Article: From Hegra to Riyadh: The Italian Renaissance Reimagined in Gold for Saudi Arabia’s Finest Interiors
From Hegra to Riyadh: The Italian Renaissance Reimagined in Gold for Saudi Arabia’s Finest Interiors
The Italian Renaissance changed forever how the world understands beauty, the human body, light, space and emotion. Centuries later, its visual language is still very much alive. It is not a historical style to copy, but a source of inspiration to reinterpret. Few countries are writing a new chapter of their cultural story as boldly as Saudi Arabia. In Diriyah, the Diriyah Contemporary Art Biennale has brought artists from around the world to Riyadh. In Jeddah, the Islamic Arts Biennale fills the Aga Khan Award-winning Western Hajj Terminal with historic masterpieces and contemporary works side by side. And in AlUla, the desert has become one of the most spectacular stages for art anywhere on earth.
For the French-American artist and photographer of Italian descent Zack Zublena, the Renaissance becomes a contemporary visual dialogue. Through photography, collage and mixed techniques, he takes classical figures, golden light, mythology and sculptural forms out of their original context and gives them a place in the interiors of today.
Discover the Italian Renaissance collection: works that sit between classical beauty, mythology and golden light.
This approach does not try to recreate Renaissance painting. It asks a different question: what happens when the visual language of the Italian Renaissance is seen through the lens of contemporary fine art photography?
When Photography Meets the Renaissance
The Renaissance was an age of extraordinary experimentation. Artists explored anatomy, perspective, proportion, architecture, mythology and the relationship between the human figure and the space around it.
In Saudi Arabia, the dialogue between Arabia and the classical world is carved in stone. At Hegra, the Kingdom's first UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Nabataeans cut more than a hundred monumental tombs into the sandstone two thousand years ago. Their decorated façades blend Arabian forms with the columns and pediments of the Greek and Roman world, the same classical vocabulary the Renaissance would later rediscover. Today the Royal Commission for AlUla protects this extraordinary landscape. Nearby, the mirrored walls of Maraya reflect the canyons of Wadi Ashar like a contemporary sculpture.
Photography offers another way to explore the same ideas. In Zack Zublena's work, the camera is a tool for building images, not just recording reality. The human figure can look monumental, mysterious, almost architectural. Gold turns skin into something close to gilded sculpture. Shadows create the depth of a fresco.
Archangel Michael, Golden Guardian brings several of these ideas together: the monumental figure, the symbolism of wings and the power of gold. The work speaks to Renaissance iconography while remaining unmistakably contemporary.
Light as a Language
In Renaissance art, light was never just a technical element. It was a language. A face emerging from darkness could become the centre of an entire composition. A hand lit against a shadowed background suddenly became symbolic.
Saudi architecture has always understood this. In Historic Jeddah, the Gate to Makkah, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the coral-stone houses of Al-Balad are dressed with rawasheen. These carved wooden lattice windows filter the Red Sea sun into soft patterns of light and shadow, while keeping the rooms cool and private. Gold, too, runs deep in the Arabian Peninsula. Mahd adh Dhahab, whose name means "cradle of gold", has been mined since ancient times. Zack Zublena works with controlled light and deep contrast that give his images an almost painterly quality. The gold recalls gilded frames, precious ornament and the warm glow of desert stone at sunset. In photography, it takes on a new physical quality: reflective, atmospheric and contemporary.
Anatomy of the Soul explores the relationship between the human body and the atmosphere around it. The figure stops being the portrait of a specific person. It becomes a study of form, identity and the link between the physical and the symbolic.
The Human Body as Sculpture
One of the strongest connections between the Renaissance and contemporary fine art photography is how they treat the human body. Renaissance artists studied anatomy with extraordinary precision, inspired by the sculpture of antiquity.
Photography approaches the same subject from another direction. Through pose, light, framing and composition, a photographed figure becomes sculptural. Without unnecessary detail, the eye focuses on silhouette, muscle, gesture and empty space.
Winged Essence takes this idea further. It joins the human figure with wings and a bold visual language of gold and blue. The work recalls religious and mythological imagery without belonging to a single era.
Wings, Myth and the Renaissance Imagination
Wings have lived in the imagination of Western art for centuries. Angels, messengers and allegorical figures fill Renaissance painting and sculpture. In Saudi Arabia, wings belong to one of the oldest and most honoured traditions of the Arabian Peninsula: falconry. UNESCO recognises it as living heritage. Every winter, the King Abdulaziz Falconry Festival, organised by the Saudi Falcons Club north of Riyadh, gathers falconers and their birds from across the Gulf. The falcon, with its wings open against the desert sky, remains a powerful symbol of patience, strength and nobility.
Wings can also be read in a more abstract way: as an image of freedom, transformation, desire, transcendence, or the longing to go beyond the physical world.
Wings of Desire plays with this symbolic vocabulary. Film lovers will recognise the title of Wim Wenders' classic. Here the wings are far more than ornament. They make the figure ambiguous, suspended between earthly beauty and something almost celestial.
That ambiguity is at the heart of contemporary readings of the Renaissance. The goal is not to imitate the past, but to let its symbols take on new meanings.
A Beauty That Does Not Age
Renaissance images still move us because they see beauty as something bigger than fashion. Their faces, bodies and gestures speak of universal themes: desire, spirituality, identity, love and the search for meaning.
Symphony of Her Soul approaches the figure through emotion and atmosphere. With its Venetian mask and sheet music, the image creates a contemporary story in which music, movement and the body merge. It echoes the remarkable journey of the Saudi National Orchestra and Choir. Through the "Marvels of Saudi Orchestra" tour of the Saudi Music Commission, it has carried the Kingdom's music to the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, the Metropolitan Opera in New York, the Sydney Opera House and the Palace of Versailles. At home, it fills the King Fahd Cultural Centre in Riyadh and the mirrored hall of Maraya in AlUla.
From the Italian Masters to Contemporary Interiors
The great masters of the Renaissance created for architecture: palaces, places of gathering and private residences. Their compositions were designed to speak with the space that held them. Saudi Arabia carries the same ambition today. In Diriyah, the mud-brick palaces of At-Turaif, another UNESCO World Heritage Site, inspire a new generation of Najdi architecture across the capital.
Contemporary fine art photography can play the same role. A large-format work becomes an architectural element. It can live in a penthouse in the King Abdullah Financial District, a residence in Hittin or Al Malqa, or a villa in Diriyah. It suits a seafront home on the Jeddah Corniche or in Obhur, or a private majlis designed to receive guests. It also belongs in a desert resort in AlUla, a retreat on the Red Sea coast or the lobby of a five-star hotel in Riyadh or Al Khobar. A monumental figure sets the scale. A restrained palette creates atmosphere. Gold brings warmth and light without overloading the space with colour, in natural dialogue with sandstone, marble, carved wood and the warm tones of the desert.
The Gladiator Philosopher shows this relationship between classical visual language and contemporary interior design. The work carries the monumental presence of classical and Renaissance figures while working as a statement piece for today.
The Renaissance as a Living Language
Perhaps the most interesting way to look at the Italian Renaissance today is not as a closed era, but as a visual language that keeps evolving. That language is made of the human body, dramatic light, mythology, architecture, symbols, gold and gesture. It is also made of the relationship between beauty and emotion.
These elements can be photographed, built digitally, turned into collage and reinterpreted. They can even be deliberately detached from their historical context. This is exactly the conversation the Diriyah Biennale Foundation has opened in the Kingdom. At the Islamic Arts Biennale in Jeddah, centuries-old treasures stand beside contemporary works. The past is shown not as something finished, but as a source that keeps inspiring new forms.
Serpent of Light introduces another archetypal symbol: the serpent, one of the oldest images of the ancient world. Arabia knows how far back such symbols go. At Jubbah and Shuwaymis in the Hail Region, also a UNESCO World Heritage Site, people carved animals and human figures into the rock thousands of years ago. Set against a Pompeii fresco, the work brings together mythology, transformation and mystery. It builds a bridge between ancient imagery and contemporary fine art photography.
The Body, Light and the Classical Ideal
The Renaissance fascination with the human body was deeply tied to the classical world. Arabia was never far from that world. The incense caravans that crossed the peninsula carried frankincense and myrrh to the temples of Rome. Hegra itself stood on that route, and its tombs still show how Arabian and classical forms met and merged two millennia ago.
Contemporary photography can revisit this ideal without turning it into an absolute rule. The body becomes material for composition: a line, a silhouette, a volume and a source of light.
Golden Tension explores this relationship through the male figure. The tension between body, light and shadow gives the image a sculptural strength and places it firmly in contemporary fine art photography.
A Meaningful Gift for the Season
Finding the right gift for someone who loves art, design, architecture and beautiful interiors is not easy. A work of art is different. It is not just a gift to unwrap, but a piece that becomes part of a home and keeps its meaning for years.
In Saudi Arabia, the cool months are the season of gatherings, of the majlis, of Riyadh Season, of AlUla's winter festivals and of year-end celebrations. For those drawn to the beauty of the Italian Renaissance, to classical figures, mythology and golden light, a contemporary fine art photograph inspired by this tradition is a deeply personal gift. For collectors in Riyadh, Jeddah, Al Khobar, Dammam or AlUla, it is also a way to bring a piece of European art history into a contemporary interior. It suits a Kingdom whose cultural renaissance Arab News, Saudi Gazette and Asharq Al-Awsat follow season after season.
If you are looking for a unique gift for someone who already has everything, an original work of art can be one of the most personal choices there is.
The Past, Seen Anew
The Italian Renaissance does not need to be recreated to stay relevant. Its ideas can be transformed. Its symbols can be questioned, simplified and reinvented. Its fascination with the human body can become contemporary photography. Its dramatic use of light can become a new atmosphere, and its mythology can be the starting point for entirely new stories.
Through gold, light, bodies, wings, mythology and emotion, Zack Zublena explores this vocabulary. He creates works that look to the past while belonging fully to the present.
Discover the Italian Renaissance collection: contemporary fine art photography inspired by classical beauty, mythology and the timeless visual language of the Renaissance.
