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June 08, 2020

Recreating masterpieces with a COVID-19 theme

Recreation of a famous medieval portrait displayed side-by-side, images are each a close-up of a man with a black backdrop wearing a scarlet turban, the recreation has the man in a COVID-19 mask
Jan van Eyck’s “Portrait of a Man,” recreated by Gabriel Wierer
As the spring 2020 semester was winding down, art history faculty member Heather McCune Bruhn engaged her students with various pedagogical methods in the new virtual education landscape. However, one of the most successful efforts came from a simple prompt: recreate famous works of art with a COVID-19 theme. McCune Bruhn extended the challenge to students in all of her classes, and to her delight the results were “remarkable.” More than one dozen photos from her Art History 111 and 122 courses, most with props such as personal protective equipment and cleaning products, poured into McCune Bruhn’s inbox. Included in the photo gallery are Jan van Eyck’s “Portrait of a Man,” recreated by Gabriel Wierer; “Dying Warrior,” recreated by Sarah Telsey; Artemisia Gentileschi’s “Self-Portrait as the Allegory of Painting (La Pittura),” recreated by Janneth Romero; Annibale Carracci’s “The Beaneater,” recreated by Arin Owens; Cariani’s “Portrait of a Venetian Gentleman,” recreated by Danial Desjardin; Da Vinci’s “Lady with an Ermine,” recreated by Allison Piech; and the “Veiled Dancer,” recreated by Cathleen Scura.
Recreation of a famous medieval portrait displayed side-by-side, images are each a close-up of a man with a black backdrop wearing a scarlet turban, the recreation has the man in a COVID-19 mask
side-by-side images of a woman with dark hair standing sideways with her right arm raised and seemingly painting a wall, the recreation of the photo shows the woman in rubber gloves, wearing a COVID-19 mask cleaning the wall with Chlorox.
horizontal images on top of each other, the top is a stone medieval sculpture of a man laying on his side holding a shield in the air, the recreation is of a woman in the same position on the floor holding a laptop.
side-by-side images with the left being a medieval portrait of a woman holding an ermine, the recreated image on the right shows a simiarly posing woman holding a gallon Chlorox bleach, rubber gloves and a COVID-19 mask.
Side-by-side images of a man at a table facing the camera eating a bowl of beans, the image on the right is a recreation of the original medieval portrait and the recreation depicts the man wearing protective rubber gloves and a COVID-19 mask
Side-by-side images of a medieval portrait of the profile of a man in black with a stoic expression.
Side-by-side photo of and original art work and a recreation. The photo on the left is a grey sculpture of a dancer wearing a flowing cloak and the image on the right depicts a student posing in a similar fashion with a COVID-19 mask