GARMENT ONE: inspired by Virgin of the Rocks by Leonardo Da Vinci

My first dress is complete. The following account gives an insight into the process involved in developing this piece of work as a garment and why I chose to sample portraits by Da Vinci. Within this piece I have attempted to recreate colours and use symbolic imagery which whilst contemporary is relevant to the Renaissance period.

The female portrait researched for this piece is from ‘Virgin of the Rocks’ (1483) by Leonardo Da Vinci.  The detail of the face has been simplified and converted to black and white with the addition of a halftone dot structure and drawing into the shaded areas.

The dot pattern (which avoids moiré when silkscreen printed) on the skin of the face is replicated in the bubble effect background (each blue bubble having been drawn separately). The face has then been transformed again by mirroring and flipping. 
A combination of cherubic babies, one sampled from the painting ‘Madonna and Child’ by Leonardo Da Vinci and the other from ‘The Aldobrandini Madonna’ by Titian. 

The positioning of the Madonna and babies was important when cutting out the pattern for the front panel of the garment, as human faces were to remain the main focus of this ‘canvas’. The back panel of the garment is an abstract section of the Madonna’s ‘halo’ showing figurative nudes in close up and combined with a cerulean blue background - part of the robe. The ‘pyramidal’ positioning of the figures in my final design was important as it reflects the relationship between the mother and her children, gestures and glances reinforcing the ‘closeness’ of the maternal bond. The 'protecting' right hand is an original photographic image. 
This nurturing relationship can be seen in the original painting by Da Vinci and reflected the common ‘tri-lateral’ placement of figures used by other Renaissance artists.

The vibrancy of the blue tones in the fabric, due in part to the digital print (these tones are less strong in the silkscreen print) are intentional. I chose to represent this Madonna in blue (although I made several different digital variations) symbolising purity; i.e. The Virgin Mary; Madonna and Child; The Immaculate Conception. 
Renaissance artists’ used blue, brown and green pigments to represent ‘earth’ - natural hues. When producing the silkscreen version of this piece I increased the intensity of the blue for the background by printing a layer of iridescent ‘space blue’ pigment. The pigment not only the reflected the light but accentuated and framed the subject of the print.

(See ‘Women are weak, but Mother’s are strong’ blog entry).