Today we look at historical portraits and no longer know the contexts in which they were created. This fact sometimes prevents a critical view or interpretation. From today's point of view, women were too often depicted only as decorative figures. It was a wealthy woman's duty was to display her social status publicly. She was to wear whatever fabrics, jewelry, hairstyles, or other ornamentation necessary to represent the wealth and social standing of her family. Of course, a woman's social position was far below that of her male counterpart, which many older portraits illustrate. I caricature this by over-decorating women: here the lady disappears in the excessive flowers and the precious lace.
nft contract
The contract for this NFT is Hidden Portraits by Volker Hermes (HPBVH) and was minted using Manifold Studio . The contract is an ERC-1155 standard on the Ethereum blockchain. All images and metadata are stored on the blockchain using Arweave.
original image source
Hermes sources his original images from museums, and autction houses. All images are within the public domain.
PROCESS
Hermes digitally alters each image ONLY using elements that already exist in the original painting. He finds it important that his painterly modifications credibly blend with the original artwork. This way, the originals’ aura is preserved as they are turned into a newer and more contemporary version.