Photographer Patrick Demarchelier and fashion house Dior team up with Jennifer Lawrence to produce a beautiful homage to Italian Renaissance art – but would you recognize it?
Jennifer Lawrence for Dior, Photographed by Patrick Demarchelier, 2014
Sometimes a way of engaging an audience, for what would otherwise be a run-of-the-mill portrait shoot, is to echo references of famous works of art or iconography. To me, the most recent example I’ve seen is Demarchelier/Dior’s shoot with acclaimed actress Jennifer Lawrence. I first saw it in an editorial reported by Vogue Espana, titled, “Jennifer Lawrence deslumbra con un look androgino en Miss Dior,” 25th February, 2014. The photographer is Patrick Demarchelier.
I really enjoy these images, however my ‘art reference’ radar also sounded off to a few other things, and I thought it would be fun to share. The coloured photos have a slightly parched saturation. There’s richness there in some of the golden and dark (blue and brown) tones, but much of her flesh colour has been abandoned by colours (in the green and red spectrums.) What this leaves us with are photos that remind us of drawings.
They give us a little more colour than your average graphite sketch, but the images are essentially speaking in golden and blue tones. Little red, little to no green. And to great effect, the parched nude colour of Lawrence’s flesh is then echoed in the handbag she holds. The nude effect is enriched by the golden tones in the chain strap and in her hair. It’s a beautiful series of understatement. Paolo Roversi’s Dior Magazine shoot with Natalie Portman echoes Dior’s latest stylistic aesthetic – see here. Being a brunette with brown eyes, means any focus on golden hues has been exaggerated in Portman’s eyes. Conversely, everything but Portman’s eyes has been desaturated.
The strong references I see in this series, are to Renaissance artists such as- Bronzino (1503 – 1572), Michelangelo (1475 – 1564), Parmigianino (1503 – 1540), and Botticelli (1445(?) – 1510). If we thought we simply liked the look of all this, it may be helpful to remind you that you’ve possibly seen these images dozens, or, hundreds of times already; you just didn’t know it – yet . . .
Jennifer Lawrence for Dior, Photographed by Patrick Demarchelier, 2014
MICHELANGELO Buonarroti The Delphic Sibyl Fresco, 350 x 380 cm Cappella Sistina, Vatican
Sandro Botticelli, “Birth of Venus (detail)”c. 1486, tempera on canvas, 172.5 cm × 278.9 cm, Uffizi, Florence
Bronzino, “The Madonna and Child with St.Elisabeth and the Infant St. John the Baptist (detail), Oil on wood, 113 x 101 cm, Louvre, Paris, France
Parmigianino, “The Madonna with the Long Neck (detail)” 1535-40, Oil on wood, 216 cm × 132 cm, Uffizi, Florence
Jennifer Lawrence for Dior, Photographed by Patrick Demarchelier, 2014
