Ed Wheeler | Santa Classic

In a series of self-portraits dressed as Santa Claus, Philadelphia-based artist Ed Wheeler, photographer, incorporates himself in classical paintings from Botticelli to Caravaggio to Monet.

In so doing he transforms the masterworks of art history from the Renaissance to the Surrealists. Santa Classics, his derivative art series, is based on a digital photography process.

Wheeler’s goal is to pay homage to the original paintings while offering art lovers an additional reason to smile.

Francesco Hayez | The Kiss, 1859 | Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan

Léo Caillard, the photographer who dresses classical statues

Leo Caillard is a contemporary artist internationally recognized for the quality of his marble sculptures as well as for his digital creations at the cutting edge of new technologies.

Leo Caillard opens a dialogue between eras through the use of these two mediums and the unique aesthetic of his art, mixing figures from ancient statuary and abstract digital forms.

Born in Paris in 1985, he graduated from the prestigious Goblins school in 2006 then from fine arts in 2008.

He then left for New York for 2 years, the opportunity there to meet the contemporary art scene and start these first digital creations.

Martin Desjardins | The Four Captives, 1682-1686

The "Louis XIV Victory Monument", also known as "Four Prisoners" or "Four Defeated Nations", was an elaborate trophy memorial celebrating the military and domestic successes of the early decades of Louis XIV's personal rule, primarily those during the Franco-Dutch War of 1672–1678, on the Place des Victoires (Victories' Square) in central Paris.

It was designed and sculpted by Martin Desjardins (French sculptor and stuccoist of Dutch birth, 1637-1694) between 1682-1686 on a commission by François d'Aubusson, Duke of La Feuillade.

Martin Desjardins | Spain or Hope (detail) | Louvre Museum

Lytras Nikephoros | The Kiss (1878) at the Louvre

In "The Kiss", the scene is set in a courtyard, in which a slender girl is rising on the tips of her tows in order to kiss her beloved, whose head can be seen through the window high up.

The lily in the pot symbolises purity, while its slender stem echoes the slender girl’s motion. Ochre and white prevail, along with some red on the girl's fez.

The latter colour was a favourite of Nikephoros Lytras'.

The abandoned slipper suggests the girl's rush to meet her beloved, while at the same time marking space, that is, making us part of the scene. | Source: © National Gallery - Alexandros Soutsos Museum, Athens

Lytras Nikephoros | The Kiss, 1878 | National Gallery - Alexandros Soutsos Museum, Athens

Canaletto | The Molo Seen from the San Marco Basin, 1730

Canaletto | The Molo Seen from the San Marco Basin, 1730 | Louvre Museum, Paris

Canaletto (1697-1768)🎨 painted some ten versions of this subject, the most similar to this one being in the Uffizi in Florence.

The prototype for the series can be dated to around 1730.

Beginning in the 15th century, and especially in the 18th century, Venetian painters delighted in depicting parts of their city in exact detail.

The Rome-trained painter Luca Carlevaris (1663-1730) adopted the tradition in Venice and handed it on to his apprentice Antonio Canal, who combined it with experience gained from his father, a theatre set designer.

Georges de la Tour | The Cheat with the Ace of Diamonds, 1635

The only diurnal painting by Georges de La Tour in the Louvre along with the Saint Thomas, the Cheat illustrates a theme that was frequently taken up in the wake of Caravaggio.

The young man is subjected here to three major temptations according to 17th-century moral standards: gambling, wine and lust.

Another version with notable variations is known to exist, the Cheat with the Ace of Clubs (Fort Worth, Kimbell Art Museum).

Eugène Delacroix | The Entry of the Crusaders into Constantinople, 1840

The Entry of the Crusaders in Constantinople / Entrée des Croisés à Constantinople or The Crusaders Entering Constantinople is a large painting by Eugène Delacroix (1798-1863).

It was commissioned by Louis-Philippe in 1838, and completed in 1840. Painted in oil on canvas, it is in the collection of the Musée du Louvre in Paris.