Aurora

This piece of art above is called Aurora. I chose it because I had the opportunity to see a copy from the original at the Fleming Museum, at the University of Vermont.
The original one was created by Guido Reni, an Italian painter who lived during the renaissance.
When you go into the Fleming Museum, it is one of the first pieces of art you see. A huge painting with a half nude man surrounded by seven women on a chariot led by four horses, with a cherub holding a torch and a female figure in a cloud leading them into the dark which is supposed to be the night. This is what you can appreciate at first sight, however, the important things are the ones you see afterwards; the details of the painting.
I loved this painting extremely, I can even say that it was love at first sight, I can clearly recall the first time I saw it. I was supposed to meet my class at 8 o’clock outside the Fleming Museum, and as you may assume, I didn’t know exactly where the museum was, since I had only been there for two weeks, so I got lost and I arrived at the museum late.
When I finally found it and entered, my feelings were all in a rush. I just wanted to see what the assignment was, do it and go back to bed for an hour. All of my thoughts and ideas went away when I looked at Aurora, something happened inside me. I felt my heart beating so hard that everything stopped for a few minutes and I fell into a trance. All I was able to see was this picture, with the blonde man surrounded by women dressed as the seasons in soft colors of leaves.
At first I thought the painting was about Jesus Christ being taken to heaven by these seven women, but once I got near and read the inscriptions I realized that it was about Apollo, the God of Sun; one of the most powerful Gods of the Olympus. Despite of this, it was quite strange for me that the representation of Apollo on the painting was, according to me, not accurate. The boy in the painting was not the powerful Apollo I pictured in my head so many times before. However, something in this painting continued affecting me in an odd way. After a few minutes I figured out what it was that I liked the most about this painting; the two women painted at the back of Apollo’s chariot. They were both looking at me. Every time I looked at the painting, they continued looking at me. I felt that I was so moved by them as they were moved by me looking at them. I thought they were twin sisters, connected by their looks as two grapes of the same branch, so similar, so charmed and happy of having me there looking at them. It felt as if they both were trying to tell me something more about the painting, about the world surrounding them, about everything.
If you look closely, all the rest of the things in the painting have flaws. Apollo is not as perfect as he should be and the other five women lack passion. Furthermore, Aurora, the Goddess of Dawn is taking them into darkness instead than brightness, and the horses on the picture are using too much space and they are not perfectly painted.
In general, the painting has a lot of flaws, but that’s what I love about it; its flaws make it perfect for me. Perhaps, the fact that I like the flaws of the painting may say that I’m not a perfectionist, but I don’t really think it is that. I think that I like the humanity revealed to me in the painting through its flaws.
Finally, Aurora is just an amazing painting to be admired.