I find it interesting that the second picture is a detail of the crowd, as opposed to the lone woman and child which stunned me.
I was struck by the contrast between her calm, almost weary and resigned expression, and the violent anger of the crowd of men. They shout against the injustices of their labors, and are prepared to take great risks to achieve redress; and yet none of them is paying any mind to the woman and the injustices of her own labors, and none of them is aware that taking risks to achieve redress is a luxury she likely cannot afford.
All that in the first glance, but then I paused... why is the woman so absurdly small? Something is seriously wrong with the perspective in this painting - she looks like a halfling! I wondered if perhaps she's supposed to be a young girl, with even even younger toddler in her care, but they simply look strangely miniature.
Is this intentional? A purposeful distortion of physical space to emphasize the metaphorical "size" of this woman compared to the crowd of angry men? A commentary on how women and children are "diminished" in situations such as these? Or is it actually just artistic error?
I find it interesting that the second picture is a detail of the crowd, as opposed to the lone woman and child which stunned me.
ReplyDeleteI was struck by the contrast between her calm, almost weary and resigned expression, and the violent anger of the crowd of men. They shout against the injustices of their labors, and are prepared to take great risks to achieve redress; and yet none of them is paying any mind to the woman and the injustices of her own labors, and none of them is aware that taking risks to achieve redress is a luxury she likely cannot afford.
All that in the first glance, but then I paused... why is the woman so absurdly small? Something is seriously wrong with the perspective in this painting - she looks like a halfling! I wondered if perhaps she's supposed to be a young girl, with even even younger toddler in her care, but they simply look strangely miniature.
Is this intentional? A purposeful distortion of physical space to emphasize the metaphorical "size" of this woman compared to the crowd of angry men? A commentary on how women and children are "diminished" in situations such as these? Or is it actually just artistic error?
Either way, I find myself fascinated.