critical-perspective:

onesideisgreatness:

magistrate-of-mediocrity:

trying–kind-of:

is this a renaissance painting?

“Interrogation of the Zodiac Killer”
-The Ghost of Sandro Botticelli ca 2015

So I slapped some mathematics on this picture and…

The red lines divide the picture into thirds. They also mostly coincide with the doorway (and Cruz’s right hand), framing him nicely as the Main Character of this picture.

The green line was placed using the golden ratio (the ratio between parts of the picture above it and below it is close enough to 1:1.618). It also goes right under his chin (and through some reporters’ hands or tools).

The purple lines are diagonals that are framing the reporters really nicely.

I’m pretty sure you could also do something clever with a circle and the yellow doorway behind him, but I don’t have the patience to fiddle with that.

Basically, this picture has the same “maths are beautiful” aesthetic as (some well-known) Renaissance paintings.

An open threshold, such as a door or window, behind the characters of a painting was a motif used by artists to suggest piety and holiness in people without being blasphemous. Typically contrasted with the surrounding background, the “halo” was a subtle way of suggesting the persons depicted, often the customer who commissioned the piece, was in good standing with God and the Church.