Natalia Druzhinkina explores how Renaissance imagery can take on new forms through contemporary art. Her project on Leonardo da Vinci’s John the Baptist moves between painting, drawing, collage and installation, bringing familiar gestures and symbols into everyday materials.
Her practice extends to demonstrations, lectures and television master classes. Here, a selection of works and her own account of the project show how she approaches light, the drawn line and the meaning of an image.
“The thread becomes the drawing line.”Natalia Druzhinkina · on her interpretation of Leonardo
Modern interpretation of Leonardo da Vinci’s John the Baptist
How might Leonardo’s image be reinterpreted with the tools and materials of contemporary life? Druzhinkina follows its shifting light, upward-pointing hand and symbolic details into a sequence of paintings, collages and objects.
Her starting point is sfumato — the subtle transition between light and shadow. From there, the project turns to the gesture and the line: thread can trace a hand across a surface, while transparent film becomes a place to draw angels and other symbols.
Interpretation in modern paintingNatalia Druzhinkina
Painting & collage
Painting & collage
Painted surfaces and collaged fragments place Renaissance figures within new compositions. In the drawings, the movement of a hand, the outline of a face and the rhythm of the line become subjects in their own right.
Modern interpretation — figure and gestureNatalia DruzhinkinaModern interpretation — painted figureNatalia DruzhinkinaModern interpretation — composition INatalia DruzhinkinaModern interpretation — composition IINatalia DruzhinkinaDrawing & collage — study 1Natalia DruzhinkinaDrawing & collage — study 2Natalia DruzhinkinaDrawing & collage — study 3Natalia DruzhinkinaDrawing & collage — study 4Natalia DruzhinkinaDrawing & collage — study 5Natalia DruzhinkinaDrawing & collage — study 6Natalia DruzhinkinaDrawing & collage — study 7Natalia DruzhinkinaDrawing & collage — study 8Natalia DruzhinkinaDrawing & collage — study 9Natalia DruzhinkinaDrawing & collage — study 10Natalia Druzhinkina
Installations
Installations
In Gadget for Leonardo da Vinci, a reproduced face appears on a digital device. Other arrangements bring together the attributes of John the Baptist: a cross, a lamb, a vessel and the drawn image.
These objects translate the project’s visual references into physical materials, allowing the symbol and its contemporary setting to be seen together.
Gadget for Leonardo da VinciNatalia DruzhinkinaAttributes of John the Baptist — installationNatalia DruzhinkinaAttributes of John the Baptist — another viewNatalia Druzhinkina
Symbols & materials
Symbols & materials
Angels, wings and other symbols are reworked through drawings and everyday objects. Druzhinkina describes transparent film and marker, thread and grass as materials through which familiar imagery can enter contemporary life.
Symbol study 1Natalia DruzhinkinaSymbol study 2Natalia DruzhinkinaSymbol study 3Natalia DruzhinkinaSymbol study 4Natalia DruzhinkinaSymbol study 5Natalia DruzhinkinaSymbol study 6Natalia Druzhinkina
Light & sfumato
Druzhinkina’s project also explores the meditative character of Leonardo’s light-and-shadow modelling through video art. This still image presents that part of her interpretation.
Sfumato — still image from the video-art interpretationNatalia Druzhinkina
