The gestures are impelled by body motions, dramatic actions, as well as props, and fall into three categories: descriptive; rhetorical; and symbolic. This friend convinced me to present and write about Valentin. Emphasis is placed on the fact that, like Caravaggio, he painted from life β pictturra dal naturale β indeed from canvas to canvas one comes to recognize his models; also noted is his close attention to facts: that his objects and materials are rendered in hyper realistic details, and lastly that his canvases are crowded and cropped β clearly not a 20 th -century innovation.
Hence the subject of this little article. Figure 1: Valentin de Boulogne, Cardsharps c. Cardsharps Figure 1 offers several examples: while the subject of the swindle holds his cards tightly in the closed fist of his left hand, and concentrates on his next move, he is unaware of the man behind him upper right signaling and preparing his partner, or of his rival responding by palming the needed the card lower left. They announce these gamblers as cheats.
We know by the accumulation of coins next to the red-shirted player that he has thus far been winning. We also know that violence is anticipated, that sword play will conclude this game when the fraud is bound to be discovered; in preparation for swordplay, the man in the shadow signaling with the fingers of his left hand, also grasps the hilt of his sword with his right. But gestures are not only articulated by hands and fingers: eyes, head, arms, legs, feet β the whole body β can convey movement to emphasize idea, sentiment, attitude, mood, emotion, meaning.
This John the Baptist includes hands gestures, as his right grasps a staff, and his left points heavenward Figure 2. We see that he has been in a seated position and that he is halfway through raising himself up: his right forearm is pushing against the red-covered plinth to help the leg and thigh muscles β the boy does not have much abdominals to help, and as he leans right, his back muscles are probably not strong.
The aid the red covered plinth provides is both physical and spiritual. The news and mission compel him up and forward.
