Six Rossetti Prints, Peynter Recolours & Framing Kit

Title

Six Rossetti Prints, Peynter Recolours & Framing Kit


Description

This project started out with quite different subjects for conversion to Sims 2 format. Along the way I discovered that "Olive Peynter's City Skyscape" is not what it appears. While the dimensions of this painting are nominally 256 pixels wide by 429 pixels high, the game engine actually projects the central part of the image larger, significantly cropping the picture in the process. The actual usable area is only 210 pixels wide by 423 pixels high, for an effective aspect ratio of 0.50. Further details are available in the attached peynter_framing_kit.zip, complete with 15 new frames for your free use.

With this new knowledge, I now realize that "Olive Peynter" has the lowest aspect ratio in the commercial game distribution, somewhat lower than even Nightlife's "Sent to My Room Without Dinner". This download therefore consists of the four appropriately sized pictures that previously appeared in Seven Dante Gabriel Rossetti Prints, Nightlife "Dinner" Recolours, plus two new ones. Although it took me a lot of extra time to discover the anomaly and prepare new subjects for download, I am happy that these pictures - particularly Rossetti's popular "Prosepines" - are now available for those who do not have Nightlife.

These base game compatible "Olive Peynter" recolours must be used with Deedee's and Quaxi's No Glare patch, available here (this special file is not available in this download). These paintings cost §4000 each and have an Environment value of 10. The main archive is rossetti_peynter.zip, which contains the following:

In the first painting, "Annunciation" (1861), I am intrigued that Rossetti has imagined the Virgin Mary as reading a book at the time. This seems to link her as much to Dante's Beatrice - who is often shown reading a book - as to the young Mary. In Rossetti's philosophy, both these two women have been beatified through the descent of divine love.

Secondly, the "Damsel of the Sanct Grael" (1857) or "Holy Grail", presents the medieval myth in suitably medieval style.

By Zeus, "Mnemosyne" (1881), pictured third in this group, was mother of the nine classical muses. Memory, which reactivates experience, is the mother of art.


Rossetti painted nine "Proserpines" (Persephones) in his lifetime, of which only the last four are known to have survived. First on the left, "Proserpine" (1882) is his very last version, completed a few days before his death. As goddess of both the underworld and rebirth, this subject provided a most appropriate ending.

Next is an uncropped version of "Proserpine" (1874), not included in the Nightlife "Dinner" download.

Third is the cropped but somewhat differently coloured version of "Proserpine" (1874) that was previously uploaded. For comparison, this picture is shown in its "Sent to My Room Without Dinner" version at the end of the row. It is difficult to know which colours are more faithful to the original, but I tend to believe that the darker hues of the uncropped version are more correct.


Lastly, I have included three of these works in greyscale, for those interested in playing Retroville type scenarios. They can be found in rossetti_peynter_grey.zip.

These images are all in the public domain, and sourced from either The Athenaeum, the Art Renewal Center or the Walker Art Gallery. I have reframed this set with a texture from the "Red vs. Blue Oil Painting". Each was reduced in size from the originals without dimensional distortion, and with matting used to fill out the aspect ratio where necessary. I used SimPE to set reflectivity to zero so as to maximize clarity.

You may include these recolours in any uploaded lots, whether for free or pay - although it would be nice if you included a credit in the description and sent me a PM. Apart from using them in lots, I would prefer that you not upload this collection or portions of it elsewhere, if only because such duplication can cause confusion.


Additional Credits:

SimPE 6.0, which makes it all possible
Corel WEB.PhotoPaint, for picture frame manipulation and texturing
Microsoft Photo Editor, for adjusting contrast, brightness and size
Senesi2003's tiny ceiling light, used to help illuminate one of the sample pictures
Attribute Change 5.30, used to adjust a file's date and timestamp, which puts the recolours together in consecutive order, with the most recent recolour being the one furthest to the left. Thus the paintings are arranged in alphabetical order within the catalogue popup display from right to left.