The Beauty Between Them A deformed

The Beauty Between Them

A deformed couple facing each other Wenceslaus Hollar, after Leonardo da Vinci, 1645 Etching, second state of two The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Object 17.50.18-209.

https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/360761

Wenceslaus Hollar's 1645 etching, after Leonardo da Vinci, depicts two figures facing one another with deliberately exaggerated facial features. The work explores a striking encounter through distortion, expression, and close observation.

The Beauty Between Them asks a simple question: What if beauty exists in the eyes of the person looking at you?

Inspired by Hollar's A deformed couple facing each other, I kept the figures' distinctive features rather than correcting or beautifying them. Instead, I transformed the world around their encounter. Their shared gaze becomes the source of warmth, tenderness, and beauty, as though the way they see each other changes reality itself.

I wanted the work to challenge the idea that beauty is an objective quality, and instead explore it as something created through recognition, affection, and perception.