The World’s Great Paintings: Animated

What does it take to get a 21st-century audience excited about oil paintings? Well, they are all a bit…still, aren’t they? But what if they moved? Rino Stefano Tagliafierro‘s short film “Beauty” — watch it here — begins with slides of 19th-century landscape paintings. From there, we are taken on a rollercoaster ride through pre-20th century European art, from Bouguereau‘s waxy nudes – animated so that they actually cavort – to Caspar David Friedrich’s desolate winter vision of a ruined abbey whose sun, in this version, eventually sets. Caravaggio’s “Judith” (pictured), painted in a moment of eerie stillness in the act of beheading Holofernes, finishes the job and severs the head.

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