Solo piece by Von Doyle for AIAD
AIAD is a digital art exhibition focusing on and celebrating AI Art, taking place at Tears in Rain Gallery in Voxels, October 6th - 20th 2022, in partnership with Objkt.com and futr.art.
Presented by @futr_art & @TIRGallery
When Jacques-Louis David was commissioned to paint “Napoleon Crossing the Alps” he was unable to complete the piece for a while because Bonaparte simply refused to sit for the portrait. He said that he disliked sitting but also that he believed the painting should be a representation of his character rather than his physical appearance.
“— Sit? For what good? Do you think that the great men of Antiquity for whom we have images sat? — But Citizen First Consul, I am painting you for your century, for the men who have seen you, who know you, they will want to find a resemblance. — A resemblance? It isn't the exactness of the features, a wart on the nose which gives the resemblance. It is the character that dictates what must be painted...Nobody knows if the portraits of the great men resemble them, it is enough that their genius lives there.”
This marked a break in the portraiture of Napoleon in general, with realism abandoned for political iconography.
Following this long tradition started by Napoleon, I decided to create an emblematic version of his portrait, capturing a more faithful version of himself rather than a physical likeness.
