This is my first time viewing this image (I have not seen the images leading
up to this one).

This is an absolutely fascinating image, but two things bother me... The
light coming in the windows seems awfully bright, not only when compared to
the background we see through the windows, but it (for me anyway) pulls my
attention from other parts of the scene. Also, the way the band on the
floor passes under the chess board makes me think it has something to do
with the chessboard. I don't think this was the intention.

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Statler wrote:

> This is an absolutely fascinating image, but two things bother me... The
> light coming in the windows seems awfully bright, not only when compared to
> the background we see through the windows, but it (for me anyway) pulls my
> attention from other parts of the scene.

Thanks. For the comments also. The background behind the window is 
darkish to allow for the reflections. There are some very faint 
reflections, which most people wont even notice, see the upper part of 
the leftmost window pane where there are reflections of my first Wings 
exercise ( c.f. http://galeria.galactinus.org/vilva/sculpting.html ).

Most of the light in the scene comes through the windows, but as I 
cannot make the light bright enough (at least in POV3.5 there seems to 
be some limit above which increasing the light level has no effect), I 
have had to push the radiosity brightness value pretty high in order to 
get a visually reasonable balance between light and shadow. In reality,
the contrast would be much greater, impossible to reproduce either on 
the screen or in a photo, see e.g. photos I have taken in a cathedral
and a castle: http://www.animal.helsinki.fi/people/vilva/aboa/ .

> Also, the way the band on the floor passes under the chess board makes
> me think it has something to do with the chessboard. I don't think
 > this was the intention.

I chose to put the band at a position which didn't have any obvious 
structural significance and yet obviously wasn't entirely random
in order to hint at some symbolic significance. There is a symbolic 
connection between the band and the chess board: the chess board
is bridging a dividing line, a line which has been crossed. The
wayfarer is looking back to things behind the line having entered
the realm on the right. The picture is my feeble attempt to expand
the allegory of the painting. There are two related pictures at
http://galeria.galactinus.org/vilva/room.html .

   Veijo

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