Fashion

Beauty, Brains, and Charisma

Gianni Sarcone

Beauty’s been a big deal since ancient Greece, where καλὸς κἀγαθός meant more than just a pretty face. It was the ultimate combo: good looks, brains, and virtue. For the Greeks, this wasn’t just a nice idea—it was how they judged your worth.

Fast forward to now, and beauty is still treated as a golden ticket. If you’re not exactly a head-turner but you’ve made it, chances are you’re pretty smart… Sure, beauty often gets written off as superficial, but Aristotle wasn’t wrong when he said, “Beauty speaks louder than any introduction.” Let’s be honest: good looks are a serious social advantage. People treat you better, offer more opportunities, and generally give you a leg up—whether you’re in school, at work, or even in court. Plus, fairy tales and society are pretty obsessed with tying beauty to success. Studies show that attractive people even get a better deal in the justice system.

But here’s the twist: if a guy who’s no Greek god succeeds, people assume he’s smart. If it’s a woman, they’ll say she’s got “character.” Funny how that works, right?

Luckily, looks fade, and that’s when real beauty shows up in unexpected ways. As Shakespeare said in A Midsummer Night’s Dream: “Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind.”

Beauty’s a gift you didn’t have to work for. Intelligence, though? That’s earned, much like how a pearl forms in an oyster in response to a parasitic intruder. Life’s challenges are what shape and refine your smarts, one obstacle at a time.

So, sure, beauty’s nice—but it can also be a bit of a double-edged sword. What really counts—whether you’re a looker or not—is CHARISMA. It’s not something you’re born with, but something you build over time. Only the truly determined, the ones who know what they want, actually get it.

Hypnotic Disc

Gianni Sarcone

Take a moment to focus on the circular pattern. How many spirals do you see? The surprising answer is none. There are no spirals here—just alternating black and yellow discs, slightly off-center and layered to create a striking illusion of swirling depth and motion.

© G. Sarcone, 1990

I began crafting pieces like this in the early ’90s, drawing inspiration from Duchamp’s Rotoreliefs. I was captivated by how simple rotation could deceive the eye, inviting the viewer into a world of optical illusions. It’s a unique experience—seeing motion and depth in something entirely flat, both puzzling and mesmerizing.

This op art pattern comes to life across various mediums and transforms into artistic expressions on different objects. In my online gallery, you’ll find art prints and everyday items featuring this work, all available for purchase.

Gliding Patterns: The Anomalous Motion Illusion

Gianni Sarcone

Let your gaze wander across the image below. Do the shapes in the first and third rows seem to subtly shift leftward, while the second and fourth rows appear to glide rightward?

© Gianni A. Sarcone, Gliding Patterns, 1999

Now, let your gaze wander across the image below. Do the concentric circles appear to subtly counter-rotate?

© Gianni A. Sarcone, Counter-Rotating Circles, 1999

Why do these static images appear to move? This perceptual phenomenon, known as “anomalous motion” or “peripheral drift illusion”, results from the interplay of color contrast, luminance, and eye movements. It occurs due to a sawtooth luminance grating in the visual periphery, where a sequence of contrasting colors transitions from light to dark. The speed of the perceived motion is influenced by the frequency of microsaccadic eye movements.

In the 1990s, I began creating many of these fascinating images, experimenting with patterns and contrasts to bring this mesmerizing effect to life.

Fine art prints and merchandise of these mesmerizing pieces are available in my online gallery—a perfect addition to any space!

The Enigmatic Caroline Rivière

Gianni Sarcone

Caroline Rivière, a French girl immortalized in Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres’ 1806 masterpiece “Portrait of Caroline Rivière”, remains a striking figure in art history. This iconic painting frequently graces book covers, thanks to its timeless and deeply evocative qualities. Caroline is depicted as a delicate young woman in a serene, contemplative pose, her gaze imbued with an air of mystery and quiet melancholy. Tragically, she passed away at just 15 years old, shortly after Ingres completed the portrait.


This poignant backstory heightens the emotional resonance of her image, symbolizing the fragility of youth and the transient nature of beauty. It’s this haunting combination of innocence and impermanence that makes the portrait so appealing to publishers and audiences alike. Whether adorning the covers of literary classics, historical novels, or introspective works, Caroline Rivière’s likeness evokes themes of nostalgia, identity, and human vulnerability, bridging the gap between art and storytelling. Her enduring presence on bookshelves speaks to the universal, timeless appeal of Ingres’ artistry.

Even Lady Gaga was moved by this iconic painting, as she posed for filmmaker Robert Wilson, who created a strikingly similar piece—a close video replica of Ingres’ portrait, reinterpreted in his own unique style, incorporating subtle movements and nuanced expressions that added a dynamic dimension to its timeless stillness.

Globes within Spirals? (Optical Art Tutorial)

Gianni Sarcone
© Gianni A. Sarcone – redbubble.com

Are you seeing spirals? Look again, they’re actually concentric circles! This unique variation of the “Fraser spiral” plays tricks on your eyes by blending a regular line pattern (representing the circle’s circumference) with misaligned elements (the spheres with varying brightness).

Would you like to learn how to create this mesmerizing illusion? Follow my simple visual tutorial. If you have any ideas to further enhance this project, please don’t hesitate to reach out.

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“Infinity”, A Kaleidoscope of Squares

Gianni Sarcone

With this work, I aim to push geometry to its limits, transcending the confines of color. My goal is to showcase the creative potential of simple concentric squares as a medium for experimentation and the discovery of new op art patterns. By delving into this exploration, I strive to unveil captivating illusions of color and mesmerizing motion.


Draw a large and a small square with thick lines and center them (Fig. A). Next, blend the inner and outer squares in six steps to create a set of concentric squares. Reproduce the set to form a larger square pattern, as shown in Fig. B.

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“Enigma”, Paradoxical Volumes

Gianni Sarcone

In these minimalist op art pieces, I delve into the metaphoric realm of geometric shapes, with a particular focus on the hexagon as the foundational element for creating cubes and other simple three-dimensional regular shapes.
The artworks I present depict solid or three-dimensional structures that appear plausible and real, yet are in fact illusions known as ‘impossible figures.’ However, discerning these impossible figures isn’t immediately evident; one must concentrate on specific areas of the representation to grasp that they could never exist in reality! Drawing an impossible stereographic structure becomes achievable by merging two or more contrasting viewpoints or perspectives of the same object, or even by blurring the boundaries between the exterior and interior of an object…
The more ‘normal’ and ‘simple’ an impossible figure appears, the more captivating it becomes! Indeed, impossible objects aren’t created solely to bewilder the eyes; their purpose lies in confounding the mind and challenging one’s acquired visuo-spatial skills and stereographic knowledge.

Enigma 1: Available as prints and t-shirts.

The two intricate drawings displayed above and below combine two tribars to form an impossible isometric cube, showcasing a mesmerizing interplay between form and illusion.

Enigma 3: Available as prints and t-shirts.
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When Optical Art Meets Illusion

Gianni Sarcone

Some simple geometric patterns and designs, when repeated, can induce strong illusory shape distortions. Thus, visual misperceptions are very common in the op art world.

If dark and clear rectangular tiles are arranged in a checkered fashion, as shown below, there is obviously no illusion, but wait, just add at the intersection of these tiles some transparent dark and clear square patches, et voilà, magic appears!

So, transparencies can produce apparent linear distortions. The parallel red lines in this example look like being convergent / divergent.

ZigZag, 2003
Available as prints and canvases from my online gallery
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