Have you ever come across someone in the world that looks just like you, or like one of your friends or family? I know I have, and have usually found a lot of laughs from the idea of a slightly-different version of someone I know with living an alternative life. But even these doubles rarely actually look the same as the original, just close enough for the resemblance to be noticeable.
When you come across a true doppelgänger, it's a strange situation indeed. The weirdness of this confrontation only increases when the person you look like is from the distant past, memorialized in a painting.
Was there an exact double of you walking the world 200 years ago, or did the artist somehow conjure your image up by divine inspiration? We'll never have the answer, but we do have plenty of examples of the odd phenomenon.
1. "So he goes to the art museum and this happened"
2. Expression is everything
3. "We found our baby's doppelgänger at the gallery"
4. Caught a stranger lookalike
5. Weird Al at the Louvre
6. Sharing a face across centuries
7. "My friend spotted this painting of himself while walking through the met"
8. That haircut you like will come back in style
9. A time traveller for sure
10. They look so alike!
11. 17th century double
12. "Found my doppelgänger at the Louvre. Íñigo Melchor de Velasco"
13. Now he just needs the full costume...
However cool it might be to see yourself as the subject of a painting in a museum, I think it would be a little unsettling too. Imagine feeling like you are looking in the mirror while you stare at the canvas, that's got to mess with you - or maybe even get you believing in reincarnation. But it's not as if modern art doesn't find it's own way to strange, just look at the artist who strapped 20,000 helium balloons to herself and floated in the air.