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Gedeon Mbazumutima

Professor Kardell

English 101

November 2, 2018

Portrait Essay

When an artist is making a portrait of someone he is trying to get a certain message

through using a drawing or picture. The artists tend to do this by using different types of

strategies like the facial expression clothing focal points body gestures background and

objects. In the two portrait the artists show a man who is highly respected person and a religious

icon.

In the first portrait the man we see the man dressed in clothes that seems to be from a

medieval time period and he has a dark blue cape on that is seen flapping in the wind. The man is

riding a majestic white steed and he has a gold sword on his hip. I feel like those features are

symbolic for a noble knight because in medieval times knights were very respected because

people would look to knights to protect the kingdom and the horse being white on the horse is to

show purity. In the background there is a war going on and you can see a lot of dead bodies all

over the battlefield. The man is sitting on his horse with a strong straight posture with a serious

look on his face and his hand is holding onto something that I would think is a medieval scroll,

so that gives me the impression that the scroll might be some kind of peace treaty to end all of

the fighting and death. In the portrait there are two baby angels and one is holding a halo made

out of leaves over this person’s head as to say that he is some sort of saint and that this man can

do no wrong. The overall feel for this portrait is very dark but you can see this man as like a
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savior because of the bright colors surrounding and all of the expensive things that he has on

him.

The second portrait there is more of a religious focus when you look at the picture. In the

portrait we see the man as what one would believe is an angel because he has big white wings

and the is dressed in fancy black studded clothes. In the portrait we can see the man standing

over with one foot on a creature who I would assume is the devil because of the red skin and

pointy horns. Another reason why I see this picture as religious is because of the snake wrapped

around the creature because in the bible the devil became a snake to tempt Eve to eat the

forbidden fruit. The man and creature had to have been fighting because the creature is laying on

the floor in defeat and the man is standing victorious and there is also a sword laying on the

ground. The man looks like he is at peace because his mouth is shut, and his face is very neutral,

he probably feels this way because he defeated a great evil and he knew that he was going to win

the fight between the two. The fight happened on some kind of island because there is water

everywhere and the sky is filled with gray clouds meaning that there was trouble, but the water

seems calm as if everything is good. The man’s hand gesture is together, and it looks as if the

man is praying. This portrait shows the man as a religious being who overcame his battle with

the devil.

In the first portrait the artist made the man look like a very respectable and he looked like

he was a very influential person. The flying angel babies crowning this man with a flower crown

gave the impression that he is a saint and that he is a peacemaker. The second picture mostly

depicted the man as someone who is strong in faith because they showed the man with huge

white wings to make him look like an angel. Both of these pictures showed that the man was

involved in fighting, only difference is in the first portrait the man was the one making the peace
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to stop the fighting, and in the second portrait he is the one doing the fighting against the devil.

By looking at both of the pictures we see that he is someone who is well respected, and he is

very religiously involved.

In conclusion the man in both of these portraits is very well respected and is a religious

icon. We see this in the first picture because the man is riding a noble steed and he looks like he

is going to end the fighting and the baby angels holding a crown over his head shows that he is a

saint. While in the second portrait we see him standing over the devil in triumph while he looks

to pray showing that he has a very strong faith in what I would believe is Christianity.
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References

Neuendorf, Henri. “See the National Portrait Gallery's New Show of Michael Jackson-Inspired

Art-It's a Thriller.” Artnet News, 27 June 2018,

https://news.artnet.com/exhibitions/michael-jackson-npg-london-1310123

LaChapelle, David. “David LaChapelle's 'Archangel Michael' at Imitate Modern.” Imitate

Modern, 7 Mar. 2018, https://imitatemodern.com/2018/03/david-lachapelles-archangel

michael-imitate-modern/?v=79cba1185463