Paul Delaroche study

Narrative/Focus
The execution of Lady Jane Grey, The man helping her find the stone to lay her head on is Thomas Brydges and the women on the left are her maids who Lady Jane handed her handkerchief and gloves before blindfolding herself. This is the most dramatic moment in the scene and feels like a photograph of the highest moment of tension. The decision to make the scene be about her finding her place to lay her head on the stone rather than the moment he swings the axe or the moment they collect her head is telling and emotional.

We can almost feel the tension of the moment as we see the maid on the left faint and the man helping guide her. This is similar to the way we see frazetta paint his scenes, he always chooses the moment right before something is going to happen or right after something happened.  Its a moment of quiet tension before a historically violent act.


Color
The first color that pops out to me is the red and the white in this picture. for example obviously the executioner is wearing red as a part of his trade since this is what they do for a living and its fitting to put them in red, it makes him look professional but ominous in a way. The white is obviously our main focal point of lady Jane, the rest of the colors look like the fall into a diluted blue grey on the floor. The red from the executioner is carried throughout the clothes of the other maid on the other side. her red is a little more grey and she carries the same orange and brown colors as Thomas does and the block does. the background and the stone walls have a cooler blue to them that contrasts against the warmth of the figures and the scenes.

Composition
The first thing that stands out to me is how all of the dark shapes are fitted together and connected. They have a kind of flow to them. For example if we take the shape behind the executioner we see it serves a double function of pushing the executioner and the axe forward in the pic but also this shadow shape connnects to the darker shape of the coat that Thomas wears. The black shape breaks up here and you could almost say he does this specifically to let the white shape take dominace here. He then takes the right arm of thomas and connects the shadow of the arm back to the pillar shadow that has fallen across the wall in the background. This dark shape also connects to the dark shape of the maid looking away from the scene.

We notice that all the shapes are grouped together on the left side, they are not seperate from one another at all. This may be to establish balance between the figures on the left whose heads and bodies never reach the stature or size of the executioner. The executioner is higher in the picture frame and higher in his color key then the others. He is also a separate element from them in general, since everyone around her probably knew her personally.