Could an 18th-century lady clutch an ice cream cone or a baroque princess look at a smartphone screen? It may sound like a dream, yet new takes on old portraits demonstrate the blurred line between tradition and modernity. And yet, across centuries, the impulse to capture one’s image—heavy with style, class, and symbolic import—is unchanged.
Aristocracy and Staged Identity — Posed Portraits of the Past and Present
18th-century portraits were carefully rehearsed performances. This wasn’t just “themselves”—their pose, clothes, and props conveyed their status. Jewellery, lace, and hand-embroidered gowns were visual pronouncements of prestige and power. That same principle holds for Instagram and social media today. Our selfies and professional photos aren’t so different from these historical portraits—outfits, backgrounds, props, and even facial features are picked to match and hint at what we want people to perceive about us. Is there even a huge difference at all?
Elegance vs. Playful Reinterpretation
Contemporary imitations of classic portraits show women with regal stares, draped in period pieces, clenching completely anachronistic objects—a smartphone or an ice cream cone. It’s a fun riff on a long-held tradition, but it also illustrates how we depict people in art constantly changing to suit the moment. Where a portrait used to be a painting to the last stroke, that’s the perfect version of yourself—now, it’s the same thing, just in the digital world. Filters and retouching, choosing the best shot, are the distant cousins of 18th-century master painters’ painstaking craftsmanship.
From Aristocratic Salons to Smartphone Screens
Once a privilege of the elite, portraits are now available in a few taps. Though the medium has changed, the purpose remains: a picture is still a vehicle for self-presentation and personal storytelling. So, what separates us? Era, technology, and format. And what connects us? The wish to be remembered and seen in our finest light—a crown on our head or a smartphone in our hand.
Written by Kamila Krzyzaniak
Images Ai Shutterstock
