Untitled (Medici Boy)

Location: The Estate of Joseph Cornell.

In addition to combining objects unsuitable for each other in a common space, Cornell also liked to compare different periods in his works. In the “Medici Boy”, the artist used a picture of the 15th century by the Italian artist Bernardino Pinturicchio called “Portrait of a Boy”. He made the fairly well-known painting work as a part of a modern gaming machine, surrounding it with small copies of the portrait, as well as numbers and letters. This idea played a large role in the development of American art, in particular, pop art, the representatives of which used works of art of past years to create their masterpieces.