The project is carrying on a popular tradition of history rewriting. Historical facts and scientific methods under this project serve to create as perfect world as possible.
The amazing love story of Sigismund Augustus, the King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania, and Barbara Radziwiłł, which astonished Europe in the 16th century, should not have ended as it did: Queen Barbora died early, which Sigismund Augustus, the last male descendant of the Jagiellon dynasty, did not have any heir. The author of the project, whose name is suspiciously similar to the name of the above King, is seeking to correct this error by creating imaginative portraits of a son of the King Sigismund Augustus.
The portraits were created by matching the faces of Sigismund Augustus and Barbara Radziwiłł, through the craniometric analysis of their skull proportions, and the technique of mimesis eikastike used in ancient Greek art. The portraits of the king and queen by Lucas Cranach the Younger as of the 16th century have served as donors for craniometric data. The scientific matching of the said data allows audience to see a stereoscopic scheme of the imaginary son's skull – a craniometric portrait. This portrait is formed in a viewer's imagination (the left eye through the stereoscopic glasses sees Barbara Radziwiłł, and the right eye – Sigismund Augustus; thus, the craniometric portrait of their son is born by combining these two portraits into a single image in the viewer’s brain). Based on this image, a traditional portrait of the so-wanted heir of Jagiellon dynasty is created.
Project was developed during my Phd studies at Vilnius Academie of Art and is an extention of my thesis "Picture Demand / the Case of (IN)"
Project reviews
Diena.lt/DURYSM. Klusas, Delfi.lt
