In one of the more than 200-year-old paintings now on display at a Pasadena art gallery, an Imperial AT-AT walker marches through the river near Castel Sant’Angelo in Rome as fishing boats drift by.

In another, an astromech droid — an R2-D2 lookalike — presents a hologram to Saint Francis of Paola.

Visitors might at first suspect the works of art on display in the new exhibition at Gallery 30 South could be modern recreations of antique paintings, with a pop culture twist.

But the art is real — an Italian artist created the mash-ups by painting over discarded 17th and 18th century pieces depicting religious figures and Roman architecture to add in droids, star destroyers and Sith lords.

“When I realized they were actually painted on archival pieces and it was verified that this was the case, I had two emotions. First, that is incredible,” said Matt Kennedy, co-owner of the gallery. “The second was, oh my god, they’re going to crucify me if I show this.”

The exhibition, “Religious Paintings of an Expanded Galaxy,” opened at Gallery 30 South, 30 S. Wilson Ave., just before “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” hit theaters this month. It will run until the end of January.

All of the pieces are available for purchase, but they aren’t cheap. The prices, ranging from $7,000 to $30,000, reflects their state of limbo between antique and remix.

Riccardo Mayr’s “The Long Lost Hologram Message” is an upcycle of a painting of “St. Francis of Paola.” (Courtesy of Matt Kennedy)

Riccardo Mayr’s “Manchild” was originally titled “Portrait of a Man.” (Courtesy of Matt Kennedy)

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Riccardo Mayr’s “Remote Training at Sichar’s Well” is painted over a Ferrarese School painting of “Christ at the Well.” (Courtesy of Matt Kennedy)

Riccardo Mayr’s “Escape From Gliese 832c” is a remix featuring Darth Vader of a painting called “The Escape to Egypt,” after Guido Reni. (Courtesy of Matt Kennedy)

Riccardo Mayr’s “The Arc of Constantine and Star Destroyer” after a Franz Kaiserman painting from 18th century. (Courtesy of Matt Kennedy)



Riccardo Mayr’s “Unreasonable Threat of a Contemplative” in the original wood frame from the 18th century painting, “Marine with Shipwreck.” (Courtesy of Matt Kennedy)

Kennedy expects some people will be upset that these classical paintings have been altered, but he was convinced they were being improved when he saw the state of the originals. The paintings had been kept in storage without any care — all had extensive damage, including distortions, holes and creases in the canvas.

“They would have sat in drawers and nobody would have seen them,” Kennedy said.

The passing of artist Riccardo Mayr’s mother forced the self-taught Italian painter and his sister to inventory the family’s estate in Ferrara, Italy, which held paintings collected by Mayr’s ancestors over the last 200 years. Tucked away in the family’s 500 year old villa, they found paintings from the School of Ferrara and Franz Kaisermann.

They quickly learned it would cost more to restore the pieces than the family would ever make from their sale. None of the paintings had significant importance in art history.

Instead, Mayr considered giving the paintings new life, combining them with his enthusiasm for a franchise that meant so much to him as a child.

He reached out to Kennedy and pitched his concept. Along with painter Emanuele Taglietti, Mayr took the worn and damaged pieces and modernized them by adding in Star Wars characters using the same style and paint as the originals.

Kennedy said the result is not unlike Robert Rauschenberg’s erasings of Willem de Kooning’s drawings, in which he literally erased one of Kooning’s pieces and then displayed the blank page as new art.

“There is a modern precedent for this,” Kennedy said. “This is a kind of upcycle, a kind of recycling.”

Gallery 30 South is open from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Wednesday-Friday and from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday-Sunday. For more information, visit gallery30south.com.