Art Critique # 2

Art Critique #2

The title of this work of art is called “The Witch of Endor”. This is controversial because there have been so many remakes of this work that few are certain who actually painted it. But I know. The artist’s name is Januarius Zick, and the medium of the work is done in charcoal over a canvas. The subject matter consists of a woman known as the “Witch of Endor” (Right), King Saul (Left), and his best friend Oeprius (Center). The Witch was instructed by the King to bring back the friend of King Saul, who recently died of a disease. Endor was a Canaanite city listed in the Book of Joshuaas (an old Hebrew bible-like record of journals) as one of the cities with its dependencies that the Israelites failed to get rid of.
It is very dull and mostly black, and doesn’t stand out as a decent piece of artwork I would consider viewing. My initial reaction to the piece was that I thought it was very droll and boring and sparked no interest in me whatsoever, but the fact that it had to do with forbidden magic and raising the dead gave it a redeeming quality worth scrutinizing. Other than that, I never would have taken a second glance at it.
There is a bit of a chiaroscuro showing through in the candle light, and the light surrounding the Oeprius’s head as a sign that it is important to the picture. The focal point is Oeprius’s head, signifying that he is what the whole picture is about. The value is done well enough to show the distinctions between the walls and floors, and the shadows of the people make them more believable. The pigment seems to have seeped through the lines in the canvas to create an almost dream-like, old fashioned cinema-like appearance. King Saul appears to be attempting to approach his newly revived friend with great haste, while the undead man before his kneels at his feet in respect, giving the work the idea that movement exists. Each form (mainly the figures) in the painting appear to be slightly distorted, probably due to the medium used to create it, as they look almost mediocre yet surreal at the same time. There is definitely a narrative present here in the artwork; it did convey to me a story similar the one I thought of. The proportion of each figure appears to have a strangely warped proportion, and the room itself is very small in size, giving it the feeling of secretiveness, like the King wanted the Witch to revive his friend in private so he could reunite with him properly. While the picture is strange and surreal, it is however realistic in its form and anatomically correct human figures show that it is more of a record of an event than an abstract dream or a hallucination, thus denoting its realism. The balance of each figure is spaced equally apart from each other, and they are all in their own separate piece of the canvas. The composition of the work is sparse; much of what is going on takes place in the foreground of the room, while the background consists of just a table and chairs, as if the situation were rather tense.