Spanish actress Itziar Castro found a fun way to amuse herself during the coronavirus lockdown by recreating this famous Botero painting of a large woman standing naked in front of a bathroom mirror.
The actress, 43, who is from Barcelona in the north-eastern Spanish region of Catalonia, like others in the city is forced to stay at home during the coronavirus pandemic in order to enforce social distancing and prevent new infections.
Pondering new ways to entertain herself, she decided to do a new photo with a difference by recreating famous painting by the Colombian artist Fernando Botero.
Born in Medellin, the 87-year-old painter is regarded as the most famous living artists from Latin America who produces his trademarked oversized paintings and sculptures to reflect political comment and criticism.
His work is on display in Park Avenue in New York and on the shops and on the Champs-Elysees in Paris but there is also a copy of one of his paintings hanging on the wall in the home of the actress.
A print of the artwork is 75 USD online but the original is worth many times more. Called El Bano, which means the bathroom, the painting was produced in 1989 and the actress decided to mimic it by posing in front of the mirror.
She wrote on Twitter: “Here I am, like a muse of Botero in quarantine.”
She was reportedly inspired to do the copycat photograph of the painting in response to a challenge organised by the J.Paul Getty museum , which encourages users to compare themselves with the works of well-known artists.
Itziar Castro 
Itziar Castro
Many people shared a sense of humour, and praised her bravery in sharing the image but others were critical, such as one who tweeted: “Believing ourselves beautiful and encouraging obesity is reprehensible” and another who noted: “anorexia is bad but obesity is good?”
The last quote appears to have motivated her to reply that she had perfect health with “neither cholesterol, nor sugar, nor triglycerides, nor anything that is not within the correct parameters.”
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Story By: Michael Leidig, Sub-Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Central European News
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