As I am buried in finals this week, I'm afraid some filler art will have to do. :( But hey, it's based on classic lit, and it's in a colored Sire style! Not a total loss!
For my final project in Renaissance Literature, I did three pieces based on Philip Sidney's Astrophil and Stella, names that more or less translate to "Star-lover and Star." Astrophil and Stella was the sonnet sequence that started the sonnet sequence craze. Over 108 sonnets and eleven songs, the speaker Astrophil tells the story of his obsessive love for Stella.
Astrophil fell in love with Stella gradually, so the first vignette up top isn't a first meeting, but rather an example of Astrophil's continual mooning over her. The night sky is there to continue the star theme.
Throughout the sonnet sequence, Astrophil continually discusses the inner turmoil between his passion for Stella and the reasoning that holds him back: running in and sweeping her off her feet is really no way to win a lady, and it's rather frowned upon. Thus, reason here is represented as Athena, drawn in a statuesque manner as cold and unappealing as the self-control she represents. And Passion is drawn as a chibi Eros, personable, like one of the guys. (In my mind, he's pointing up at the Stella above him, and telling Astrophil "Hey! You gonna hit that?") Astrophil also discusses the classic difficulties of putting his feelings into words without making them artificial, as the copious amounts of paper there show.
And the lovely Stella, of course, is depicted in the lower right corner, ever the Petrarchian beauty, with fair skin, roses in her cheeks, bright (though curiously black) eyes, and an air of virtue.
All text in the picture is from Sidney's Astrophil and Stella.
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