#LAYERS OF FEAR PAINTINGS SERIES#

Goya had a series of 14 paintings - some of which are featured in Layers of Fear - known as вЂњ The Black PaintingsвЂњ. Perhaps these subjects may have suggested his concern for the fate of his country, and also his fear for his mental and physical health. After migrating to France, he suffered a stroke which left his right side paralyzed.Дuring his time in Madrid during the Peninsula War, many of his works featured imagery involving asylums, witchcraft, insanity, strange creatures, and religious and political corruption. Francisco GoyaДЄ very successful Spanish Romantic painter, Goya experienced immense success early in his career, but at one point suffered a severe illness, leaving him completely deaf. And for this next painter, such conditions would bear weight on his life in his later years. Rembrandt lived between 1606 to 1669, and was considered to be вЂњone of the greatest prophets of civilizationвЂќ, due to his empathy for the human condition. Nevertheless, his work was still very popular throughout his time.

Rembrandt started out as an extremely successful portrait painter however, he was met later in life with personal tragediesВ and financial hardships.

So letвЂ™s talk a little about our guests of honourвЂ¦Д¬onsidered one of the greatest portrait painters in European art and Dutch history, his works are iconic in their expert display of light and dark, not only in artistic effect but also in the spirit of his subjects. Some of the paintingsВ IвЂ™ve included in this are themed around violence as well, so consider this a warning. I will be offering my own interpretations and they are, by no means, concrete, canon, or confirmed by the Bloober Team. Like last time, a little disclaimer:В 1.) There are a lot of spoilers in this article, so please read at your own risk if you havenвЂ™t played Layers of Fear and 2.) The viewsВ and opinionsВ in this article are all my own. ThereвЂ™s a fancier word for this - a word IвЂ™ve seen referenced in many games IвЂ™ve played recently, including Life is Strange: chiaroscuro. Whose artworksВ also happen to take the subject of light and dark very seriously. I want to showcase a few painters whose works are featured numerous times throughout Layers of Fear, whose own histories were possibleВ inspirations to The PainterвЂ™s character in the game. Light and dark play a huge role in our interpretation, whether itвЂ™s to define a subjectвЂ™s shape, mass, or volume or to convey a mood, scene, or even foreshadowing. You can look at a photograph, point out all of its colours, but itвЂ™s much more than that. I just opened this with a Bob Ross quote (albeit one of his less goofier ones, which probably let down a few of you.) (RIP, Bob Ross.)Д«ut itвЂ™s true. вЂњDonвЂ™t kill all your dark areas вЂ“ you need them to show the light.вЂќ

Layers of fear paintings