Anytime and anywhere in this world of ours, we crack and sometimes even lose our minds over the alchemy behind algorithms and elixirs that might just make us bigger, better, bolder, smarter, stronger and younger.

This search has even extended to the art industry, where Dr. Wheelock is convinced that he has discovered…*drum rolls… the earliest representation of Rembrandt in a 1624 painting entitled The Card Players by Jan Lievens. (Full Story)

Let’s look at the central figure wearing a blue cloak whom Wheelock believes is Rembrandt at age 16.

 

Now cross reference the above with Rembrandt’s 1629 Self Portrait in a Gorget, which is apparently the closest Rembrandt self-portait to the image in The Cardplayers.

I don’t know about you, but I have always wondered about the accuracy of portraits old and new. Alterations and enhancements whether by paintbrush or digital clicks, could very well obscure important details or conceal telling flaws.

8.1 degrees off the desired 81 degree angle between the center of our chin to the outer edge of the cheekbone, makes all the difference between Old Plain Jane and Young Agyness Deyne.

So perhaps until some geeky algo shoves Post-Modern Enlightenment in my skeptical face, I’m just going to sit on the fence and shut up about whether or not, in my humble and unsubstantiated opinion, Wheelock should be ‘convicted’ or convinced.



 thangdynasty is a work-in-progress maintained by an accidental equity trader whose brief foray into the world of investments turned out… not so brief. Although unmotivated by the senseless pursuit of money in and for itself, she remains sadistically intrigued by the complex anatomy stealthily at work behind the whole spectrum of Markets – Fine Art, Financial, Fish and Fools. A budding art collector and supporter of emerging artists, she slogs to prevent collateral damage to her bank account resulting from occasional manic art buying sprees. thangdynasty joue au Poker avec les marchés financiers de jour et essaye de se racheter de nuit en se montrant a la autour de son nom.