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Artist Lets Us Get A Glimpse Of What These 20 Famous Historical And Popular Figures ‘Really’ Looked Like
Being born in the modern age, we often forget how different things were before us. People could only know what someone looked like based on an artist's subjective vision or a grainy black-and-white photo. Despite the efforts of the artists, paintings can rarely achieve the level of realism that pictures can. And thus, people often wonder how some of the most famous historical figures really looked with all of the subjectiveness removed from the image. Bas Uterwijk, a photographer from Amsterdam who has a background in computer graphics, 3D animation, and special effects, slowly but surely tries to provide the answer to this aching question.
More info: basuterwijk.com | Instagram | twitter.com
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#1
Statue Of Liberty
CaptainDinosaur 5 years ago
U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A! (sorry, I need something to cheer about lately)
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April Simnel 5 years ago
Supposedly, the statue's face is that of the sculptor Francois Bartholdi's mother, Augusta.
Anna Buck Combs 5 years ago
I was just thinking it would be really neat to have a photo of her to compare to this. This is actually a beautiful woman.
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Ben Woodward 5 years ago
So. This is an artistic interpretation of what 'Libertas' (the Roman Goddess of Freedom) would look like if they were a person. It's very impressive and strikes me of Italian descent for sure. To any readers of the USA; the Statue of Liberty was a gift from France for welcoming migrants to the new world following success in the civil war. Really makes you think where you were back then and where you are now huh?
Amazon QT 3 years ago
And the Statue of Libertys face was modeled after the facial features of the brother of the sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi.
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Mairlady 5 years ago
Incredibly beautiful face. I can see why they would use her for the Statue of Liberty
Amazon QT 3 years ago
Actually the Statue of Libertys face was modeled after the facial features of the brother of the sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi (who was French like he was).
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Amazon QT 3 years ago
No the Statue of Libertys face was modeled after the facial features of the brother of the sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi.
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Caroline Saunders 5 years ago
I thought Isadora Duncan was the model for the Statue of Liberty
Amazon QT 3 years ago
No the Statue of Libertys face was modeled after the facial features of the brother of the sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi.
Load More Replies... Amazon QT 3 years ago
No the Statue of Libertys face was modeled after the facial features of the brother of the sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi.
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Alberto Curutchet 5 years ago
Reminds me of Sadie from Red Red Redemption 2, which was a truly strong lady
Benjamin Franklin 4 years ago
How hella "the statue of liberty" appeared among the 20top famous persons in history? Whats a nonsense! Especially in the country where THERE IS NO liberty!
Shaikh Ali 5 years ago
Wow. Awesome but from the look of her eyes , she looks deeply hurt and in pain. Indeed, her eyes do all the talking.
Kathi Keegan Chang 5 years ago
Nice photo... however... it looks like part male/female to me. Still, it's a very interesting photo. Handsome male/female?
Antonella Rebello 5 years ago
Love the expression, she looks like a strong nonsense type of lady. Also kind of looks mixed race.
Fred and George Weasley 5 years ago
fun fact: the statue of liberty was originally made of copper (so was brown) but it turned green because of chemical reactions involving oxygen and pollution
Amazon QT 3 years ago
I’m not sure how I’d feel about seeing her in Copper… but she’d would be very shiny.
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Elaine Mattingly 5 years ago
Ellegant,confident,assured, prepared,aware that her decision could change history.
Aizat Bhri 3 years ago
Pretty sure Trump knows as the US government is aligned with the Babylon Nimrod style of ruling the world. Shhh, don't tell the Americans, they're too stupid to know this statue is of an evil woman.
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DEllenwood 5 years ago
A handsome woman, betrayed by the government but still seeking to welcome and protect the tired, the poor, the huddled masses yearning to breathe free.
Elaine Mattingly 5 years ago
I tried to up vote this but each time it shows down.....so UP on DEllenwood
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everybody_do_the_scarn 5 years ago
did you know that the Statue of Liberty was originally an African-American woman, but when the French showed to the Americans, they turned it away and wanted a white woman instead? smh :(
Bord Hajahn 5 years ago
Where is your source? It never was, if you read the captioning and mabey look it up, than you could avoid making a fool of yourself and looking like a deranged SJW.
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Dorothy Parker 5 years ago
I see her as looking more like Elvis Presley rather than Penelope Cruz.
He started in 2019. After experimenting with Billy the Kid's photograph and seeing positive results, Uterwijk decided to try and recreate someone who lived in an era where there were no photographs. He tried Napoleon, but didn't want to share the results because they were "nice, but not perfect." About a few months ago, he came back to Napoleon and tried it once again. "The software I work with is developing fast," he thought, so he figured trying it at a later time might bring better results. You can see how his "current" Napoleon turned out in the picture below.
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#2
Vincent Van Gogh
#3
Fayum Mummy Portraits
Here's what he told Bored Panda: "I think the human face hasn't changed dramatically over thousands of years and apart from hairstyles and makeup, people that lived long ago probably looked very much like us, but we are used to seeing them in the often distorted styles of ancient art forms that existed long before the invention of photography."
#4
David (Michelangelo)
#5
Jesus Christ
Avriel Schwartz 5 years ago
This reconstruction looks far too European. Genetically he would have looked closer to a Sephardi Jew from the Middle East.
He started experimenting with creating images by using generative adversarial neural networks, because he thinks it will one day be the "successor to photography." "These 'Deep Learning' networks are trained with thousands of photographs of human faces and are able to create near-photorealistic people from scratch or fit uploaded faces in a 'Latent Space' of a total of everything the model has learned."
#6
Napoleon
#7
Rembrandt
#8
Billy The Kid
Artbreeder, Bas's program of choice, uses artificial intelligence and neural networks to create near-photorealistic images based on his input combined with what it knows about how faces look and how light behaves in photography. "I try to do everything as procedural as possible and let the AI do the most work, but sometimes I need to cheat a little in Photoshop because these GANs don't do clothes or classical hairstyles yet."
#9
Frankenstein's Monster
#10
Sandro Botticelli
#11
Niccolò Machiavelli
"Although I see my creations more as artistic impressions than as scientifically justified, in some cases, the results for me feel much closer to reality than most other methods that are used in reconstructions of people so far," Bas expressed. They say that a portrait artist's main goal isn't getting the little details right, but capturing the "essence" of the person's character. Do you think Bas has managed to achieve that? Tell us in the comments!
#12
Fayum Mummy Portraits
#13
George Washington
#14
Fayum Mummy Portraits
Eulalie Grace 5 years ago
I love Fayum Mummy portraits. Very Romanesque - because they were. So much like the portraits found in Pompeii
#15
Fayum Mummy Portraits
#17
Elizabeth I, Queen Of England
Jordan Westall 5 years ago
It doesn’t look like the artist did anything different from the original painting
#18
Jan Van Eyck
#19
Sandro Botticelli
#20
Alfred E. Newman (Mad Magazine)
Add New Image
What do you think ?
Laura Maeflower 5 years ago
I love how real faces aren't symmetrical, there's so much character in faces and in these portrayals.
ܐܝܠܝ ܦܝܠܐ 4 years ago
This foolish designer deliberately drew the face of Christ ugly while Christ was handsome and majestic, white in complexion and with golden hair and heavenly eyes, as described by the governor of Judaism in a letter to Caesar of Rome.
Aizat Bhri 3 years ago
I'm a Muslim from Malaysia, I don't know about the golden hair, but I agree with you on the white in complexion, majestic, and handsome Levantine man. Prophet Isa A.S (Jesus), Peace be Upon Him.
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Saymé Perez 5 years ago
I loved this!! Scientifically, Jesus wouldn't look like that, but taking he based his work in the "classical" image of him, it looks very similar!! Nice job!!
Kathi Keegan Chang 5 years ago
Love the idea of what they really look like, but Alfred E Newman looks like..... welll A.E.M.!!
Jackie Wacky 5 years ago
These are amazing, and really quite believable. I liked Napoleon and George Washington. The mummy portraits were incredible, and looked very Arabic.
Loki’s Lil Butter Knife 5 years ago
These were all incredibly well done and really fascinating. I love how the artists still kept some of elements from the original paintings (the Mad magazine kid was the stuff of nightmares though).
Laura Maeflower 5 years ago
I love how real faces aren't symmetrical, there's so much character in faces and in these portrayals.
ܐܝܠܝ ܦܝܠܐ 4 years ago
This foolish designer deliberately drew the face of Christ ugly while Christ was handsome and majestic, white in complexion and with golden hair and heavenly eyes, as described by the governor of Judaism in a letter to Caesar of Rome.
Aizat Bhri 3 years ago
I'm a Muslim from Malaysia, I don't know about the golden hair, but I agree with you on the white in complexion, majestic, and handsome Levantine man. Prophet Isa A.S (Jesus), Peace be Upon Him.
Load More Replies... Saymé Perez 5 years ago
I loved this!! Scientifically, Jesus wouldn't look like that, but taking he based his work in the "classical" image of him, it looks very similar!! Nice job!!
Kathi Keegan Chang 5 years ago
Love the idea of what they really look like, but Alfred E Newman looks like..... welll A.E.M.!!
Jackie Wacky 5 years ago
These are amazing, and really quite believable. I liked Napoleon and George Washington. The mummy portraits were incredible, and looked very Arabic.
Loki’s Lil Butter Knife 5 years ago
These were all incredibly well done and really fascinating. I love how the artists still kept some of elements from the original paintings (the Mad magazine kid was the stuff of nightmares though).
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