The Temporary Portraits are a metaphor for the transitory, ephemeral nature of the web.

While classic portraits once aimed to create an effigy of the person portrayed to leave to posterity, today, with new technological advances, portraits have been transformed into a commonplace, often banal practice (selfies are a prime example).

Moreover, even the most noble of images, like a face portrayed by Raphael, loses its aura once it’s absorbed by the web.

If we dig deep into that digital picture, we discover that it’s made of many pixels that are all equal and entirely interchangeable—the same pixels that conceptual artist Lawrence Weiner talked about in a 2012 interview: “In the digital world we live in, there is no pixel who thinks they’re better than any other pixel.”

The Temporary Portraits series is composed of 50 NFT clips that are a tribute to fifteenth and sixteenth-century portraiture (Italian and Flemish in particular).

I Temporary Portraits sono una metafora della natura transitoria ed effimera del web.

Se il ritratto classico mirava a restituire una effigie universale del soggetto raffigurato da lasciare ai posteri, oggi, con le nuove tecnologie, il ritratto si è trasformato in una pratica comune e spesso banale (basti pensare al fenomeno dei selfie).

Una volta fagocitata dal web, del resto, anche la più nobile delle immagini, come un volto ritratto da Raffaello, perde la sua aura.

Se scaviamo a fondo in quella immagine scopriamo che è fatta di tanti pixel tutti uguali ed interscambiabili tra loro, gli stessi pixel di cui parlava, in un’intervista del 2012, l’artista concettuale Lawrence Weiner: “Nel mondo digitale in cui viviamo, non c’è pixel che pensi di essere migliore di qualsiasi altro pixel”.

I Temporary Portraits sono 50 clip NFT che omaggiano la ritrattistica del XV e XVI secolo (soprattutto italiana e fiamminga).

Domenico Ghirlandaio (Portrait of a Young Woman) | Temporary Portrait № 01

Andrea del Castagno (Portrait of a Man) | Temporary Portrait № 02

Rogier van der Weyden (Portrait of a Man) | Temporary Portrait № 03

Antonio del Pollaiolo (Portrait of a Young Woman) | Temporary Portrait № 04

Albrecht Dürer (Portrait of Jakob Muffel) | Temporary Portrait № 05

Domenico Ghirlandaio (Portrait of a Girl) | Temporary Portrait № 06

Raffaello Sanzio (Portrait of Francesco Maria della Rovere) | Temporary Portrait № 07

Hans Holbein the Younger (Portrait of a Lady) | Temporary Portrait № 08

Hugo van der Goes (Portrait of a Man) | Temporary Portrait № 09

Pietro Perugino (Portrait of Monk Baltasar of Vallombrosa Abbey) | Temporary Portrait № 10

Jean Clouet (Portrait of Guy XVII, Comte de Laval) | Temporary Portrait № 11

Piero della Francesca (Portrait of the Duchess Battista Sforza) | Temporary Portrait № 12

Rosso Fiorentino (Portrait of a Man in Black) | Temporary Portrait № 13

Hans Holbein the Younger (Portrait of Margaret Wyatt Lady Lee) | Temporary Portrait № 14

Raffaello Sanzio (Self Portrait) | Temporary Portrait № 15

Sandro Botticelli (Portrait of a Young Man) | Temporary Portrait № 16

Giovanni Bellini (Portrait of a Young Woman) | Temporary Portrait № 17

Hans Memling (Portrait of a Man with a Roman Medal) | Temporary Portrait № 18

Piero del Pollaiolo (Portrait of a Woman) | Temporary Portrait № 19

Rogier van der Weyden (Portrait of a Woman) | Temporary Portrait № 20

Filippo Lippi (Portrait of a Youth) | Temporary Portrait № 21

Leonardo da Vinci (Portrait of Ginevra de Benci) | Temporary Portrait № 22

Hans Memling (Portrait of a Young Man) | Temporary Portrait № 23

Agnolo Bronzino (Portrait of Laura Battiferri) | Temporary Portrait № 24

Albrecht Dürer (Portrait of Michael Wolgemut) | Temporary Portrait № 25

Lucas Cranach the Elder (Portrait of Judith) | Temporary Portrait № 26

Jan Gossaert (Portrait of Francisco de los Cobos y Molina) | Temporary Portrait № 27

Raffaello Sanzio (Portrait of a Woman – La Gravida) | Temporary Portrait № 28

Antonello da Messina (Portrait of a Man) | Temporary Portrait № 29

Rogier van der Weyden (Portrait of a Woman with a Winged Bonnet) | Temporary Portrait № 30

Parmigianino (Portrait of Cecilia Gozzadini) | Temporary Portrait № 31

Hans Holbein the Younger (Portrait of Hermann von Wedigh III) | Temporary Portrait № 32

Agnolo Bronzino (Portrait of a Young Man) | Temporary Portrait № 33

Sandro Botticelli (Portrait of a Young Man holding a Medallion) | Temporary Portrait № 34

Anthonis Mor (Portrait of Sir Huybrecht Beuckeleer) | Temporary Portrait № 35

Lorenzo di Credi (Portrait of a Young Woman) | Temporary Portrait № 36

Raffaello Sanzio (Portrait of Baldassarre Castiglione) | Temporary Portrait № 37

Hans Holbein the Younger (Portrait of a Lady with a Squirrel) | Temporary Portrait № 38

Agnolo Bronzino (Portrait of Eleanor of Toledo) | Temporary Portrait № 39

Hans Memling (Portrait of Maria Maddalena Baroncelli) | Temporary Portrait № 40

Anonymous Artist (Portrait of a Man) | Temporary Portrait № 41

Raffaello Sanzio (Portrait of a Young Woman – La Fornarina) | Temporary Portrait № 42

Lorenzo Lotto (Portrait of a Young Man with a Lamp) | Temporary Portrait № 43

Anthonis Mor (Portrait of Sir Thomas Gresham) | Temporary Portrait № 44

Hans Holbein the Younger (Portrait of Jane Seymour) | Temporary Portrait № 45

Raffaello Sanzio (Portrait of a Woman – La Muta) | Temporary Portrait № 46

Hans Memling (Portrait of Tommaso Portinari) | Temporary Portrait № 47

Lucas Cranach (Portrait of a Woman) | Temporary Portrait № 48

Petrus Christus (Portrait of a Carthusian) | Temporary Portrait № 49

Raffaello Sanzio (Portrait of Young Woman with Unicorn) | Temporary Portrait № 50