Image generated by AI thanks to Google Gemini.

Inspired by the thought of creating a mashup portrait between George Washington and his earliest American ancestor, Nicolas Martiau; more specifically, from two images titled AI Color Portrait Recreation - George Washington and Martuesque.

In each case, AI was used to enhance and sometimes improvise upon lacking details, and I'm basically recreating a virtual hybrid here to top it all off. Needless to say, it should be taken with a grain of salt for historical purposes, but still, these two people were related to each other...

It appears Nicolas Martiau was George Washington's great-great-great grandfather. 3 greats and 1 grand by my count, which seems like a lot, but when viewed from another perspective, these two men were born some 141 years apart between 1591 and 1732. Not that long in my opinion, I think a majority of people nowadays have a family tree going that far back.

I also happen to think genetic traits can get passed down the pipeline over multiple generations, so I guess you could say this is like a thought experiment to visualize a possible transitional state in the line of succession between Nicolas Martiau and George Washington. Conceding some anachronism in the process with the Renaissance costume and French fleur-de-lys, but then I can just say it's an old family heirloom 🤭