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Article created by: Hidrėlėy

In history, especially before the invention of photography, paintings have been invaluable for documenting what historical personalities looked like. Nowadays, however, the art of portrait has little use as a document, even though the artistic value hasn't changed. Paintings have an inseparable quality to them, which they can rarely ever transcend—a painting almost always looks like one. Nevertheless, with the advent of AI-generated images, paintings are still the primary source and material for drawing inspiration for recreation.

Nathan Shipley puts the paintings of famous historical personalities to good use. He uses them together with AI to recreate an incredibly realistic image, making something which was impossible even to imagine a few decades ago; namely, the possibility of seeing the "true" image of, say, George Washington, now seems incredibly close with the use of artificial intelligence. This time, Nathan the VFX artist has baked a new batch of images based on paintings and names most of us know from our history classes, mostly focusing on the British royalty, the Tudor dynasty, to be precise, along with other personalities like George Washington, William Shakespeare, etc. It isn't Nathan's first time being featured on Bored Panda. Here's the previous post on the same topic we're presenting to you today.

More info: Instagram | twitter.com | nathanshipley.com

#1

William Shakespeare

Side-by-side comparison of a historical portrait and a realistic AI recreation of a well-known historical figure.

"That is the only portrait of Shakespeare that has a good claim to have been painted from life."

nathan_shipley_vfx Report

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    #2

    Anne Boleyn

    Side-by-side comparison of a historical painting and a realistic AI recreation of the same well-known figure.

    "On Anne: Her beheading was ordered by her husband, Henry VIII. There is a good deal of writing and debate about the topic of Anne's appearance amongst historians. Descriptions of her by her opponents during her life make her out to be an ugly 6-fingered monster, while she is represented as beautiful in modern television; portrayed by Natalie Dormer in The Tudors. A Venetian diplomat described her at 21 as "Not one of the most handsome women in the world; she is of middling stature, swarthy complexion, long neck, wide mouth, a bosom not much raised and eyes which are black and beautiful."

    nathan_shipley_vfx Report

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    #3

    Henry VIII

    Side-by-side comparison of a historical painting and an AI recreated realistic image of a well-known historical figure.

    "Henry VIII was the second Tudor monarch and was King of England from 1509 to 1547. Of the painting, the Barberini Corsini describes, "the subject’s frontal pose, his sumptuous clothes and jewelry, and his gaze staring out at the viewer all stamp the portrait with a vivid image of Henry’s grandeur and power."

    nathan_shipley_vfx Report

    #4

    Henry VII

    Side-by-side comparison of a historical painting and a realistic AI recreation of a well-known historical figure.

    "Henry VII was the founder of the House of Tudor, the King of England, and the Lord of Ireland until his death in 1509."

    nathan_shipley_vfx Report

    #5

    Queen Elizabeth I (Young)

    Side-by-side comparison of a well-known historical figure’s painting and a realistic AI recreation of her portrait.

    This image of Elizabeth is from 1546 when she was about 13 years old. It was painted before she ascended to be queen and is part of the Royal Collection at Windsor Castle.

    nathan_shipley_vfx Report

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    #6

    Mary Tudor

    Side-by-side comparison of a historical portrait and AI recreation showing realistic images of historical figures.

    "Mary Tudor, A.K.A. "Bloody Mary" Mary earned the name "Bloody Mary" for burning protestants at the stake for heresy during her reign. She is the daughter of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon."

    nathan_shipley_vfx Report

    #7

    Edward VI

    Side-by-side comparison of a historical portrait and a realistic AI recreation of a well-known historical figure.

    "Edward VI is the third Tudor monarch and succeeded Henry VIII to be the King of England from 1547 to 1553. He was the son of Henry VII and Jane Seymour."

    nathan_shipley_vfx Report

    #8

    Queen Elizabeth I (Old)

    Side-by-side comparison of a historical figure’s portrait and a realistic AI recreation of the same image.

    nathan_shipley_vfx Report

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    #9

    Queen Elizabeth I (Middle-Aged)

    Side-by-side image showing a historical figure recreated with AI into a realistic modern portrait of the same person.

    This image of Elizabeth when she was around 40 years-old is based on the "Darnley Portrait" from 1575 which is part of the collection at the National Portrait Gallery.

    nathan_shipley_vfx Report

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    #11

    George Washington

    Side-by-side comparison of a famous historical figure's classic portrait and a realistic AI recreation by an artist.

    nathan_shipley_vfx Report