ANGUISSOLA, Sofonisba: Portrait of the Artist’s Sisters Playing Chess
Very nice! Too bad the board is set up incorrectly…as usual.
Is it? How can you tell?
Sure looks to me as though the player on our left has a dark square in her right-hand corner (lower left corner of the picture), and ditto for the other player (upper right corner of the picture).
I can’t tell which pieces are white or black, though.
Bill Smythe
Good point! Perhaps a few centuries ago casual play wasn’t quite so diligent about that matter.
This one has the white square in the right place!
Unfortunately, the board seems to be TWELVE files wide, though.
Well, art gives us a chance to imagine and feel. It’s not a photograph.
The Detroit Institute of Arts has an ongoing exhibition of Chess Sets from the Dr. George and Vivian Dean Collection
as well as a lecture on the Birth of the Chess Queen this Saturday, March 14.