Friday, January 6, 2012

The Huntress

David Chancellor, Huntress with Buck, 2010

David Chancellor was awarded the 2010 Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize at the National Portrait Gallery in London for Huntress with Buck. What strikes me first about the photograph is how her crimson hair matches the horse's coat. The orange hue is set ablaze through being enhanced by its complementary colour blue. Her unassuming gaze acknowledges the viewer and the interplay between her majesty and fragility, accompanied by a weighty buck, seems all the more apparent. One questions the practicality of how she lifted the prey onto her horse. I enjoy the huntress' shoes as they are a clue to which time period she belongs. 

Claude Deruet (1588 - 1660), Duchess of Chevreuses as Diana the Huntress


 Diana (lt. "heavenly" or "divine") was the goddess of the hunt, being associated with wild animals and woodland, and also of the moon in Roman mythology.

Gaston Casimir Saint-Pierre (1833 - 1916), Diana the Huntress


No comments:

Post a Comment