In the painting "Ariadne", by Arthur Streeton, why are the sails of the ship white?
score:6
Accepted answer
According to the common version of the myth, Theseus left her in Naxos. He probably sailed more than one day from Naxos to Athens, with stops on his way. So this is not his final leg which is shown in the picture. In those time sailing at night was unusual. They tried to spend nights on the shore, which was possible in most cases because of the abundance of islands.
The picture has some other major inconsistencies with the myth. The boat was evidently painted by the artist as he saw it: it is a contemporary boat (18-20 century) since it has fore-and-aft rig, probably the gaff rig with a jib. All these are recent inventions. The Greeks used only square rig.
Also the boat sails to the right in the picture, which is opposite to the direction of the open sea, so it seems to be returning from a trip rather than departing. (Unless the land that we see at the horizon is another island).
I suppose the painter painted the landscape as he saw it, the boat included, and then simply added the Ariadne's figure, without much thinking.
More post
- 📝 Have there been any other US presidents besides JFK that were groomed from birth to be president?
- 📝 What were the post World War 2 effects on Germany?
- 📝 How many wars have there been in Europe since WW2?
- 📝 Who titled the works of Aristotle?
- 📝 Is it known if Caracalla had any other lovers or possible bastard children?
- 📝 Did the Europeans benefit economically from the scramble for Africa?
- 📝 If Bill Clinton was impeached, why did he finish his second term?
- 📝 How many digits of Pi did the old Egyptians know?
- 📝 How much influence did the Zimmerman Telegram have?
- 📝 How much of a role did Sakamoto Ryoma play in overthrowing the Shogunate?
- 📝 How widely accepted are Tolstoy's views on history within the academic community?
- 📝 Was there an Act of Oblivion in 1686 for those involved in the Monmouth Rebellion 1685?
- 📝 What is the oldest archaeological source which mentions a name of a specific place?
- 📝 What were the factors behind the lowest AAA corporate interest rate in U.S bond history during 1946?
- 📝 Why was the US table tennis team sent to communist China even after a difference in ideology?
- 📝 Is the historical consensus that Galileo did not drop balls from the Leaning Tower of Pisa?
- 📝 In the past were there gifts on the days leading up to Christmas instead of them all being on the one day?
- 📝 Did the Greeks win the battle of Salamis because their rowers were "free"?
- 📝 What was the early understanding of static electricity shocks?
- 📝 Did Anza record exactly who came along on his expedition?
- 📝 Were people in the Neo-Assyrian or Achaemenid Empire aware of the empires before them?
- 📝 Which cultures considered dual-gender sacred
- 📝 Can anyone help identify this French military uniform?
- 📝 Were the Western World's general political and ideological consensus and consequent actions primarily responsible for the global ending of slavery?
- 📝 Can you help me identify the rank and patch on this Royal Italian Army uniform?
- 📝 What is the age of the oldest written proof of Christianity?
- 📝 What were the capabilities of a warhorse?
- 📝 Has any country won a war, but lost a non-trivial portion of its territory?
- 📝 Who ruled India when the Abbasid ruler Harun al-Rashid was the Caliph of Baghdad?
- 📝 Is there an edition of Gibbon's *Decline and Fall* that has been annotated by a modern historian?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 In the painting "Ariadne", by Arthur Streeton, why are the sails of the ship white?
- 📝 Why are the German and French languages so different?
- 📝 Why are military uniforms often flared or poofy above the knee?
- 📝 Why are many African-Americans in Mississippi concentrated in the northwestern area?
- 📝 Is there a historical explanation as to why the USA people are so litigious compared to the French?
- 📝 Why is this Latin text black but the Latin numerals are red?
- 📝 Why are there so many laws about eye injuries in the Code of Hammurabi?
- 📝 Why are the signatures on the United States Declaration of Independence structured as they are?
- 📝 Why are the USA and Canada's states border so straight?
- 📝 Why are the French and Indian Wars / Seven Years' War not considered WW 1?
- 📝 Why are the majority of Dresden inhabitants atheists or agnostics?
- 📝 Why are most of the world's oldest buildings in Europe and not in the Fertile Crescent?
- 📝 Why are there no photorealistic paintings from the old days?
- 📝 Why are the Portuguese so obsessed with salted codfish?
- 📝 Why are the historical large cities in the southern US not the large cities in the South today?
- 📝 Why are the ceilings so high in older houses?
- 📝 Why are some amphoras pointed on the bottom?
- 📝 Why are some Pharaohs depicted wearing the red or the white crowns even after the unification of Egypt?
- 📝 Why are baseball pitches that miss the strike zone called "balls"?
- 📝 Why are there shields present on the sides of Henry VIII ships, did they serve any function or was it pure decoration?
- 📝 Why are the buildings built in classical style in the first half of the 19th century in Russia so frequently yellow-and-white - coloured?
- 📝 Why are stamps put in the top-right corner of post?
- 📝 Why are the facades of some residential buildings in Paris, France, tilted?
- 📝 Was Frederick Douglass right that in his day 'religious slaveholders are the worst'? If so why would this be?
- 📝 Why are the ground floors windows of northern Italian palazzi often barred up?
- 📝 Why are only the Normandy landings referred to as D-Day?
- 📝 Why are the "Three Musketeers" called musketeers?
- 📝 Why are the Rohingya not recognized in Myanmar (Burma), amongst the other 135 ethnic groups?
- 📝 Why is the nuclear powered USS Nautilus (SSN-571) a museum, when nuclear aircraft carriers are not converted to museums?
- 📝 Why are the capitals of central Asian countries right against the borders?
