„Social distancing“ Tableaux Vivants
During the Corona –lockdown in March and April 2020, the reenacting of famous paintings experienced a renaissance.
Due to the restrictions during the Corona pandemic, I didn’t have the possibility to invite 15-17 people to my apartment. Thus, I came up with the idea to depict every single figure myself and then assemble the picture on the computer without a filter or any other color corrections.
That is how my first two “social-distancing” tableaux vivants, the bean king by Jacob Jordaens and Ecce Homo by Titian, originated.
Link to the original picture in the KHM (Museum of fine arts Vienna)
In his original composition, Jacob Jordaens addresses the rite of the bean king and at the same time takes the society of the 17th century for a ride and criticizes it.
With my reenactment of this painting during times of social distancing, I wanted to allude to the lack of freedom to celebrate or enjoy a beautiful evening with friends and acquaintances.
For this reason, I deliberately refrained from changing my clothes in this composition. In doing so, I wanted to highlight that only one person is playing all the roles, with the exception of Sam, the dog and the “girl” in blue. They are supposed to bring contrasting colors into the composition.
Instagram Post KHM
Instagram Post Achim Ferrandina
Link to the original picture in the KHM (Museum of fine arts Vienna)
Contrary to the bean king, I decided in this case to recreate the colors and clothes of the painting as well as possible. We are talking about Titian after all, who is famous for using a colorful color palette, which is the reason why his paintings haven’t lost their splendor through the centuries.
An additional challenged that had to be mastered in this case, was to reproduce the shining colors as well as I could and to recreate the scenery with its blue sky and the stairs in my apartment.
I am looking forward to tell you more about this painting during a tour in the Museum of Fine Arts (Kunsthistorisches Museum) in Vienna.
Instagram Post Achim Ferrandina