Iris van Herpen and Nick Knight, “Hypnosis” (2019)

Amos Nattini, Purgatorio 31 (1921)

“I stumbled upon this image, titled ‘Hypnosis’, while looking through a fashion editorial earlier this week. The shot features model Jourdan Dunn dressed in Iris Van Herpen. It was lensed by Nick Knight and styled by Edward Enninful. The image will be included in British Vogue’s current November issue [2019].

“The shot immediately reminds me of Dante’s entrance into earthly Paradise (in particular, it reminds me of Amos Nattini’s rendition of the scene). The similarity between the colors used, compositions of the frames, and the depictions of Beatrice is, to me, undeniable.” – Contributor Wade Pryor

Pictured at right is one of Amos Nattini’s images of Earthly Paradise (Purgatorio 31), for comparison. The woman in the image resembles an amalgamation of Nattini’s griffin and his representations of Beatrice and Matelda.

Contributed by Wade Pryor (Harvard ’20)