Artsy Insight: Cross-Cultural Perseverance

During the Italian Renaissance, Piero della Francesca painted portraits of the Duke and Duchess of Urbino, choosing to depict their profiles on account of the Duke having lost an eye during a tournament.

In 2006, in response to these iconic portraits, the Argentine duo Res and Constanza Piaggio posed in their own photographic version of the painting as an exploration of the way an artwork can transcend time and culture.

Somewhere in between, (1981, to be precise), Pakistani artist Aisha Rahim painted a complementary pair of portraits. Whether or not her work was in reference to the original Renaissance painting, collectively, these three images—from three different cultures and eras—seem to champion the concept of the persistence of an image.