Little Mermaid

This ad for Hermès was done by the Italian fashion photographer Paolo Roversi. Without any doubt it’s quoting the statue of The Little Mermaid sitting on a rock in the harbor of the Copenhagen.

Attack of the 50 Foot Woman

I think that it was kind of advertising campaign for shoes realized by the renowned British photographer Miles Aldridge. Published New York Times Magazine in 2006.

With his typical irony Aldridge is quoting the old American science fiction film "Attack of the 50 Foot Woman".

Patriotic Pinups

This famous series with the Brazilian supermodel Gisele Bündchen was done by David LaChapelle for George Magazine in June 2000. It reminds a lot of the old patriotic World War II pinups.

like this by Billy de Vorss

or "At Your Command" by Earl MacPherson

Secret Agent

This series of Bond girl Olga Kurylenko is by Ellen von Unwerth.

Maybe Unwerth was also thinking of the Bond films, but I believe she had more the female secret agents of the sixties in mind like Modesty Blaise, Emma Peel. But anyway it would have been retro like Bond himself.

Madame X

This photo of Nicole Kidman appeared in June 1999 in Vogue.

Steven Meisel presented her as a modern version of the famous Madame X by the American painter John Singer Sargent (1856–1925).

Call of the Wild

Naomi Campbell by the famous photographer David LaChapelle.

To me it looks like a quotation of the paintings by the French Post-Impressionist painter Henri Julien Félix Rousseau (1844–1910).

Nighthawks

This photo is part of the 2007 Lavazza Calendar and shot by the Spanish photographer Eugenio Recuenco. It shows a kind of super heroine but it’s also a quotation of the famous painting Nighthawks (1942) by Edward Hopper.

Venus and Cupid

This photo by the Italian artist Gian Paolo Tomasi integrates typical elements of classical paintings.

First there is Cupid how he could be seen on many paintings from the baroque onwards till late 19th century art.

And there is the women looking like one of that odalisques on the popular 19th century harem paintings like this by the French painter Jean-Léon Gérôme (1824–1904).

Waterbabies

This stunning mermaid is by the British photographer Zena Holloway, who is famous for her underwater creations. Still I’m thinking that you cannot make photos of mermaids without quoting late 19th century paintings like for example that of the British artist John Collier

The Birth of Venus

The spectacular advert for the new fragrance Alien by Thierry Mugler shows a siren or a goddess in gold. But in my humble opinion it’s mainly influenced by paintings showing the birth of Venus, the best know that by Sandro Botticelli to be seen in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence