Balnea Vina Venus

Balnea Vina Venus 2005 What is it that makes a painting more or less erotic? The subject? The pose? The beauty of the sitter? Surely all three but there are other  important elements as well. The  “Tepidarium” by Sir Lawrence Alma Tadema, painted in 1881, is made up of a number of elements that  would...

Venus of the Sherds

Venus of the Sherds  2005 One of the greatest paintings of the Renaissance, Sleeping Venus is an unusual, not to say mysterious work, even for an out of the ordinary painter like Giorgione. The work was unfinished on his death at 34 of plague to be completed by Titian who then went on to paint similar Venuses of...

Fascisca

Fascisca 2005 This is the second photograph I have done based on Ingres’ Grande Odalisque (the other is Casalisca). Ingres is one of those artists who can give a certain comfort to artists who have passed middle age as several of his most famous works were painted towards the end of long life. The Turkish...

Plume Fatale

Plume Fatale 2009 -  based on Chloe by Jules Lefebvre (1875) The painting Chloe, which could be the most famous artwork in Australia, hangs not in a gallery or private collection but, unusually for a work of art, in a Melbourne pub, Young and Jackson's. The Parisian model, Marie, committed suicide after a tragic love affair...

More Lentils, Less Lust

More Lentils, Less Lust 2009 Lautrec was an enthusiastic frequenter of brothels, as were most of his contemporaries, so nothing unusual there; but he painted the women and occasionally their clients. He seems to have had a faiblesse for redheads. No academic nudes these. Henri was not an attractive man: too much in-breeding in the aristocracy and a...

Dido

Dido 2009 Turner painted Dido founding Carthage using a golden palette which has  influenced me in this image, she was also painted by Guercino in a very theatrical setting, Rubens and others. However, I was  more inspired by music: Purcell's "Dido and Aeneas" and Dido's mournful lament "When I am laid in earth". Berlioz  also...

Correspondent

Correspondent 2006 The lovely shawl made her appear modern to the public of the time - it is Japanese and ‘Japonisme’ was all the rage - it is curious that the addition of clothing to a nude tends to make the subject more risqué - Wilson Steer never dared to exhibit Seated Nude in a...

Phryne

Phryne herself is an interesting subject and was in real life something of a muse. A woman of great beauty, loose morals and considerable astuteness (who would be surprised if she was not the instigator of the courtroom spectacle?). One day she was swimming naked in the sea when she was spotted amongst the waves...

Flora Furiosa

Flora Furiosa 2007 In 2007 I met a young girl of nineteen in my gallery in Orvieto on her last day in Italy who bore such a striking resemblance to Flora that I asked her immediately if she would be interested in posing for me. The only problem was that Imogen could not live further...

Freya

Freya 2010 The necklace was made by four dwarves who would only consent to give it away if she married each of them for a night and a day. Although the necklace enhanced her beauty, the husband Odur was unsurprisingly miffed at this  brief but quadruple adultery and deserted her to wander the world over....

Danae

The myth of Danae has been treated very differently by artists. The original tale lauding Zeus' un-stoppability, ingenuity and sexual prowess metamorphosed in the middle ages to a righteous tale of Marian purity in which Danae prefigured the Virgin Mary. Later still the Renaissance painter Fiorentino cast a talismanic medallion of a hopeful Danae lying...

Alter Ego

Alter Ego 2007 I wanted to do a photo on the lake and this was the ideal subject. It was mid October but although a grey day, warm enough. I used a flash with a coloured gel to create something of the warmth of the original and enhance the baroque feel of a radiant subject...