16th century portraits turned into photorealistic pictures

Rembrandt, Raphael, the Mona Lisa and The Blue Boy have all been rendered as photorealistic ‘selfie’ style portraits in a new digital art project, which shows how some of the most famous painters and paintings in history would have looked had camera technology been invented in the 16th century.

 The photorealistic images of the Mona Lisa and The Blue Boy, and the self-portraits by grandmasters Rembrandt and Raphael used a complex combination of skilled photography and styling of models as well as digital manipulation, in a project commissioned by Yesterday to celebrate Raiders of the Lost Art , which tells the stories behind missing masterpieces including the Mona Lisa.

The famous painting was stolen in 1911 in an Italian heist and not recovered for two years.

Each of the portraits was first painstakingly photographed using a lookalike model with styling and makeup to match the original painting, before final touches were made by a digital artist to create the best recreation of the iconic compositions – each taking a total of 36 hours to complete.