Description: My interpretation of the famous art masterpiece, Girl with a Pearl Earring, an oil painting by Dutch Golden Age painter Johannes Vermeer, dated c. 1665. It is not a portrait, but a ‘tronie’ – a painting of an imaginary figure. Tronies depict a certain type or character; in this case a girl in exotic dress, wearing an oriental turban and an improbably large pearl in her ear.
Description: My interpretation of the famous art masterpiece, Portrait of Young Woman with Unicorn by Raphael in 1505-1506. The painting was initially oil on panel, and was transferred to canvas during conservation work in 1934. It was within the course of this work that overpainting was expelled, revealing the unicorn, and removing the wheel, cloak, and palm frond that had been included by an unknown painter during the mid-17th century.
Description: My interpretation of the famous art masterpiece, The Birth of Venus by Sandro Botticelli, probably from the mid 1480s. The composition shows the goddess of love and beauty arriving on land, on the island of Cyprus, born of the sea spray and blown there by the winds, Zephyr and, perhaps, Aura. The goddess is standing on a giant scallop shell, as pure and as perfect as a pearl. She is met by a young woman, who is sometimes identified as one of the Graces or as the Hora of spring, and who holds out a cloak covered in flowers. Even the roses, blown in by the wind are a reminder of spring. The subject of the painting, which celebrates Venus as symbol of love and beauty, was perhaps suggested by the poet Agnolo Poliziano.
