Portrait of a mystery
No one expects…
I wanted the feeling of a renaissance portrait with all its hidden meanings and representative symbols and tokens. I also wanted to get across the layers and complexity of the characters outfit, and for it to look like real handmade clothing of indeterminate material, hidden technology incorporated throughout.
He didn’t, and doesn’t, have a name, the one that was assigned to him afterwards was someone else’s, he is meant to have a sense of mystery and hidden meanings and invoke a curiosity in the viewer as to who he may be and what he chooses to show or hide.
I had hoped to do more like this but they proved a bit too esoteric for most projects, I had thought to put an actual puzzle within a portrait like this where the clues could be worked out and point to an answer.
Mixed media with Gouache and ink on board and heavily varnished (which caused a few repro problems)
