Living in New York City two summers ago, I passed this man, drawing the Madonna and Jesus-baby on a corner just north of Washington Square Park. This picture was on about the second day, when he had drawn and spray-set the outline and began to color and shade. When he was finished, about a week later, it rained. The spray he used kept the drawing intact (yay), and the rain made each color richer and darker.
On the topic of madonnas a nd jesus-babies, I've always loved the way they portray the baby. Always calm, usually holding up a hand, palm forward or to the side; "Ok guys, calm down. I know I'm still a baby, but keep your shit together for a few more decades and I'll be ready to give lessons. Just, you know, chillax a while."
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That very placid expression is a standard of most representational art all the way up through the neo-classical period. Jacques Louis-David was particularly notable for showing people going through the most horrible experiences but showing the emotion of the situation only through body language. Socrates is about to drink hemlock, but he has about as much emotion on his face as if he's ordering a tuna melt! I guess it could be a way of preserving the timelessness of the composition, but I think can also be argued that such blank faces were easier for models to hold, so those were the only expressions that the masters really learned. One of the big breaks the modernists made was to start showing the expressiveness of the human face in extreme conditions. Just look at the hopeless terror in the faces of Goya's Third of May. You really believe that guy is about to get executed!
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