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!
This is massive and curious. What are the people doing sitting on the ground? I can’t imagine.
This picture is heavy on the shadows and the mammoth fortress is dark and looks forbidding. Then a sliver of sunshine slips through the gate, and a few people seem at ease on the grass.
Fascinating!
I love visiting ruins and imagining the people who lived there centuries earlier.
The main part of this fort looks like a face with tiny eyes and an open mouth.
Thank you!!!!!!
OK, so not only is there safety and security behind these massive walls, but all the sunshine seems to be bottled up there, too. The street inside the wall is the major bright spot. I get it!
Do the seemingly relaxed poses of the people in this picture belie the fact that the fort was built to ward off dangerous threats of death?
It’s almost the New Year! Happy New Year everyone!
When I look at this picture, I get a funny feeling.
This picture has a stillness to it from the massive, motionless rock fort, but also the people aren’t moving. The woman and the children are lounging on t he ground, and the two men are talking.
It’s a quiet picture even though a fortress suggests danger and action, and almost the whole picture is in shadow. Therefore, it contradicts itself.
Happy New Year!
Once again I cannot figure out where this picture is taking place. But I wish to make two observations. First, the man in the red hat who is talking to the man on the horse, he’s wearing what looks like wooden clogs. Second, when you magnify the picture you can see that some of the stone blocks in the fort wall are just single rectangular brush strokes, but others are more elaborate with an outline to the stone block in one color and the rest of the stone created by different colored daubs of paint.
Yes, the bright spot is inside the doors to the fort.
Also, what are the horizontal grey lines in the lawn in front?
Yes, as the other people pointed out, this scene looks serene, but when I see a massive fortress like this, I have two reactions. One, there must be some serious danger nearby that caused everyone to build such a massive edifice. Two, once everyone is inside the fort for the night, I’m sure that there is still some violence going on internally, torture or extortion or some other form of violence. I don’t think you are safe just because your securely locked inside a strong garrison.
Looks like a cowboy on that horse !!!