The astronomer

These were some pictures i was thinking about for inspiration when i was designing my alternate narrative.

Davy Jones

The captain's cry was betrayed by the storm, diluted by the rain and stolen on the thracian winds. It was the seas final mutiny. The crew had ceased their scurry, the captain, stern and controlled made no reprimand, the lightning cracked open the sky with a slow and unatural calm And somehow, there was the stillness of morning, in the wildest of nights. The captain had tasted death before, once more and for the last time it fused with the heat of rum and the captians cold heart was made warm. The cannons belonged to davy Jones now, soon too his ship and the souls that clung to it's sails. His daughter stared to the horizon with a disturbing complacency, we shouldn't have made him walk papa, she whispered through the rain. The captain grasped his prize, the necklace that belonged to his lover, the lover that belonged to oldest friend. He knelt to his daughter, smiling he turned, casting the ruby and gold thread to the sea. Im sorry davy, he whispered to the rain. And the storm ceased as though it never wrapped it's fingers around the sea, and a new sensation of dissapointment met the captain on the bow. He needed not another sunrise, He needed a place where he could close his eyes.

The Philospher

Based on Philosopher in Meditation painted byRembrandt van Rijn, 1632

"Failing once more to illuminate the distant corners of the room, a lone candle burnt silently in the night. Constricted by so many things, time only brought him closer to darkness, he felt it with every hour that passed. At times the advocates of despair whispered to him from the unlightable depths of the shadows, extinguishing the hope from the outside in. The burning changed and reshaped him, reforming yet not refining, never refining. He knew now that soon either morning would wake or night should inevitably crush him, pushing the dark in till he could push back no longer. He was the candle, and the candle burns no more"

In this one the candle is a metaphor for the philosopher, the room is understanding and the shadows are the inconceivable answers. The burning out represents old age and the time that is so quickly gone.

17th century Dutch paintings

The Astronomer. Johannes Vermeer. 1668

http://feifeifeng3f.blogspot.com/

Willem van de Velde II (1633-1707)

rembrandt van rijn

http://russellmcneil.blogspot.com/2007/10/rembrandt-harmenszoon-van-rijn-1606.html

Philosopher in Meditation painted byRembrandt van Rijn, 1632

www.geocities.com/uttamkumar44/rembrandt3.html

Willem van de Velde, The Cannon Shot (ca.1670)
http://homepage.mac.com/schuffelen/artwork_E/velde.jpg

My initial reaction was to search and examine as many dutch paintings as possible. I found the interior scenes, despite the supremely well executed portrayal of light, to be emotionally foreign. A semi-complacent vacancy seemed to flood the eyes of many characters occupying the scenes. The seascapes however, seemed almost more human in the emotional display of time and circumstance. Sea and sky personified as a terrified and terrifying entity fused in beautiful second in time. I wish that the resolution was higher so that i might examine the detail more carefully.

I also enjoy Rembrandt's Philosopher in Meditation. Their is a ying and yang like balance of light and dark that harmonise with both the staircase and philosophers spiralling sea of consciousness. The character in the corner is intriguing, hidden by his position and illuminated by the lighting. Again the resolution is inadequate and disappointing, making it hard to determine more on the characters and the scene as a whole, I hope to soon find superior versions.

Bulsa model