Thursday, March 27, 2014

Never Strikes The Same Place Twice

If lightning is the anger of the gods, then the gods are concerned mostly about trees.
~Laozi

How would you picture a lightning bolt, if it were being held in someone's hand? Here's how Pierre Granier envisioned a bolt in the hand of Jupiter/Zeus circa 1686:

Jupiter of Smyrna
Restored by Pierra Granier, the Louvre

He looks pretty relaxed for someone who is holding a billion volts of electricity. More lightning:

Ball Lightning, 19th century engraving

Mountain Landscape with Lightning
by Jean-Francois Millet (1642–1679)

Storm
by Józef Chełmoński (1849–1914)

A bolt of lightning striking a man, Weird Tales magazine 1941
by Wayne Francis Woodard (1914–1964)

Thunder Storm on Narragansett Bay
by Martin Johnson Heade (1819–1904)

Lightning Striking Long Peaks Foothills
by Bo Insogna

Lightning over Dallas
photo by Neff Conner

How To Paint Lightning, a lesson by Tom Fleming

at

1 comment:

  1. HWYMarch 27, 2014 at 9:42 AM

    Love the Laozi quotation!

    And if you could see a close up, you'd probably see Zeus's eyeballs twirling. :-)

    All great illustrative works depicting lightning, but "Lightning Striking Long Peaks Foothills" really captures the power unleashed.

    ReplyDelete