(3.7) 5000 piece puzzle, "Intervention of the Sabine Women" by Jacques-Louis David, Ravensburger, Germany.
Complete! A classic Ravensburger from 1983, this hits all the right marks for me - a famous but unusual art selection; thick, sturdy pieces; a tight fit that made moving various pods around much easier than the Yanoman (yet not too tight a fit that the puzzle can't be disassembled without damage); and a linen-textured surface with a slight sheen, which to me is probably the gold standard, as the textured surface deflects light and reduces glare, yet it also gives a soft, rich quality to the print, whereas smooth-surfaced paper with matte finish can look rather flat and lifeless (although it's getting better thanks to companies like Blue Kazoo and Art & Fable). Linen-texture puzzles can be very hard to photograph - the camera seems to pick up the bits of light within the texture - and I had to draw all the shades to take this pic. It could be the very low-angle light of December's fault, too. The puzzle looks even better in person, is what I mean. It is, however, overall a bit more brown or burnt sienna tinged than the original.
For some reason Ravensburger titles it "Rape of the Sabines" which is a completely different incident from the same time period. This painting is one of David's major works and one of the most famous in the Louvre's collection. At nearly 13 feet high, by 18 feet across, it must be a sight to behold.
From Wikipedia:
The Intervention of the Sabine Women is a 1799 painting by the French painter Jacques-Louis David, showing a legendary episode following the abduction of the Sabine women by the founding generation of Rome.
Work on the painting commenced in 1796, after his estranged wife visited him in jail. He conceived the idea of telling the story, to honour his wife, with the theme being love prevailing over conflict and the protection of children. The painting was also seen as a plea for the people to reunite after the bloodshed of the revolution. Its realization took him nearly four years.
The painting depicts Romulus's wife Hersilia – the daughter of Titus Tatius, leader of the Sabines – rushing between her husband and her father and placing her babies between them. A vigorous Romulus prepares to strike a half-retreating Tatius with his spear, but hesitates.
The rocky outcrop in the background is the Tarpeian Rock, a reference to civil conflict, since the Roman punishment for treason was to be thrown from the rock. According to legend, when Tatius attacked Rome, he almost succeeded in capturing the city because of the treason of the Vestal Virgin Tarpeia, daughter of Spurius Tarpeius, governor of the citadel on the Capitoline Hill. She opened the city gates for the Sabines in return for "what they bore on their arms". She believed that she would receive their golden bracelets. Instead, the Sabines crushed her to death and threw her from the rock, later named for her.
The towering walls in the background of the painting have been interpreted as an allusion to the Bastille, whose storming on 14 July 1789 marked the beginning of the French Revolution.
While I expected, halfway through, that the puzzle would be finished quite a bit faster than the 5146 piece Yanoman I previously did (54:05, 3.8/10 difficulty), the endgame here was really hard. Part of that had to do with the complexity of the crowd, and my not referring to the image. Not only are there a lot of bodies, they are not always in intuitive positions (I scratched my head for a long time about where the two pieces of a baby's head went, until I realized it was being held aloft by a woman and not near the bottom.). The cut of Ravensburger is fairly easy, so I think overall this is a slightly more difficult image than the Yanoman, but an easier cut. If you look at the two 3000 Ravensburgers I did a couple of years ago, those also rank easier than other brands of the same size. This puzzle took about 2/3 the time that the infamous Ravensburger 5k Nightwatch puzzle took (and that was with box reference), so that gives a sense of how difficult the latter is.
Completed in 51 hr., 9 mins. with no box reference, fully freehand method. 5,040 pieces (60 x 84 grid): 36.5 secs./piece; 98.5 pcs./hr. Difficulty rating: 3.7/10.
(3.7) 5000 piece puzzle, "Intervention of the Sabine Women" by Jacques-Louis David, Ravensburger, Germany.
Complete! A classic Ravensburger from 1983, this hits all the right marks for me - a famous but unusual art selection; thick, sturdy pieces; a tight fit that made moving various pods around much easier than the Yanoman (yet not too tight a fit that the puzzle can't be disassembled without damage); and a linen-textured surface with a slight sheen, which to me is probably the gold standard, as the textured surface deflects light and reduces glare, yet it also gives a soft, rich quality to the print, whereas smooth-surfaced paper with matte finish can look rather flat and lifeless (although it's getting better thanks to companies like Blue Kazoo and Art & Fable). Linen-texture puzzles can be very hard to photograph - the camera seems to pick up the bits of light within the texture - and I had to draw all the shades to take this pic. It could be the very low-angle light of December's fault, too. The puzzle looks even better in person, is what I mean. It is, however, overall a bit more brown or burnt sienna tinged than the original.
For some reason Ravensburger titles it "Rape of the Sabines" which is a completely different incident from the same time period. This painting is one of David's major works and one of the most famous in the Louvre's collection. At nearly 13 feet high, by 18 feet across, it must be a sight to behold.
From Wikipedia:
The Intervention of the Sabine Women is a 1799 painting by the French painter Jacques-Louis David, showing a legendary episode following the abduction of the Sabine women by the founding generation of Rome.
Work on the painting commenced in 1796, after his estranged wife visited him in jail. He conceived the idea of telling the story, to honour his wife, with the theme being love prevailing over conflict and the protection of children. The painting was also seen as a plea for the people to reunite after the bloodshed of the revolution. Its realization took him nearly four years.
The painting depicts Romulus's wife Hersilia – the daughter of Titus Tatius, leader of the Sabines – rushing between her husband and her father and placing her babies between them. A vigorous Romulus prepares to strike a half-retreating Tatius with his spear, but hesitates.
The rocky outcrop in the background is the Tarpeian Rock, a reference to civil conflict, since the Roman punishment for treason was to be thrown from the rock. According to legend, when Tatius attacked Rome, he almost succeeded in capturing the city because of the treason of the Vestal Virgin Tarpeia, daughter of Spurius Tarpeius, governor of the citadel on the Capitoline Hill. She opened the city gates for the Sabines in return for "what they bore on their arms". She believed that she would receive their golden bracelets. Instead, the Sabines crushed her to death and threw her from the rock, later named for her.
The towering walls in the background of the painting have been interpreted as an allusion to the Bastille, whose storming on 14 July 1789 marked the beginning of the French Revolution.
While I expected, halfway through, that the puzzle would be finished quite a bit faster than the 5146 piece Yanoman I previously did (54:05, 3.8/10 difficulty), the endgame here was really hard. Part of that had to do with the complexity of the crowd, and my not referring to the image. Not only are there a lot of bodies, they are not always in intuitive positions (I scratched my head for a long time about where the two pieces of a baby's head went, until I realized it was being held aloft by a woman and not near the bottom.). The cut of Ravensburger is fairly easy, so I think overall this is a slightly more difficult image than the Yanoman, but an easier cut. If you look at the two 3000 Ravensburgers I did a couple of years ago, those also rank easier than other brands of the same size. This puzzle took about 2/3 the time that the infamous Ravensburger 5k Nightwatch puzzle took (and that was with box reference), so that gives a sense of how difficult the latter is.
Completed in 51 hr., 9 mins. with no box reference, fully freehand method. 5,040 pieces (60 x 84 grid): 36.5 secs./piece; 98.5 pcs./hr. Difficulty rating: 3.7/10.