Speculum

“Many great artists of the past drew inspiration for their works from sculptures dating back to the Roman era, which they studied in every detail in the villas and palaces of noble families who owned collections of antiquities rich in masterpieces. It was therefore natural for Guercino, while painting Mars for the Ludovisi family, to take inspiration from a classical masterpiece such as the Ares Ludovisi, which formed part of the family’s collection—a collection so rich in inspiration for seventeenth-century artists that it came to be known as “the school of the world”.

Gabriele Gianni brings that encounter back to life through an Artificial Intelligence trained to replicate the reflections of water—the liquid realm chosen by the artist as a virtual mirror in which the two masterpieces are reflected in one another, becoming pure forms of light.

Thanks to technology, art history expands its boundaries and possibilities, allowing history to be reactivated and projected into the present through a continuous narrative stretching from antiquity to the twenty-first century. The boundaries between different eras dissolve, giving full expression to the power of images: a universal and symbolic language capable of prompting reflection on the infinite possible connections between past, present, and future.”