Lady with an Ermine a la Picasso

This is my finished work of Lady with an Ermine a la Picasso.

I had a lot of fun working on this piece and am quite pleased with the results.

Here are the images together

Lady With An Ermine - 1490

I found an interesting article by A Wilson called "Decoding a da Vinci masterpiece: Behind the secret symbols of The Lady With An Ermine"

You can view the full article here.

Also reading Peter Chou's work you start to get an insight into Da Vinci's thought processes.  Peter talks about how this painting is of Cecilia Gallerani and that the Greek word for the ermine, or weasel that she holds is 'galee', which was probably chosen to represent her family name.  It may also refer to the character of Cecilia in that ermine's are too fastidious to dirty their fur, suggesting that Cecilia is of a wholesome and pure nature.  The ermine also represents the Duke Ludovico, whom Cecilia was the mistress, as he had received the insignia of the chivalric 'Order of the Ermine' from the King of Naples in 1488.  He was also nicknamed Italico Morel bianco ermellino (Italian Moor, white ermine).

(http://www.wisdomportal.com/Stanford/LadyWithAnErmine.html)

Where to now?

After looking at many different styles in detail and pondering over which image to use I have decided to go with one of my first thoughts and reinterpret a renaissance piece into a cubist piece, in the style of Picasso.

I have chosen Da Vinci's "Lady with an Ermine" created in 1490 and will reinterpret it in the style of Picasso's "Portrait of Dora Maar" created some 440 years later in 1937.

Cubism & Picasso

Cubism was really the first style of abstract art which became popular in the early 20th century and has been made famous by artists like Picasso and Braques.  Cubists wanted to challenge the idea of conventional forms and representation and played with perspective.  Many Cubist paintings depict people, places or objects from different angles and constructed of planes, forms and colours.

There were really two periods of Cubism - Analytical and Synthetic.  Analytical Cubism in which an artist would analyse a subject and create an image that created a sense of the subject by depicting it from different viewpoints and using geometrical shapes.  These early Cubist works were usually in muted tones and quite subdued.  Synthetic Cubism was a move towards a more abstract style with more colour and decorative styling.  Some of the characteristics of Cubism are colours, patterns and textures that alter between geometric shapes to freehand, with elements of dark and light, positive to negative, and plain to patterned.

Picasso is my favourite Cubist.  I am also intrigued by the fact that he painted several portraits of Dora Maar.  Pablo Picasso and Dora Maar were involved in a relationship for quite some time both personally and artistically.

Here are some of Picasso's portraits of Dora Maar:

My favourite one is this one:

This has the typical characteristics of geometrical to freehand, of colour and patterns and showing the face from two perspectives in that the face appears to be in profile yet we see both nostrils and both eyes.  Her skin colouring is quite unnatural and she seems closed in in her space.  It intrigues me that her lower hand looks quite normal but her hand by her face is quite spiky looking and menacing.  Her cheek also appears as though a rosy apple is sitting upon it.  It's almost as if the softness and attractiveness of the apple draws you in but you need to be careful of the thorns along the way.  Kind of like another story about Adam and Eve perhaps?  But why is she sitting in such a confined space?  Almost like she is in a box?

Fauvism

Fauvism is considered one of the first avant-garde movements that began in the early 20th century and Henri Matisse and Andre Derain are famous Fauvists.  Fauvist painters used bold brush strokes and vibrant colours which were often unnatural.  Les Fauves in French means "the wild beasts" and this style of art got its name from a critic.

Work by Matisse:

Portrait of Madame Matisse (The Green Stripe)

                                                                                                     
                                                                                                                   







                                                                                   
The Woman with a Hat

Work by Derain:

Charing Cross Bridge

 Woman in Chemise


                                                                                                                    .
                                                                                                           

                                                                                                   

Impressionism

Impressionists like Monet, Degas and Renoir were not very popular in their time because of their different style of painting.  Rather than spending long hours in a studio the new Impressionists were painting outside and tried to capture the immediate effects of light and movement in their work.  The short brush strokes that are characteristic of this movement which can look messy up close, blend beautifully when viewed further back.  Impressionist art is also about the use of colour.

Degas

Renoir

Monet 

I particularly like the work of Monet.  He abandoned dark colours and only worked from a palette of pure light colours.  He once wrote "As for the colours I use, what's so interesting about that?  I don't think one could paint better or more brightly with another palette.  The most important thing is to know how to use the colours.  Their choice is a matter of habit.  In short, I use white lead, cadmium yellow, vermilion, madder, cobalt blue, chrome green.  That's all".  He never used black and he created shadows by mixing other colours.  In fact at his funeral his friend was appalled by the black sheet covering his coffin and promptly changed it to a flowered one, exclaiming "No!  No black for Monet!".

Renaissance & Da Vinci

Renaissance artists typically painted religious images with subjects such as the Virgin Mary with many works created as altarpieces.  This style of art tried to capture beauty and experiences.  One of the most famous Renaissance artists is Leonardo Da Vinci and his painting "Mona Lisa" is probably the most recognised art work of all.  The Mona Lisa is also probably the most reinterpreted painting of all time.  One quick Google search will reveal pages and pages of images!  Just look at some of the interpretations below.

For that reason alone I will not go anywhere near the Mona Lisa for my reinterpretation project but I may still use a Da Vinci piece.  I think it would be quite fun to reinterpret a Renaissance piece into perhaps a fauvist style or maybe cubist style.