The Myth of Persephone retold
through Virgin of the Rocks
An illustration exercise
the final result of my work (referencing the iconic Virgin of the Rocks by DaVinci)
ABOUT:
This project was a short, 1 week assignment at my university.
THE GOAL:
make an illustration for the myth of Persephone
(told by Stephen Fry) in a magazine.
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Know your audience:
use and reference an iconic art piece,
flatter the highbrow readers of this magazine (prob. ~50y.o.)
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Get out of your comfort zone,
throw away "your personal style" for now
the original Virgin of the Rocks by Da Vinci (left), my depiction of Persephone's story (right)
CONTEXT:
I love to go deep into the meanings of paintings so I chose a painting I love and researched the meaning(s) of it.
Da Vinci was asked to create this painting for 1 reason:
to spread the message that "Mary was conceived in her
mother’s womb without the taint of original sin" (- this order
came from the Confraternity of the Immaculate Conception -
at that time new Catholic doctrine).
He decided to do so by:
portraying The Gospel of James (an apocryphal document)
in which Mary and Jesus met an equally young John the Baptist
while running away from Betlehem during the Massacre of the Innocents
(this was the first document we know of that advances the idea that
Mary remained a virgin all her life).
And so, the painting has 2 main meanings:
- spreading Mary's purity
- foreshadowing the future meeting of Jesus and John the Baptist
MY APPROACH:
I put together the ideas I had in mind, connections between Persephone’s story and the painting:
-
foreshadowing is the main idea behind the story
the painting originally captures
-
the cave symbolises mother’s womb as the
symbol of purity and the main point of the painting itself
I used these same meanings, only changed the characters and environment to portray Persephone’s story.
original 1st sketch after research (left) vs final version with explanations (right)
True to the original author (Da Vinci): I also wanted to have small details on the painting that are almost impossible to notice, yet they carry a deeper meaning:
- the roots of the tree are slowly crawling to baby Persephone.
- Helios (the sun) is above and sees it all
NOTE: While I am aware that I should have put more attention to the deeper darkness and shadows strong, contrasting light of the original Da Vinci's art, I have learnt a lot by this exercise as
this was the first time I didn’t use clear, sharp lineart only shadows and highlights.
