The Prodigal Son 1615 - 1673

Editor: Here we have Salvator Rosa’s "The Prodigal Son," which was created sometime between 1615 and 1673. It appears to be a charcoal drawing, and it's currently housed here at the Met. The scene is quite striking, almost theatrical with its dramatic lighting. The figure kneels, and it has a somewhat desolate and lonely feeling. What do you see in the tonal composition and the interplay between the figure and landscape? Curator: Thank you for your astute observations. The emphasis for me is in how the artist organizes tonal values to build space within the picture plane. Rosa's method with charcoal exemplifies his skill with dark and light, but where is the vanishing point located? Where is our eye drawn, initially, and how do other aspects compete? Editor: It seems there isn't one distinct point—more of a zone in the upper left. The way the charcoal fades suggests depth, but it’s more about how light falls across the figure, really making them central despite being small compared to the landscape and the animals. So is this intentional to remove the common symmetrical aspects from baroque and romantic artwork? Curator: A relevant point; it does not create the traditional pyramid often seen in figurative works of the period. What, then, does that communicate to the viewer, the non-linear perspective you correctly observe? The emotional state conveyed by that approach to the landscape and narrative elements should provoke us to explore meaning using a purely aesthetic analysis. Editor: Interesting, it presents us with a psychological complexity rather than a moral one? I hadn't considered how breaking the expected visual order could do that. Curator: Precisely. It subverts expectation, focusing not on clarity, but on an emotional and psychological state rendered through purely formal choices of tonal shading and design.