Critique #2

The Pledge by N. C. Wyeth portrays a man who looks like a peasant surrounded by fellow town members. The man has his hands up to the air which is a mixture of bright colors; he appears to be praising it. The men surrounding him are all clad in armor and carry weapons. Perhaps they have just come from battle and are thanking something or somebody for their victory, or maybe they are just leaving for battle and they are asking something or somebody for a victory. The way in which the people hold their weapons at all different levels suggest that they are moving their arms maybe in time with a chant. Some of the people are cut off the page and they wrap around the whole bottom of the illustration packed tightly side by side.
The colors Wyeth uses are very different form each other. The people are all wearing dark colors or earthy colors. The one person standing in the middle sticks out in a green. The light he is praising is very vibrant and seems to glow. There is a sharp chiaroscuro between the people down bottom and the lights up top. The weapons are all in perfect harmony, none of them look out of place and they are all around the same height. In the foreground we see one man who has taken place as leader. Behind him are lights of all different colors. This artist portrays fantasy with the lights and the one man above the rest. He shows him praising to some lights, maybe they signify some magic at work. He thinks fantasy is knights and an unknown light. N. C. Wyeth’s The Pledge is a different person’s perspective of what fantasy is.