Friday, February 6, 2009

Vive le Weekend Rouge!

After several frustrating months of trying to grow my natural hair color out, I finally said "Good riddance!" and I dyed my hair red today. Now I am visualizing long, flowing tresses ala Leonardo or Botticelli's Renaissance portraits...

I would love to own this book:

Virtue and Beauty: Leonardo's Ginevra de' Benci and Renaissance Portraits of Women.

Many painters have exhibited a fascination with red hair. The colour "titian" takes its name from Titian, who often painted women with red hair. Early Renaissance artist Sandro Botticelli's famous painting The Birth of Venus depicts the mythological goddess Venus as a redhead [Wikipedia].


Birth of Venus by Botticelli (left, above)

These photos are from an opulent editorial in Chinese Vogue [2007], and were inspired by Renaissance beauty -- I've tried to pair the photos with Renaissance paintings that have a similar vibe...


Woman with Mirror by Titian




Portrait of a Lady [c. early 1600's] (above)

Coronation of Queen Elizabeth (left)


St. Mary Magdalene


Portrait of a Young Woman by Moretto da Brescia ca. 1540

[Magazine:
Vogue China January 2007
Photographer: Pierluigi Maco
Model: Vlada Roslyakova]