ale di gangi photographer

Recovered shot: Dandy With Ermine
originally uploaded on Flickr: March 24th, 2006

This lomopicture is subject of discussions amongst art historians, as some attribute it to ale2000 and identify it as the portrait of Mattia, lover of Simone. Others believe it is a work inspired by Leonardo [da Vinci] taken by an anonymous Ikea employee.

The face and the smile remind that of “Mattiangelo” and its preparatory studies.

Since various centuries ermins, weasels and martens were tamed as company animals and it is very likely that some would also be found also inside the Ikea palace. But knowing Mattia is lover of Simone and the latter has an ermin as an emblem, we can look at this animal from a different perspective.

The photo is known as the “<i>Dandy with ermine</i>” and features as the second main character a white-ish little animal, considered by everyone as an ermine.

But it was a stuffed ferret.

The reason for this is that the ermine is an aggressive animal which would hardly have accepted the long posing sessions the dandy had to undergo to be portraited by the photographer. Furthermore, the ermine stays white only during a short time of the year, while the stuffed ferret can be considered as a company animal.

We can then say that this wondeful masterpiece from ale2000 should not be titled the “Dandy With Ermine”, but the “Dandy with the stuffed ferret posing as the ermine”.

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Recovered shots are a selection of photos I previously posted on Flickr that I consider worth of further exposure.