Every Thursday, as part of my personal “enriched environment” initiative, I post a piece of art, usually from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which recently released online some 400,000 high-resolution images of its collection. I won’t name the piece or the artist, but instead invite you to study the image and write a comment about what you see or what it makes you think of. All images will have a sun (or sunlight) in them somewhere.
So study the picture, and leave your reflections below!
Three observations.
– What? Puppy dog ankle bracelets???
– Is that a baton in his left hand? Is this some sort of a do or die race?
– I assume that’s the sun that he’s pointing to, but what is the equally round hole in the wall to the right of the baton?
I usually find battle scene paintings to be whimsical and humorous because everyone is posing and all the outfits, at least for the major players, are spectacularly clean and nicely positioned. Like the way this guy’s cape is billowing.
Crescent moon?
i just want to say that the lighting and shading is off in this picture. If the sun is behind the guy who’s turning backwards to point at it, then his right knee which is coming forward towards the viewer should be in shadow, not glowing and shimmering in the sunlight. It is strange because t he a rtist paid so much attention to detai ls. I also ag ree wi th the other commentor’s question about what the puppy dog ankle bracelets are all about.
As he is running away, he looks behind him and realizes he has turned his back on “the light.” He will turn around and go back.
The horses’ hindquarters – on the left – look almost human.
Also, it’s funny that these men are going to battle with helmets and body armor, yet they’re barefoot.
Last week someone commented that the sun’s rays were drawn as straight black lines radiating out from the sun. Like how children draw.
This picture, similarly, has straight lines radiating out tfrom the sun. That’s not really how it works, is it ?
The comments raise an interesting question. Is that the sun he’s pointing to?
On the one hand there are all those straight line rays emanating from it, and it’s for sure a big round thing in the sky. Seems like the sun.
On another hand, most of it is dark, it’s only the rim which is burning bright. Could it be an eclipse? And why is the main source of light in the picture in front of the man and to the right of him … (((his left, our right)))
Too much confusion!?
The feather in his helmet is hard to explain—-what kind of feather plumage flares out at both ends?
By gosh this drawing raises more questions the more one looks.
On his right leg the pleats are neatly aligned but on the left leg they really swing out!