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. All artwork will show a sun (or sunlight) somewhere.
I won’t name the piece or the artist, but instead invite you to study the art and post a comment addressing one or more of these questions:
- What is going on in this picture?
- What do you see in the picture?
- What does it make you think of?
- What observations can you make?
Note: To embiggen the image, click on it!
Here’s a guy who wears many hats ! The head gear intrigues me immensely. Who made it and how ?
As for the sunlight , it seems to be ” parked ” all on his right arm and shoulder. Jeezus —that apricot-colored silk really glows !
very sumptuous painting, in summary.
Yes, Owen, I agree: the light is all concentrated on his shoulder and upper arm, and, too, his face is turned away from the light. His head gear is simply a marvel – – and it appears there is a third eye hiding in among the folds.
I’d love to know what the white objects are on the right side of the picture.
He looks serene, but as people – – many, many people – – pointed out last week, a person’s face can appear one way, especially in a picture – – but inside you never know what the person is thinking or feeling.
The head gear – – it’s fantastic!.
It is interesting that last week’s picture showed people who either were posed facing away from the sun or else their face was protected via parasol or sun bonnet. This week the man is facing away from the light , too. If I squint my eyes I mostly see an apricot arch in the lower half of the painting. And to a lesser extent the ivory objects on the right and some of the hat’s gewgaws.
“Sumptuous” is a word I, too, would use here. But, well……There’s something incongruous. He’s got a gun but he’s dressed in all this finery. Is he a hunter? Not in that outfit. A soldier? Again, think not. A ceremonial guard? Most likely. But where in the world do palace guards where such outrageously gorgeous threads? I think it would distract people from the actual royalty they’ve come to see.
So is he royalty himself? That’s the question. But in my limited experience, the thing about being royalty is that you don’t carry a gun yourself.
HOW LONG DID THIS GUY HAVE TO SIT IN THIS POSITION FOR THE PAINTER TP PAINT THIS PAINTING ?
EVERY TIME IF HE MOVED HIS HEAD THOSE DANGLING THINGS MUST HAVE TAKEN FOREVER TO STOP MOVING !!!!
I love this. It is powerful and calm at the same time.
As the model’s face is turned away from the source of light, his features fade into a general dark brown/dark gray. You can barely distinguish his left eye. I see also that the background isn’t uniformly the same color. It seems to be lighter around his head and darker at the top of the pictures. That could be because of my computer screen, but it makes me want to check out the backgrounds of other portraits like this, where the background is supposed to be a single solid color.
This week’s and last week’s discussions make me wonder what people are thinking when they pose for a painter. Does the painter create the mood on their face? Or is their true feeling revealed and recorded on the canvas?
How long does a model have to pose for the painter to do everything?