One of the only paintings I got to photograph…

Visiting the Prado turned out to be a game of hide and seek with the security staff. It’s the very first time I entered a museum where it’s forbidden to take pictures. Even the Joconde gently agrees to be photographed in Paris (but no flash please). Sadly for them, it didn’t stop us (thug life) Looking at all those great paintings, I was stunned by the beauty of their protagonists. Their aesthetics and bodies looked too good to be true. While scrolling through my Instagram feed later, it suddenly dawned on me: are the people on these paintings real, or have they been filtered up like all of us? In today’s society in which photoshop has set unreachable beauty standards, were painters the pioneers of this phenomenon? After all, no one ever questionned the realness of paintings whereas intagram pictures are scanned to the very pixel. I mean, didn’t acne and cellulite exist back then? And what about all those muscular bodies: protein shakes or lying painters? Or maybe our past generations were simply more beautiful than us…(the awful truth) It seems only travelling time can help resolve this enigma, but in the meantime, I suggest Maybelline change their slogan to: maybe she’s born with it, maybe it’s a filter . .

Nota Bene: the painting looks nice but a filter was in order

© : San Sebastián, Christian Gottlieb Schick

Jordan

Easy-going 27 year-old bitch.