It’s no secret that art history is having a bit of a renaissance at the moment. Thanks to Instagram, ancient and classical art are experiencing a surge in popularity — suddenly, 16th century portraiture and Pre-Raphelite paintings are trendy again, who knew! Now, Gucci have decided to hop on the bandwagon with their latest Insta venture, @guccibeauty.
Since his appointment three years ago as the Creative Director of Gucci, Alessandro Michele has positioned art at the forefront of Gucci’s aesthetic — one needs to only take a look at his recent SS18 Utopian Fantasy campaign, which riffed on art history heavyweights such as Hieronymus Bosch, John Everett Millais, and Jan van Eyck, for proof. @guccibeauty is an extension of his ongoing art history-infused vision — Michele carefully curates @guccibeauty, along with the help of a plethora of artists, art critics and writers, who contribute to the captions and extensive research accompanying each post.
Selecting paintings and art works spanning art history, @guccibeauty chronicles the evolution of the notion of beauty, and the varying ideals of beauty that have been held by different communities and civilisations. As the Gucci Beauty website states, “Through this collection it’s possible to observe how beauty has no one strict definition but is instead an exchange of seeing and being seen”. And with posts featuring Japanese ukiyo-e woodblock prints side by side mummy portraits from Roman Egypt, and noblewomen from the Elizabethan court alongside empresses from the Muslim Mughal empire, the account succeeds in its depiction of the shifting nature of beauty, and its attempt to deconstruct deeply ingrained biases and prejudices regarding what is considered beautiful. With the feed updated daily, @guccibeauty recontextualises historical art works with the purpose of breaking down superficial and half-baked concepts of beauty, all the while serving up some serious #followfriday feels.