Art & Film: Ridley Scott

From the canvas to the cinema.

David Liu | 24 June 2012

Left: Antaeus Setting Down Dante and Vergil (William Blake, 1826; oil on canvas) — for Dante’s Divine Comedy

Right: Satan Arousing the Rebel Angels (William Blake, 1808: watercolor) — for Milton’s Paradise Lost

Prometheus (Ridley Scott, 2012)

The visual opulence of Ridley Scott’s films often derives from thematic works of art throughout history. For the enigmatic Engineers in Prometheus, Scott drew on William Blake’s iconic portraits of physically well-endowed angels originally designed as supplements to Dante and John Milton.

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A Philosopher Lecturing on the Orrery (Joseph Wright, 1766; oil on canvas)

Prometheus (Ridley Scott, 2012)

From creationism to the cosmos: hailed in some circles as “the first professional painter to express the spirit of the Industrial Revolution,” Joseph Wright’s depiction of a solar system model as the central subject of wonderment marked a clean departure from the religion-themed works that had dominated European art prior to the Age of Enlightenment.

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Siege and Destruction of Jerusalem (David Roberts, oil on canvas; 1850)

Kingdom of Heaven (Ridley Scott, 2005)

The siege of Jerusalem by Saladin and his Ayyubid forces lasted from September 20 to October 2, 1187. Scott chose to emphasize the magnitude of the attack by drawing from Roberts’s apocalyptic vision of the battle.

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Pollice Verso (Jean-Léon Gérôme, 1872; oil on canvas)

Gladiator (Ridley Scott, 2000)

Scott, who earned his diploma at the West Hartlepool College of Art and studied at the Royal College of Art, saw in Gérôme’s painting the ”glory and wickedness” of the Roman Empire.

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Nighthawks (Edward Hopper, 1942; oil on canvas)