Life — April 5, 1923 — page 11: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# Analysis of "Had They Worked in the Modern Manner" This page presents four famous artworks reimagined in a modernist style—a satirical commentary on early 20th-century avant-garde art movements. **The artworks shown:** - "The Hunt" by Rubens (top left): his voluptuous figures rendered as abstract rounded forms - "The Angels" by Miller (top right): simplified into geometric shapes - "Moses" by Michelangelo (bottom left): transformed into an abstract sculptural form with minimal detail - "Man in Armor" by Rembrandt (bottom right): deconstructed into cubist/mechanical components The satire mocks how modernist artists stripped classical masterworks of their representational detail, reducing recognizable figures to abstract or geometric interpretations. The title suggests that applying these contemporary experimental techniques to Old Masters would result in barely recognizable, overly simplified compositions—criticizing modernism's departure from traditional artistic values.