Artist Bas Uterwijk Creates Realistic Portraits Of Historical Figures Using Artificial Intelligence

Digital artist creates realistic portraits of prominent people of the past using AI applications. And you’ll be surprised to discover that – unlike how they’re depicted by classical art – these historical figures don’t look too different from us. Photography was born in 1826 when French inventor Joseph Nicephore Niepce used the first camera obscura to take a photo of his family’s country home. Since then, photography has been the greatest tool in preserving and immortalizing memories of the past. But what did people before 1826 use to capture their precious moments back then?

Before photography was invented, people immortalize their likeness through paintings and sculptures. Heavily influenced by idealism, classical painters and sculptors tend to depict their subjects based on a standard of perfection rather than how they actually looked in real life. Dutch photographer and digital artist Bas Uterwijk decided to reconstruct paintings of historical figures using artificial intelligence applications. With the aid of innovative neural network reconstructions, he transforms iconic paintings into realistic portraits depicting some of the most significant figures in history in their most realistic likeness.how the famous

Digital Artist Transforms Paintings And Sculptures Into Realistic Portraits

Napoleon Bonaparte

His series of digital realistic portraits started in 2019 when he saw the famous painting of Napoleon Bonaparte. He then wondered how the famous emperor would have looked like if his image was captured by a camera. That’s when the idea of digital reconstruction came up to him. His first attempt on Napoleon was good but is nowhere near perfect. He tried it again after a few months and applying the new features on the software he’s using, he was able to come up with a better result.

Vincent van Gogh

George Washington

Rembrandt

Uterwijk has since reconstructed several paintings from the ancient Egypt and the Renaissance to the 18th century Europe. His realistic portraits are not just limited to paintings but to sculptures as well. Furthermore, he also applies his digital manipulations to bring masterpieces to life such as Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, Michelangelo’s David sculpture, and Sando Boticelli’s Venus.

Mona Lisa

Isabella Brant, First Wife of Peter Paul Rubens

Gaius Julius Caesar

Fayum Mummy Portrait

Marcus Aurelius

The Birth of Venus

Caligula

Aphrodite

Alexander the Great

William Shakespeare

Lady Liberty

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Tutankhamun

Queen Tiye

Nefertiti

Jesus Christ, based on Leonardo da Vinci’s ‘Salvator Mundi’

Juliet Capulet, from William Shakespeare’s ‘Romeo and Juliet’

Elizabeth Tudor

Ludwig van Beethoven

Cleopatra

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