ABBATE, Niccolo dell (1512-1571)
The Rape of Proserpine
Click here to view the image (in a separate window)This is a wow picture for me in terms of the dynamic range of dark and light tones. My eye quickly leaves the figures, on the right, and moves to the romantic castles and landscape beyond. I like the dark framing and the diagonal from the right figures to the bright sky and the sweep of the river.
| I think the composition follows the Golden Triangle rule
and perhaps the Golden Spiral to bring one back to the figures on the
left. But maybe I'm reading too much into these rules. [These lines were drawn with this Composition Adjuster] |
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| The colours in the clouds seem completely
unrealistic and the castles in the middle distance are larger than one
would see. But this false perspective is great.
None of the people, bar one, have normal skin colours - is this varnish fading? But their colours are very attractive. There is a strange person (as marked), which seems to add nothing to
the picture. And I'm sure the figure hiding, in the bottom of the
picture, means something in the story being told, but I find her a
little distracting (especially with her colouring). |
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| Here is an adjusted the image, as though it was taken with a
camera.
I've set the highlight, shadow and skin tones as well as attempting to adjust the green cast in the clouds. The image becomes more red and does not really improve matters. Note that the river is more yellow than blue in both the original and this 'corrected' rendition. But without checking the colours, I would have been quite happy to accept it!
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So now lets look at the tones in more detail
