Pequod and the Devil
Pequod and the Devil is an original artwork inspired by Herman Melville's seminal work Moby Dick showing Ahab's whaler chasing down his nemesis, the white whale. 'Pequod' is obviously the name of ship but 'The Devil' is more ambiguous. Ahab sees the whale as the personification of evil, of all that is wrong with the world so it could be a metaphor for the whale, however, Ahab himself could be the Devil as in the novel he refers to himself as "proud as Lucifer" and "damned in the midst of Paradise".
The Pequod is at full sail, something that wouldn't happen in such high wind due to stresses on the mast and rigging, however Ahab's fury overrides his concerns for the safety of his vessel or his crew. The whale is breaching primarily for dramatic effect, however, this is behaviour believed to be used as a way to scan for predators or alert other whales to present danger.
I used the Charles W. Morgan, which claims to be the last wooden whaling ship in the world, as the inspiration for the Pequod. It was first launched in July 1841 and Melville's novel is set in the 1840's so it's about as close to accurate as possible. For the white whale I used various reference photos of real sperm whales.
The artwork is 10" x 26" / 254mm x 660mm in size with the mount and frame additional to these dimensions making the final piece larger overall by approximately 6" on each axis (approx. as the framing for each instance is bespoke and therefore unique).
