Simonetta's Shadow

The old painter Giorgio has long since locked away all his brushes and ideals. His Renaissance-inspired art is no longer appreciated in this world. He lives a serene life in Florence, until the moment when two encounters rekindle his passion for painting and the intensity of which slowly dissolves the bridge between dream and reality. Every evening he sits in front of his favorite cafeteria until late and watches the shadows cast by passers-by on the opposite church wall, comparing the outlines with paintings. He sees it as his task to sensitize those around him to art. Giorgio shares his impressions with his muse, the incredibly sensual Genoveva, who quickly falls under the spell of the Renaissance. One night, Giorgio sees a very special shadow that reminds him of the Renaissance beauty Simonetta Vespucci. This inspiration opens a door for Giorgio, blurring the line between reality and fantasy in a passionate conversation with ghosts from the past. Doubting his perception, he confides in his muse Genoveva, who sets out with Giorgio in search of the traces of his vision.

Ludwig Drahosch, born in Vienna in 1969, had already made more than two hundred anatomical drawings by the age of ten. Between the ages of fourteen and twenty he copied old masters in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna and appropriated the techniques of the Italian, Dutch and German Renaissance as well as those of the subsequent Baroque. As part of his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, he became acquainted with modern art from Arik Brauer and Hundertwasser, among others. In 1997 he received the Golden Füger Medal. At the same time, he studied and dealt intensively with philosophy in order to find out where many of the postmodern views that he did not understand came from. After twenty years of exhibitions (mainly in Los Angeles), he and his partner, the actress and director Nina C. Gabriel, took over the management of the Ateliertheater in Vienna. She also inspired him to create the character of Genoveva in his novella Simonetta's Shadow. Drahosch is currently making films and giving lectures such as The Present from the Renaissance Perspective.