05/30/2026
Our “Art is History” exhibition ends SATURDAY, MAY 30th! Don’t miss out - this one’s for the books (history books, that is).
Raúl Eduardo Stolkiner, better known as RES, (Argentina, 1957) is a conceptual and fine-art photographer based in Buenos Aires. In his series “Conatus”, produced in collaboration with Constanza Piaggio, photographs are recreations of iconic paintings by artists like da Vinci and Picasso. The images are not exact copies as RES made alterations to the original works that reinterpret and recontextualize the subject through contemporary perspectives on philosophy, politics and spirituality.
The work seen here is a painstaking recreation of Leonardo da Vinci’s painting “Lady with an Ermine”. In the process of translating the original work from canvas to photograph, RES makes unexpected changes that reinterpret and re-contextualize the subject and its themes. Although renowned for his genius, da Vinci had difficulty rendering the painted hand of his sitter. In this modern interpretation, the ermine is updated with a pig’s head and—noting the sitter’s deformed hand of Leonardo’s sitter—RES created an unusual hand of his own. Perhaps this gives us a clue as to why he chose the pig’s head as a substitute for the ermine. As the pig’s eye gazes directly at the viewer we are reminded of the old expression “in a pigs eye,” referring to something not true. RES’ large-scale photograph is powerful and brooding, yet strangely familiar, like fragments of history that one struggles to remember.
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RES (Raúl Eduardo Stolkiner) & Constanza Piaggio
La Dama, 2005
Lamda print
37.5” x 29.5” unframed
39.5” x 31.5” framed
Edition of 10
