Finally got done with the one shots I was planning :) I'll probably post twice a day so I have time to edit it, and to pace myself. In the same vein, I also have a couple of ideas for AUs?
For now, the list is: Modern AU, Ancient Greece-ish AU, Akademiya Zandik, and maybe Godttore. That is if studies don't kill me first
Also, @charliethechandelure made FANART!! I won't ever stop yapping about this. Go follow her, go give her love and likes
And also this version of the MC. She doesn't have an appearance, but I think it's absolutely lovely
If Mei has a million fans, then I am one of them. If Mei has ten fans, then I am one of them. If Mei has only one fan then that is me. If Mei has no fans, then that means I am no longer on earth. If the world is against Mei, then I am against the world.
Anyone that has read my fic is aware that the story has lots of references to actual paintings. They are all mentioned in the notes, with an explanation where it is needed, but I decided it would be fun & interesting to compile all of them into one post, with pictures, and the stories I find meaningful. I'll go chapter by chapter and attempt to find quality examples of the paintings that I chose, some history or thoughts! Literally just whatever comes to my mind at this point
Prologue: 'Acanthus'
𓇢𓆸 'Gassed', John Singer Sargent.
This is oil on canvas, completed in March 1919, showcasing the aftermath of a mustard attack during the First World War. It's now in the Imperial War Museum, in Britain. Sargent was commissioned by the British War Memorials Committee to document the war, and visited the Western front in 1918, which was a theater of war (an area in which important military events occur).
The attacks here employed massive artillery bombardments and infantry. A lot of casualties resulted from entrenchments or barbed wire. The Battle of Verdun, of the Somme, and the Battle of Passchendaele are some of the most significant ones, and together they scale up to about 2 million deaths. It's important to mention that, during WWI, both sides started trying out new military technology like poison gas, aircraft and tanks.
There are a lot of paintings about war, because war has been, unfortunately, a constant in our history. There are books that try to depict the horrors, stories, songs. Have any of them truly encapsulated what it's like, in its entirety? This is a painting that, I feel, shows a vulnerable moment that seems calm and almost intimate, like we are taking a peek at borrowed peace. These soldiers are standing in line, waiting to be treated, holding onto each other for stability, because they can't see. They can probably feel the sun on their skin, perhaps hear their fallen comrades on the ground, but their eyes are bandaged from the gas, burning. Some of them look young, others may have kids or spouses. Whether or not it matters is another question. In the background, the light basks the boys who still have enough energy to play a game of soccer, while the sun still lasts, that is.
Wartime propaganda artists during WWI often used mothers in order to recruit soldiers, to remind them what they're fighting for. To tell them that their mothers, women who nursed them since birth, would be proud that their boys go to war and die for their country. They stay home, warming the living room for a husband that may not return and hearing the chaos of the front lines, and embroider. On bags, clothes, material. They create military scenes, because that is what occupies their mind. Those works could be later sold in America through the Society for Employment of Women in France. During this time, they took to the fields, tended crops, and worried if their family would return, or tasked with the tragic duty to memorialize the dead, or else their names would be lost to memorial, and often nameless, stone slates.
Nurses on battlefields were called 'mothers'.
Reference links: 1, 2, 3, 4.
𓇢𓆸 Lady Agnew of Lochnaw, John Singer Sargent.
Oil on canvas, commissioned in 1892. The portrait painting is of Gertrude Agnew, the wife of Sir Andrew Agnew, 9th Baronet (who was a British Liberal Unionist Member of Parliament). It's owned by the Scottish National Gallery in Edinburgh and still hangs in its original antique French rococo frame, but it's not known if this is the same one that Sargent described to Sir Andrew in a letter he wrote to the latter.
This painting stuck out to me because the soft, lilac colors contrast nicely with the look captured in Lady Agnew's eyes. The brushstrokes are soft, suggesting more than stating, showing us someone who has a relaxed, conversational position. She looks like she's having an 'intimate conversation' with the onlooker, but her gaze looks almost challenging, maybe even sly. It makes sense why this description would fit the main character.
Reference links: 1.
Chapter 4: 'Androeacium'
𓇢𓆸 Remnants of an Army, Elizabeth Thompson.
The full title of this painting is 'The Remnants of an Army, Jellalabad, January 13, 1842'. It depicts, Willian Brydon, assistant surgeon in the Bengal Army, arriving at the gates of Jalalabad (a city in eastern Afghanistan). Brydon was believed to be the only survivor of the 16 000 soldiers from the retreat from Kabul (1842), during the First Anglo-Afgham War, which was fought between the British Empire and the Emirate of Kabul (1838-1842). It was also one of the first major conflicts during the Great Game, which was a rivalry between British and Russian empires over Central Asia (mainly Afghanistan, Persia and Tibet).
A curious anecdote, Elizabeth Southerden Thompson (also known as Lady Butler) was known for her war paintings, like Scotland Forever!. She wrote about her own work in her autobiography. "I never painted for the glory of war, but to portray its pathos and heroism."
For the painting itself, even if it's not one of her most popular paintings, I picked it because of the desolation that isn't as visible in her other works. Remnants of an Army is painted in beige shades, and the main subject is a man who is exhausted. He is slumping backwards while his horse stubbornly tries to get them back to safety, to pass on the word that nobody but him has returned.
An interesting topic I would like to mention here is the importance of horses during war. Horses, who have been here far longer than any tank or airplane, yet they aren't as mentioned as, well, humans. You hardly see any numbers of the animals that were sacrificed on the front lines. Therefore, I will also mention a bit of the history of horses in war (very briefly), because it's something that interests me :)
The first warriors on horseback weren't in the possession of saddles and bridles to guide their animal, so they had to invent tactics in order to make up for this. They consisted in approaching the enemy quickly, throwing weapons, retreating and repeating the same maneuver as long as they could. Knights also weren't nearly as nimble or swift as they are depicted, and they could only ride a horse poorly, with armor that limited movement. When firearms came along, armor slowly became obsolete, allowing riders movement once again.
One of my favorite pieces of history are the polish hussars, or winged hussars, an elite cavalry active from 1503 to 1702. The name comes from, as you may have guessed, from large rear wings that were attached to the saddle or armor, which demoralized an enemy during a charge. The feathers were from raptors. Early hussars were exiled Serbian warriors, but it later became a heavy shock cavalry.
Their best moment was at the Siege of Vienna, when the famous banners participated in an important charge against the Ottomans.
Reference links: 1, 2, 3, 4.
𓇢𓆸 Atrocities in Rechitsa, Petr Krivonogov.
Yet another painting about the horrors of war. All those features you have seen above, they are already blurred in your memory, aren't they? That is, if the painter has taken the time to trace every eye and cheek. All of them come from different places. Afghanistan, Russia, Spain, France. Does the place matter? They all depict the same sorrow, anyway. Petr Krivonogov has more paintings of the Great Patriotic War, which describes the Eastern Front of WWI. Generally, it refers to Russian resistance to the French invasion under Napoleon I. This time, I will simply quote a dialogue from the chapter itself, because I think I expressed myself pretty clearly.
''The Great Patriotic War. What an irony to those that lay dead in the snow, their blood sinking into the muddy ground below, a nutrient for the flowers that would bloom once the harsh winter ended.
“Their patriotism did not save them from their demise. I’d say it’s a cruel thing, to look upon the despair a war causes and call it glory,” she sighed softly, her eyes still tinged with that hint of sorrow. She had heard and studied extensively many battles—history was written by the winners, but made with tragedy. There was no victory without hands stained in the blood of the innocent.
“Maybe it’s the idea that gives people hope, after all,” Dottore answered her, contemplative and steady. “Upon seeing scenes such as these, it’s better to cling to the idea that you’re fighting for your homeland, is it not? That you’re protecting the soil you came from?”
“Soil is nothing but soil, in the end. What use is there to protect a land soaked in the blood of your loved ones?”''
Reference links: 1, 2.
𓇢𓆸 The Third of May 1808, Francisco Goya.
In spanish, this painting is known as 'El tres de mayo de 1808' or 'Los fusilamientos de la montaña del Príncipe Pío', which directly translates to 'The shootings on the Prince Pio Hill'. It's in Museo del Prado, Madrid. The occupation of Napoleon's armies at the start of the Peninsular War was a bloody, dark time, a bit further away than the Spanish Civil War, whose remnants are still present. Along with this painting, the Second of May 1808 is of a similar topic, that shows the uprising of Dos de Mayo. One of the many rebellions against the occupation of Napoleon while the king of Spain, Ferdinand VII, was in France.
While the life of Goya is an interesting topic, I touched upon it in the actual fanfic, so I will take a different angle now.
Ferdinand VII was also known as el Deseado (the Desired) before 1813. During that time, Spain didn't experience a time of peace. He ascended the throne after the Tumult of Aranjuez (in 1808), and in the same year, Napoleon overthrew the throne and forced him to travel to France. He stayed there until december 1813, when he came back and establishied an absolutist monarchy and rejecting the liberal constitution (and the first Spanish constitution), which had been redacted in 1812. After 1813, he was known as el Rey Felón, which means the Criminal King. Under his rule, Spain lost American possesions, and entered the First Carlist War upon his death (which was a fight between two factions over the succession to the throne).
Reference links: 1, 2.
Chapter 8: 'Palisade cells'
𓇢𓆸 The Ides of March, Edward John Poynter.
While the entirety of the story obviously takes inspiration from Ancient Greece and its mythology, the infamous story of Julius Caesar couldn't be missed. Oil on canvas, from 1883, held at the Manchester Art Gallery. Calphurnia, Caesar's wife, spots a comet in the night sky, a warning of the betrayal that would soon fall upon him.
Julius Caesar died to 23 stab wounds from 60 conspirators led by Marcus Junius Brutus, Gaius Cassius Longinus and Decimus Junius Brutus Albinus. This anger built up after three main incidents: in March 45 BC, when Caesar refused to rise for the Senate to receive a large number of honours (giving the impression he no longer cared for the Senate); 44 BC, during which Caesar removed some representatives of the common people under the accusation of them trying to create opposition to him (he was called 'rex', king, on one occasion, and his statue once appeared with a diadem, symbol of Jupiter and royalty, both times the tribunes took care to execute or take down the offending item), and this put him in a bad light to the public; and the third incident, 15th February 44 BC, when Mark Antony put a diadem on Caesar's head, claiming "The People give this to you through me". Each time, Caesar seemed to reject the titles and diadems given to him. According to Suetonius, the main concern was that he would crown himself the king of Rome.
''Never fell more lightning from a cloudless sky; never was comet's alarming glare so often seen.'' (Virgil, Georgics)
It's not known what his last words were. Some scholars argue that his last words were "καὶ σύ, τέκνον;", which means ''You too, child?''. Suetonius claims that the conspirators fled, and Caesar's body laid untouched and cold, until three slaves carried him home, with one arm hanging down.
Reference links: 1, 2.
Chapter 9: 'Stem anatomy: ''stem structure'''
𓇢𓆸 The Course of Empire, Thomas Cole.
The Savage State
The Arcadian or Pastoral State
The Consummation of Empire
Destruction
Desolation
Out of all the artworks I have woven into the writing of this story, 'The Course of Empire' is one of my favorite ones of all time. There is no particular history to it, it's not explicitly stated whether the empire in question is Rome or any other. Perhaps the lack of it is what truly gives it meaning: this could be applied to any of them.
The continuity of the artworks is what fascinates me, personally. The hill, which is nothing more than a detail in the background during the first painting, becomes an anchor point during the other ones, assuring that this is one and the same place. During The Consummation of Empire and Destruction, you can see the same figures. In the former painting, two children (dressed in green and red) play in the fountain, pushing a sinking boat with a stick. In the latter, a man dressed in green rests upon a body clothed in red, sorrowful and mournful.
In the end, Desolation resembles the early paintings, like the Savage State. The earth slowly reclaims the structures, the wood rots and becomes a home for insects, and a singular ivory pillar sticks out, only a remnant of the former glory of an empire. In only five paintings, hidden in details, there are topics of the decadence of the empire (presumably of Ancient Rome), the expansion of it, internal strife, war, brutality, and once again, the peace and silence of the primordial and arcane earth.
Reference links: 1.
Chapter 22: 'Heartwood and sapwood'
𓇢𓆸 The Battle of Salamis, Wilhelm von Kaulback.
Going back to the far lands of Ancient Greece once again, The Battle of Salamis was a naval battle fought in 480 BC, between the Greek city-states under Themistocles (Athenian politician and general) and the Achaemenid Empire under King Xerxes I. The latter was also known as Xerxes the Great, a persian ruler who reigned as the fourth King of Kings (this was an imperial title in the Middle East and the Indian subcontinent, commonly associated with historical Persia, equivalent to 'Emperor').
This war was a turning point in the course of the Greco-Persian Wars as a whole, given that, from that point on, the Greeks would take the offensive. Greek armies generally relied on heavier infantry (hefty armor, long spears called dory, sword (xiphos), making them superior in hand to hand combat), while Persian armies preferred lighter troop types (bows, shorter spears, and a sword or axe).
In the painting itself, everything is complete and utter chaos. You can barely make the difference between Greek and Persian soldiers, as they are all falling into the river in a mess of limbs, while faraway fleet is covered in smoke. Some people are trying to get to land, others are still trying to fight. From this conflict alone, around 4 000 Greeks and 20 000 Persians perished, with the former coming out victorious.
Reference links: 1, 2, 3, 4.
Those are all the paintings that I have referenced. I'm aware the sources aren't thesis-worthy, but I do this for fun, it's not something I study or make money from. I hope I explained myself well enough <3
Though I doubt this post will interest anyone who hasn't previously read through my work, you can find the link here. This post is so damn long I am actually surprised tumblr didn't make a word limit just because of me
I haven't posted here in a hot minute but I wanted to show what I am currently working on as my final exam for art school. I'm illustrating the lyrics of the album Atlas: Enneagram by Sleeping at Last and here are some thing I made for the song Two !
Hey everyone! <3
I'm opening pwyw* emergency c0ms!
shoot me a dm if you're interested c:
as for why i'm opening them:
I've recently moved to a different city. that means i have to apply for all the services and financial aid again, which i did right away and all within the right timeframes. now i got the notice that i did not do that, meaning my documents got lost and i will have to make do for at least another month with no money whatsoever.. possibly even longer
thats why i'm open for some emergency commissions, if anyone is looking to have a surprise drawing of a favourite character or oc!
it would be a complete surprise what it would be in the end, as i will send you the finished art and no in betweens. you can totally tell me beforehand if you dont want something specific, a little info about the character would also be good ofc! :)
*pay what you want - but at least 10€, or more if you want!
payment only per paypal or kofi
thanks for reading, may you have a wonderful day <33
Have these of my boy! I enjoy many traumatised characters :) He's angy and he deserves a war scythe (I could talk about these at length don't ask ((PLEASE ASK)))
Again big thanks to @charliethechandelure I love them dearly <3
Take a look at this awesome zine I had the pleasure to be part of <333 It's completely free and there are so many wonderful artists and fanfic writers that worked on it !
Certified internet clown @charliethechandelure - Tumblr Blog | Tumgag
