Imagine all human figures vanishing from painting masterpieces

16 septiembre 2008

No people, no animals, no movement. Spanish artist José Manuel Ballester (Madrid, 1960) cleared every living creatures from some of the most famous paintings from El Prado Museum. The result, a collection of disturbing desert landscapes, is now exhibited at a little gallery in Madrid.


Imagine, for example, The Garden of Earthly Delights (the famous triptych by Hieronymus Bosch) without any people. Or Fra Angelico's Annunciation with no Virgin and no angel on the scene. These are some of the ‘hacks’ at Ballester’s current exhibition Espacios Ocultos.

Annunciation, Fra Angelico (Before and after)

According to his official site, Ballester's work seeks to "purge all human anecdotes" from historical landscape painting and invert the hierarchy, giving priority to traditionally considered “background”.

Honestly, I don’t mind what the artist is seeking with his work. I just love those frightening landscapes!

Winter landscape, Pieter Brueghel


The story of Nastagio degli Onesti, Sandro Botticelli


All Images © José Manuel Ballester

Current Exhibition: Galería Distrito Cu4tro (Madrid) / [Via: EPS]

See also: Famous painters copied photographs (Fogonazos)

Do you wanna Digg it?

7 Respuestas ( Deja un comentario )

  1. NYC Free Concerts dijo...
  2. Now because the paintings do not have living things in them, they can be sold Islamic people.

  3. Carol dijo...
  4. Bosch-Disney Golf Course?

    Actually, I found the human-free paintings to be quite restful, almost like gazing at tourism tryptichs. Imagining myself there...

    !Que ironia!

  5. Anónimo dijo...
  6. >>Now because the paintings do not have living things in them, they can be sold Islamic people.

    To be pedantic, these paintings have been stripped of _animals_, not living things, since they have trees.

  7. Antonio Martínez Ron dijo...
  8. Ooops! You're right!

  9. Anónimo dijo...
  10. Actually, muslim people don't have problems with humans in the paintings...

    As can easily be seen here:
    http://mimoza.marmara.edu.tr/~avni/H62SANAT/minyatur.htm

    Read, for Christ's sake!

  11. Rocker79 dijo...
  12. Interesting post, aberron. Just let's imagine Van gogh's "the shout" without the shouter... amazing.

  13. Antonio Martínez Ron dijo...
  14. metáliko: Imagine "the shout" being painted by Munch. LOL :-)

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