Yesterday we explored a virtual "Q&A With Art" session using Gemini 3.8 Flash to explore Pieter de Jode I's massive nearly 5 x 4 foot 1615 engraving of Jean Cousin's 1585 The Last Judgement painting. As we look towards eventually framing this engraving, how might AI models help us visualize this engraving in various frames to help us start narrowing down what styles we like? Here we test Nano Banana 2, Nano Banana Pro and ChatGPT. Once we start narrowing down our styles, how can it help us test various permutations? Finally, let's see how the models fare colorizing it according to contemporary standards.
Come up with a variety of framing ideas for this early 1600's engraving of the Last Judgement. It is 5' x 4' and incredibly high detail and powerful. Come up with a range of frame options to match. Show them in a gallery side-by-side straight on with simple labels of what each frame is. Show me 5 options. Make them fitting for an engraving of this magnitude and subject matter of the Last Judgement.
Running a second time we get the frames straight on, but the engraving is now no longer the one we uploaded:
Let's rerun:
And again:
Let's guide it a bit:
Give me 5 frame examples for this 1600's engraving of the Last Judgement. Flemish Ripple, Dutch 17th century, super fancy and ornate gold Baroque and the same, but with Biblical iconography.
What about switching to Nano Banana Pro?
What about ChatGPT?
Come up with a variety of framing ideas for this engraving of the Last Judgement. It is 5' x 4' and incredibly high detail and powerful. Come up with a range of frame options to match. Show them in a gallery side-by-side straight on with simple labels of what each frame is. Show me 5 options.
Let's iteratively refine:
Perfect, show me just the Flemish Ripple and the Gold Cherub, but make the Gold Cherub less cheruby and more classically Baroque. Show me a couple more Baroque-ish ones in gold, both with and without Biblical iconography in them.
Let's try again:
I don't like those Baroques, give me some super super fancy and ornate ones, two with Biblical imagery and two without. Keep the Flemish Ripple as the first image of the five.
Let's add one option, while keeping the others the same, showing how easy it is to add an option:
Add a Dutch Renaissance cassetta frame option.
Let's try from scratch:
Let's try again from scratch:
Give me 5 frame examples for this 1600's engraving of the Last Judgement. Flemish Ripple, Dutch 17th century, super fancy and ornate gold Baroque and the same, but with Biblical iconography.
And let's try adding an option to this stunning poster. Incredibly, ChatGPT adds it right in flawlessly:
PERFECT. Add a final Dutch Renaissance cassetta frame option. This is BEAUTIFUL.
Let's try coloring the engraving according to Jean Cousin's source painting to see how well the models fare. This example is quite fascinating: Nano Banana 2 leans into the engraving's much greater detail compared with the painting and colorizes it according to the typical standards used for hand-colored gold-heightened engravings of the era, while ChatGPT strips a lot of the detail and essentially muddies the engraving to look more like the original source painting's lack of detail.
Colorize this early 1600s Pieter de Jode I engraving of the Last Judgement. Colorize it according to the source Jean Cousin's Last Judgement painting, transferring the color choices from the painting to this engraving.
Let's start with Nano Banana 2:
And ChatGPT:
