Wednesday, July 7, 2010

[Resources] The Blue Boy

The Blue Boy is a famous painting from the 1770s by artist Thomas Gainsborough. It can be used as a character sketch for a game set in the 17th century, a view of an NPC the characters encounter in a swashbuckling campaign, a stolen painting in a modern master-thief game, a clue in a globe-trotting two-fisted adventure (the artist used an already used canvas to paint over - what was that obscured painting?),or a centerpiece for a 1920s thriller (What cryptic words did National Gallery director Charles Holmes write on the back of the painting?).

The internet has a whole gallery of wonderful art that can also be shoe-horned into a game for a variety of reasons. Do you have a favorite painting or piece of art you can do the same with?

3 comments:

  1. Holbein's "Amassadors." So many layers of meaning and conjecture.

    http://markmeynell.files.wordpress.com/2009/07/holbein-ambassadors-basic.jpg

    ReplyDelete
  2. That's pretty cool. I like the various objects around the ambassadors: the mandolin, the globe, the books, all those other items, most of which are probably known to people of that era but which are totally mysterious to me.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Note also in the upper left corner of the painting, the crucifix partially obscured by the curtain. there has been a lot of speculation on that as well as the "3-D" skull on the floor.

    ReplyDelete

Unfortunately, due to spam, I have set up comment moderation. I will review and approve your comment as soon as possible. Thank you for your patience.