Animation brings classical paintings to stunning life

Artist and animator Rino Stefano Tagliafierro has used CGI techniques to create an animated love letter to classical art.

Beauty, asserts Italian artist and animator Rino Stefano Tagliafierro, is fleeting — and, although the art of yesteryear captures it, it's of moments frozen in time, lacking the warmth and humanity of movement.

In his short film Beauty, Tagliafierro has taken over 100 classical paintings, from landscape to romantic to Pre-Raphaelite, and applied his experience in digital animation to bring them to life.

"In this interpretation by Rino Stefano Tagliafierro, this beauty is brought back to the expressive force of gestures that he springs from the immobility of canvas, animating a sentiment lost to the fixedness masterpieces," wrote Giuliano Corti in the piece's manifesto.

"It's as though these images which the history of art has consigned to us as frozen movement can today come back to life thanks to the fire of digital invention...They are, from the inception of a romantic sunrise in which big black birds fly to the final sunset beyond gothic ruins that complete the piece, a work of fleeting time."

To supplement the video (which, it ought to be stated, is rather NSFW, so bear that in mind before clicking "Play" during your lunch break — we recommend you save it to watch at home), Tagliafierro has also compiled a massive repository of gifs for most of the animations. You can check it out here.

Via vimeo.com