In of one Pieter Bruegel the Elder's painting of 1569 "Wedding Dance in the Open Air" many figures are meticulously depicted wrirlng around at a wedding celebration.

It's just one example of the many thousands of paintings throughout history that show large crowds of people, their faces staring out across the centuries being carefully described in the days before photography.

"Here You Are in 1569" is the name given to a new image search that will find a depiction of your face in one of the multiples that have been carefully scanned and digitised in a giant database.

Here's how it works
You upload two well lit and photographed pics of your head and face, front view and profile. When the database finds the closest match possible, you are invited to pay a small fee to receive a reproduction of the original painting, with your face highlighted, from within the midst of the others depicted.

This will more than likely be contained in the work of some obscure mid 18th century painting, but a few will find themselves in a famous masterpiece like Rembrandt's "The Nightwatch" or as a disciple seated at one of the many versions of "The Last Supper".

You may of course find yourself gloriously resembling one of Bosch's demons, but pehaps will be satisfied to appear finely attired as a gentleman or lady in something like "A Private View at the Royal Academy, 1881" by William Powell Frith.
-- xenzag, Jul 11 2021

I was surprised to see no link https://en.wikipedi...Royal_Academy,_1881
[pashute, Jul 11 2021]

(?) I was surprised to see no link https://www.google....d+to+see+no+link%22
[pashute, Jul 11 2021]

https://lh3.googleu...nnualparissalon.jpg [xenzag, Jul 12 2021]

Me_20And_20My_20Chicken [xenzag, Jul 12 2021]

How to Use That Google App to Find Out What Piece of Art You Look Like https://nymag.com/i...ks-like-selfie.html
[xaviergisz, Jul 16 2021]

Easily bakeable [+]
-- pocmloc, Jul 11 2021


I would be surprised if most people have such a match. Your search is limited to detailed paintings of human faces that still survive and have been digitally scanned.

Can I interest you in our very discrete VoiceCo alteration services? We can do the painting OR your face! Or both!
-- Voice, Jul 12 2021


I would be equally surprised if many people don't find a match though anyone of non-white ethnicity may take a longer search. [see link of just one painting of numerous examples depicting a sea of faces]
-- xenzag, Jul 12 2021


[+] This can be extended to the faces which hold up brickwork and balconies, which would most likely make you related to Masons.
-- 4and20, Jul 12 2021


+ sounds like fun
-- xandram, Jul 12 2021


Here you are in Study after Velázquez's Portrait of Pope Innocent X
-- calum, Jul 12 2021


Meant to include that this idea is partner to the earlier one of finding a different kind of match. [see link Me And My Chicken]
-- xenzag, Jul 12 2021


Clever idea, and very doable, considering the rapid evolution of facial recognition AI.

Standing around even for an hour in Everytown/village/hamlet, Canada, you can see family resemblances emerge. I'm sure our 'colonies' carry forward traits conserved over time, such that our snooty neighbour Cumberbund III's second cousin looks so much like [MaxB]'s Sturton, you just 'know' with whom Great^6 Aunt Tillie canoodled in the 1569 Summer of Love.
-- Sgt Teacup, Jul 12 2021


Failing to find a suitable likeness related to [Sgt]*, for example, another nominal nominal fee may be paid to 'insert' customer's face (see Deep Fake).

*We are informed that we are very likely 'one of a kind', 'they broke the mold', and so on. We are unclear if this is a compliment. You may have experienced the same compliment/slur, thus the upgrade option.
-- Sgt Teacup, Jul 12 2021


So "You, in some elses's Ancient Painting"

Whatever happened to You, in someone else's vacation pictures"
-- theircompetitor, Jul 12 2021


Very clever. [+]
-- doctorremulac3, Jul 12 2021


//'they broke the mold'//

By "they", do you mean the Health & Safety staff, taking the mold away in hazmat suits, placing it carefully in a metal press, and then dissolving the fragments in hydrochloric acid?

(Someone has to be on Borg duty, right?).
-- pertinax, Jul 13 2021


Possibly, [pert]. I appreciate your carrying on the good works* of [8th] and [MB] where possible.

My birth was almost definitely attended by a Men In Black clean up crew, complete with neuralyzer to erase the memory that there was ever even a mold.

Whoops, I've said too much.

*good works = 'amusing, erudite smackdowns'
-- Sgt Teacup, Jul 13 2021


Another version of this could map the individual's pose or just their expressions against those found in great works (Judith doing her thing, Saturn munching, Truth clambering out her well), to allow participation by those whose faces don't resemble any face of a person who was back then regarded as sufficiently wealthy or interesting to get their picture did.
-- calum, Jul 13 2021



random, halfbakery