The Last Moment of Peace is a painting by Alexander Ferrar which was uploaded on October 13th, 2023.
The Last Moment of Peace
Helen of Troy, sitting on a balcony in the palace of Ilium, about to notice a thousand Greek ships on the horizon.
The Trojan War was... more
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$3,000
Dimensions
30.000 x 40.000 x 1.000 inches
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Title
The Last Moment of Peace
Artist
Alexander Ferrar
Medium
Painting - Acrylic On Canvas
Description
Helen of Troy, sitting on a balcony in the palace of Ilium, about to notice a thousand Greek ships on the horizon.
The Trojan War was ultimately started by a golden apple dropped by Eris, the goddess of strife, at the wedding of Peleus and Thetis in the Greek myth of the Judgement of Paris. She was mad about not being invited to the wedding, so she threw the apple into the crowd with an inscription: "To the most beautiful." That sparked a vanity-fueled dispute between Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite. To settle the argument, Paris of Troy was asked to judge which of the three goddesses was the fairest and most deserving of the apple. Paris chose Aphrodite, because she bribed him by giving him the most beautiful woman in the world, Helen of Sparta, wife of Menelaus. Paris carried Helen off to Troy, and the Greeks invaded Troy for Helen's return. This was the cause of the Trojan War. It would not make sense for Helen to have THE golden apple, but a yellow one (or Golden Delicious, as they are called) could symbolize it. Here, she is about to bite into one, reminiscent of Eve in the Garden of Eden.
As I get older and my opinions change, I have started to paint some things differently. When I was younger, Helen of Troy was a beautiful woman trapped in an unhappy marriage with the boorish King Menelaus. She fell in love and ran away with Prince Paris of Troy, and the Greeks sent an army to pursue and reclaim her. Perhaps it was just an excuse by the Greeks to attack Troy, but that doesn't matter, not really. It resulted in a legendary war that lasted ten years.
The way I see it now, regardless of her happiness or lack thereof, Helen was the Queen of Sparta, a strong and disciplined people, famous for their military strength. With royalty comes responsibility for all one's subjects, great and small. In fleeing her duties, she abandoned her people and shamed them before all the known world. They had no choice but to avenge this dishonor.
Here she sits on a marble bench on a palace balcony, overlooking the Aegean Sea. She wears in her hair a crown of bougainvillea, a crown of thorns when one looks past the blossoms. This signifies the descent in stature she has readily accepted. The bench is carved with a bas-relief depicting a battle in which the less-equipped are slaughtered. The floor is decorated with a motif of attacking soldiers, but it is damaged from neglect. This shows that while the palace is beautiful, it was built on violence, just like the one she left, and it is maintained with less discipline than the one in Sparta. It suggests the grass wasn't necessarily greener on the other side.
Meanwhile, on the horizon behind her, the thousand Greek ships appear. She is about to glance over her shoulder and see them coming. This is her last moment of peace, before thousands die because of her infidelity.
Uploaded
October 13th, 2023
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