Pentiment and the Ship of Fools
Art, video games and a lot of wonder
Welcome to Artcade, a collection of intersections between video games and the most recognized and established forms of art, such as painting, literature, music, sculpture, architecture, theater, poetry, photography—in short, all those forms of human expression that have the power to surprise us.
What you see before you is a psychedelic journey across contaminations of styles, symbols, archetypes, and gestures. Expect the unexpected. Enjoy the read!
Pentiment is an interactive story set in the 16th century, featuring a graphic style reminiscent of illuminated manuscripts from that era.
The beginning of Pentiment also marks the beginning of Artcade. The protagonist is immediately thrust into a journey alongside strange and bothersome characters, while Saint Grobian, clinging to the ship's mast, advises him to act as if nothing is amiss. This image was the spark that ignited the idea:
Obsidian Entertainment (2022) Pentiment [Video game] [Adventure] [15 Hours] [Xbox Series X] [Windows, Xbox One/Series S, Nintendo Switch, Playstation 4/5] Xbox Game Studios
While playing Pentiment a painting by Hieronymus Bosch popped into my head. Bosch was a painter who lived in the mid-1400s and early 1500s, famous for his works filled with somewhat absurd and unsettling situations, much like this one:
Well, ok, maybe we'll return to Bosch's bestiary in another episode. For now, let's focus on the ship the protagonist of Pentiment travels on. The painting of Bosch that immediately came to mind was this one:
Hieronymus Bosch (c. 1494) Ship of Fools [Painting] [Oil on wood] [57,9 × 32,6 cm] Paris, Louvre Museum
When the two ships—the one in the game and Bosch's—overlapped in my mind, I thought I wanted to create a collection of moments where art and video games share an insight or inspiration. That's why Artcade exists. Welcome.
Information Desk
Hieronymus Bosch’s Ship of Fools is preserved in the Louvre, though it is only a fragment of the original work. The painting originally had another section at the bottom and was part of a triptych.
Bosch’s is not the only existing depiction of the Ship of Fools. The concept was initially used by Plato in The Republic as an allegory to represent misrule, and over the centuries many images and texts have drawn inspiration from this theme.
If you're interested in learning more about the work behind Pentiment, there is an almost four-and-a-half-hour-long video made by domicreah that delves into its deeper meanings and historical and artistic references.
My last two coins
Every age has its own horrible music and usually horrible music is the one that teenagers listen to. That’s because human beings struggle to accept new things and they remain tied to the emotions of their childhood. Johann Sebastian Bach for his contemporaries was just a very good organist. In painting, one name is enough: Vincent van Gogh, a talent recognized only after his death. The same thing happened with arts. Photography was the evil that would have destroyed painting, cinema would have killed theater and so on. Every expressive medium is capable of being art. It is not necessarily, but it can.
Video games were born at the end of the last century and they are already capable of extraordinary moments. Artcade wants to put a spotlight on those moments. Share Artcade with friends and if you want to help me consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
Until the next episode, ciao!