- Friday, May 23, 2008
- Prospero
- Posted by Zach in Art Friday Post News
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Okay, here’s the deal. We’re Craaazy busy, but we have a few submissions for the Prospero topic some of which actually have to do with Prospero, like this one here by Cory Godbey. Cory came up to me and asked, does Prospero do a lot of magic in the Tempest? I said, he’s been stranded on an island for 12 years so I’m sure he’s done some magic in that time. “That’s all I need to hear,” said Cory. “I’m going to have him make trees really quickly out of acorns, because that’s what I would do if I knew magic. I’d make trees out of acorns–really fast.” So there you have it. This is Prospero, making trees out of acorns in record time.
This next one was done by our faithful administrative assistant, Hallie.
Prospero, I’m pretty sure, is the puppeteer. He’s orchestrating the shipwreck like he does in the play. Also, he’s manipulating a girl who may be Ariel the sprite, or Ariel from the Little Mermaid. Either way, Hallie has the waves, and the books, and the theater theme, and Prospero as a bit of a manipulator. Hallie wins points for topicality.
Now for the shamelessly reappropriated drawings.
Here’s one from me. This was done several months ago for a book that had nothing to do with Prospero. Let’s just say this it’s Ariel set free. And the specks on the ground with kid proportions … Um, that’s Prospero and … let’s say, Caliban.
Actually, this could maybe illustrate an example given in a lecture by Tom Stoppard. Stoppard maintains that the play is not the text, but rather the event. He cites a production performed outdoors in front of a lake. By the time Prospero set Ariel free it was night time. She turned and ran out toward the lake and then in the lake! The director had the foresight to put boards down under the water, and the audience just heard the pit pat of her footsteps as she ran on top of the water into the darkness. Some ways from the shore there was a small wooded island, and somebody on the island fired a rocket off into the night. So basically, Prospero sets Ariel free. She runs out over the top of the water, then ascends into the sky like an exploding rocket. Stoppard wryly comments that all the magic of this exit was in the event. Shakespeare’s text merely reads, “exit Ariel.” Anyway, shoe horn this drawing into a Prospero category and imagine this is Ariel.
This next one is from Justin. It’s a sketch of … Prospero, yeah. It’s Prospero because he’s oldish, and has a beard. It is a very nice sketch, but I think it was actually a study of a Bernini sculpture of … some … classic figure … playing … Prospero? Sure, why not?
Chris Koelle might have the drawing that deals most with Prospero. Meet Joseph M. Prospero. He’s Prospero for the 2000s. Instead of a bookish magician stranded near the sea, this guy is a professor of Marine and atmospheric chemistry. Magic. Atmospheric chemistry. They’re basically the same thing! Well done Chris.
And that’s it for this week. Have a good weekend.
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3 Responses to “Prospero”
I really like your picture, Zach, but, um, Ariel is referred to as “he” throughout the text, and in most productions he’s played by a male actor.
Shakespeare did have lots of fun with boy actors acting women’s roles, so maybe you can just say you’re putting a 21st Century spin on things by doing the opposite.
You’re right of course. Ariel’s gender is referred to only twice in the play. Once in the stage directions. The other in a line by Ariel, “… to thy strong bidding task Ariel and all his quality.” However, the part has been played far more by women than by men. In a 1916 New York Times review of the play the author acknowledges, ” … though scholars have locked horns on the gender of Ariel, the part has been played by a woman ever since women have played in the English speaking theater at all [Restoration theater 1660].” Also, paintings by Henry Fuseli and William Hamilton, and a host of engravings give some artistic precedent for a feminine Ariel. Instead of putting a 21st Century spin on it, let’s say I’m putting a 19th century spin on it:) Actually, this after the fact apologia is rubbish because the drawing was actually done for something not at all Ariel related. Time just got away from me, and I wasn’t able to finish anything before it was time to post. Now I’m pretending that the feminine Ariel was something I intentionally thought through.
i thought through the feminity. & definitely think ariel was a girl. not just because walt disney said so (ha), but because of the one reluctant & the one more-willing servant prospero had. the stubborn drunk one would have definitely been male. plus, sea nymph (& the other manifestations) she/he (ariel) takes on? pretty much none too manly.
(& zach, people have told me they can’t see my visual. perhaps it’s for the best, but even i in camino can’t, but safari i can.)