It’s striking and very well painted. The sideways legs, facial expressions, and just general kidnapping tomfoolery just strike me as ridiculous. If it weren’t for the post French Revolution uniforming I would have honestly thought this was Helen of Troy allusion.
The look on his face could just as easilly be trying to keep it professional. “Madame, the invaders are coming, you should come with us! There’s no time for you to get dressed!!”
The buttocks may even just be the best “grip” he could get(without having to cause bruising even … maybe) close to her center of gravity.
I don’t think it’s too far off what the artist intended, which to me seems more akin to ‘steeled resolve, don’t look back and keep pressing onwards.’ Where it falls flat to me is that he also painted the horse and his pursuer with this exact same expression. Combine this with the naked woman with a blank expression and it just seems more like a fever dream than anything else.
Those aren’t pursuers, those are his troops(same uniforms same wild-eyed expressions of focus and terror, as you pointed out), which makes sense as usually no one short of an officer gets away with a stunt like this, they would be expected to lead by example when issuing such orders, and the fact she’s naked just doubles back on the trust shown in officers. Also, the troops would normally escape behind an officer, so with him and a line of fodder behind is where she’s considered safest.
Next soldier to pick up a civilian if time is made to do so might get to ride alongside him or closer behind than the others. One would guess she’s also now considered an orphan, and so triply in need of protection until they can get her to safety.
IIRC, Franzetta’s fairly consistent about captives being in chains, and women not in chains doing whatever the hell they want, especially the naked ones.
You’re right about them being from the same army. I didn’t catch that all the depicted soldiers in the background have the exact same helmet style so that was a misinteretation on my part.
I’m not familiar with this artist or their works so thank you for the added context!
![[Soft] Charge!](https://lemmynsfw.com/pictrs/image/6fc157ce-4e19-4fe2-b636-466de5cdaf55.webp){kind=link}
Ridiculous yes, but very well executed.
It’s striking and very well painted. The sideways legs, facial expressions, and just general kidnapping tomfoolery just strike me as ridiculous. If it weren’t for the post French Revolution uniforming I would have honestly thought this was Helen of Troy allusion.
The look on his face could just as easilly be trying to keep it professional. “Madame, the invaders are coming, you should come with us! There’s no time for you to get dressed!!”
The buttocks may even just be the best “grip” he could get(without having to cause bruising even … maybe) close to her center of gravity.
I don’t think it’s too far off what the artist intended, which to me seems more akin to ‘steeled resolve, don’t look back and keep pressing onwards.’ Where it falls flat to me is that he also painted the horse and his pursuer with this exact same expression. Combine this with the naked woman with a blank expression and it just seems more like a fever dream than anything else.
Those aren’t pursuers, those are his troops(same uniforms same wild-eyed expressions of focus and terror, as you pointed out), which makes sense as usually no one short of an officer gets away with a stunt like this, they would be expected to lead by example when issuing such orders, and the fact she’s naked just doubles back on the trust shown in officers. Also, the troops would normally escape behind an officer, so with him and a line of fodder behind is where she’s considered safest.
Next soldier to pick up a civilian if time is made to do so might get to ride alongside him or closer behind than the others. One would guess she’s also now considered an orphan, and so triply in need of protection until they can get her to safety.
IIRC, Franzetta’s fairly consistent about captives being in chains, and women not in chains doing whatever the hell they want, especially the naked ones.
You’re right about them being from the same army. I didn’t catch that all the depicted soldiers in the background have the exact same helmet style so that was a misinteretation on my part.
I’m not familiar with this artist or their works so thank you for the added context!