allowing Christians to again rejoice in the knowledge Jesus is coming to Earth.
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