A portrait from the days of bliss
There is a portrait of Feanáro with his three sons, painted very shortly after the Silmarils had been finished. Maedhros was an adult already, Maglor was what in human terms would be a teenager, and Celegorm was a toddler. (Nerdanel and Finwë were away, visiting friends for a couple weeks)
There is, of course, the version of it that up to this day hangs in Tirion, after being taken from the abandoned Formenos. The official, well-composed, well-behaved painting.
But there's also another version. For, you see, it was in fasion in those days, to paint portraits that looked spontanous, as if somehow capturing a moment, intimate and unplanned. They often were composed of many moments, many expressions of personality that occured during the painting.
In the painting, as it was planned by Feanor, he is in the back, towering over his sons (Maedhros isn't much taller than his father, but isn't much shorter either, so a step was used to achieve the composition. The room is dark, but obove the prince there is a window, letting in the bright radiance of Laurelin, so that Feanor is in parts bright like a flame, and in parts covered in deep shadows. This is true for both paintings.
But in the unknown portrait his face is angry, captured mid-sentence as he was probably berating his sons.
Only Maedhros is well-behaved, standing calm in the front-center with his left hand at Maglor's arm (assuredly? threateningly?). The truesilver circlet bearing the gem (all three have such circlets) sits properly on his head, and his hair is well-braided, tied high with a crimson ribbon (who made it?), braids falling like lava a cascade from the top of his hair. The only spontaneity here is his right hand raised to fix the hair, the ribbon caught by a gust of wind, raised up, twirling at his wrist, messy and breaking the composition, the other end of it falling on his forehead, dying the light of the Silmaril red.
Maglor is standing there turned half to the side, rolling his eyes and clearly unhappy to be in the portrait. His hair is a wavy mess, half-braided, falling onto the circlet so that the light piercing through is dark, almost greenish even though his hair is dark brown.
Little Tyelco has a bird in his hand (how did he get a songbird into the portrait without his father noticing is not known), had the circlet in his other hand and very clearly tried to eath both, but at the moment captured by the painter the bird has just pecked him, the circlet is falling down (with droplets of saliva sparkling in the air) and Tyelco has the peculiar expression of a child that is just about to cry.
The other portrait shows them all standing proud and smiling and, to be honest, this is what they did for most of the time (first tyelco got pecked, some time after Maglor got visibly bored, and their father started berating him for complaining)
There is a portrait of Feanáro with his three sons, painted very shortly after the Silmarils had been completed, by a painter who had, to be honest, more foresight than manners. But not many have ever seen it.
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Congrats on the many followers! You deserve it! Your art is always adorable. <3
Can you draw the Fierce Deity? Look, I just want more FD content on the old Tumblr. I'm running out of things to reblog, haha.
fierce deity machine broke, is fishing deity okay
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