Armour maketh the man

Paul Vanzella

Armour maketh the man

In 16th century war time armour maketh the man… it glorified his position in battle – but if you strip away the armour, then the man, you may only find a distant landscape bearing his soul.

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Armour maketh the man by Paul Vanzella
  • Andrew Walker

    Andrew Walker

    bugger armour, gimmie a long bow any day and i’ll show you what your armour can do

    nice picture though, verrrrrry clever

  • Jessica  Tremp

    Jessica Tremp

    Paul, this is just brilliant…I can just see this hanging in a gallery…i’m speechless

  • Jeff  Burns

    Jeff Burns

    WOW powerful stunning image. Great work
    This is so cool! WOW

  • ferndesign

    ferndesign

    this is awesome great work

  • mikrin

    mikrin

    This is great! The transformation is wonderful

  • shayne2011

    shayne2011

    A tryptich! It’s great. The high key tones are a great counterfoil to the subject, and the whole thing hangs together so well. I also like the little figure in the background of the centre panel. Well done. :)

  • Martin Derksema

    Martin Derksema

    Oh, this really does a lot to me. It has the strength of a religious painting or icon. Also it has a beautiful surreal feel, but very subtle. What a great idea to express this line of thought with a triptych. Yeah, we come, we live and we go. This image leaves a deep silence in me.

  • Rod  Adams

    Rod Adams

    Awesome as usual!!!!!

  • flower68

    flower68

    brilliant artwork.love the choice of colour,the atmosphere the concept…

  • ~ Ademac

    ~ Ademac

    Great concept…...........really well done.

  • mayuphoto

    mayuphoto

    I really love the story behind. The change of its tone is great too. Such an artistic image.!

  • ozjami

    ozjami

    Very cool,cleverly put together !!

  • shall

    shall

    love it
    x

  • billyboy

    billyboy

    Paul, I looked at this a while before I read your caption, and in fact I saw it just the other way round. Nature in its pure form, nicely contrasting in light and dark, wonderfully simplistic… is wary of the appearance of man on the scene. Could be good, might be bad, but naked, he is pure in his own way and although he has provoked imbalance, he has provided dynamic. But give him armor and aggression and he is a danger to the fabric of the world as it was originally conceived. The contrast and dynamic has turned to muddled darkness. An amazing story board with intense imagery. Jeeze Paul, we’re all going to burn!

  • Shanina Conway

    Shanina Conway

    Brilliant Paul! love the tones and the visual journey!

  • Ian  James

    Ian James

    Great piece….Just fantastic.

  • gordontant

    gordontant

    this is seriously good work Paul, and very well presented

  • shayne2011

    shayne2011

    well, around here, cK., Dolce and Garbage or Abercrombie and Filth maketh a man. Not that much has changed. :)

  • Susan Trigg

    Susan Trigg

    Very powerful images. I like the fact that this can be interpreted in more than one way (my initial reaction was the same as billyboy’s) – it requires contemplation. To me, the ‘perfect’ piece of art has both visual beauty as well as powerful message, and you’ve achieved both here.

  • Karen Cougan

    Karen Cougan

    Wow Paul that has such great truth and meaning….........congrats mate.
    xkc

  • Globalphotos

    Globalphotos

    Well written and such a wonderful representation, great work !

  • Antanas

    Antanas

    beautiful composed

  • Nando MacHado

    Nando MacHado

    Beautiful theme and execution, as always.

  • Mel Brackstone

    Mel Brackstone

    Awesome work Paul, you’re going from strength to strength!

  • amorspainter

    amorspainter

    good work
    i have to think when a see this
    to the dutch masters of painting

    dick

  • shanghaiwu

    shanghaiwu

    mmm

    oh so brilliant/most impressed by the creativeness and the body

    really quite awesome

  • transmute

    transmute

    Great image and concept, and so well executed.

    One fascinating thing is that apparently the average modern man wouldn’t fit in to an old suit of armour. Due to better nutrition and healthcare we are on average taller and bigger than our historic counterparts. Maybe we are evolving further away from our essential souls without the armour now as we gain more control over our physicality through science.

  • Marion  Cullen

    Marion Cullen

    You’ve outdone yourself with this one. Great work.

  • missalyshachristine

    missalyshachri...

    wow, this is such a powerful piece!
    excellent work

  • Aaron .

    Aaron .

    My word it does. This is right up my alley Paul – wonderful, medeival and dark. Beautifully executed. This is a real cracker and one of my growing list of personal faves of yours.

  • Nicole Goggins

    Nicole Goggins

    brilliant job!

  • halftone

    halftone

    I love the fact that you can see the heavenly human form on the left hand image, then half faded but definitely there in the middle, turning into full depth colour and detail, and then the dark scary figure on the right….your description is beautiful, as is your art.

  • Heather King

    Heather King

    this is freaking incredibly astounding paul
    you always amaze me with your artistic creations
    there is so much to this.
    truly i am in awe.

  • ltruskett

    ltruskett

    God you blow me away. Lost for words…..............bloody superb, matey – genius even. :)) (well, had a few words after all, I guess. LOVE IT.

  • Paul Louis Villani

    Paul Louis Vil...

    Very powerful Paul!
    Even though you have based the theme of this particular image in the 16th Century, it applies as much in modern times as it would’ve back then.
    Perhaps we don’t wear armour today but we still are sometimes defined by our coverings and not our soul!
    Superb work mate!

  • Helene Kippert

    Helene Kippert

    Love the concept and the execution Paul

  • Basia McAuley

    Basia McAuley

    A magnificent work of art.

  • karen milder

    karen milder

    powerful story

  • Melinda Kerr

    Melinda Kerr

    What a huge talent you are Paul.

  • Mohsen Bayramnejad

    Mohsen Bayramn...

    clever, creative and so fantastic idea… you have an amazing style!

  • Virginia McGowan

    Virginia McGowan

    wowo ditto everybody!

  • SnapHappy

    SnapHappy

    splendid!

  • Karl Schlemmer

    Karl Schlemmer

    Excellent Paul! :-)

  • Walter Colvin

    Walter Colvin

    Excellent wrok Paul.

  • Rhana Griffin

    Rhana GriffinRedbubbley Schweppervescence

    Your thought processes behind this image are intriguing Paul. I love how you have given the “distant landscape bearing his soul” the honour of first place in this triptych, for it truly is the soul and not the outer image we project to the world at large that is the most important thing. I also like how the landscape of the soul angles down towards the others. Our descent from the pure spiritual into the physicalities of man… and the constraints and perceptions society places on him.

  • Coralie Casey

    Coralie Casey

    Wow, that’s awesome, love your description too.

  • Darren Burdell

    Darren Burdell

    This Rocks!! There’s something Da Vinci esque about this, I agree with billyboy because I also read it from left to right. Great concept, deep narrative and absolutely nailed down tight!!!!

  • marcusjohn

    marcusjohn

    Yes this does rock- you are the man Paul… You are the modern day….
    Bloody awsome

  • Jacq Wilson

    Jacq Wilson

    Oh…......um wow!! Again, you leave me searching for whatever it is that I am feeling….......I am intrigued by the power that you convey in your work. Just fabulous…........always raw ( especially that bum shot!!) Brilliant!

  • Sharon Bishop

    Sharon Bishop

    A powerful set of images and a narrative that is as true today as it was in the 16th century.

  • bodymechanic

    bodymechanic

    impressive triptych,excellent concept,unique result!! another iconic piece

  • orourke

    orourke

    very interesting idea and well executed, well done again

  • vonne

    vonne

    AMAZING image! WELL DONE!

  • annacuypers

    annacuypers

    This is a strong work again Paul ! Well done,
    Anna

  • cdwork

    cdwork

    Excellent!

  • Peter Fletcher

    Peter Fletcher

    Powerful imagery. I really like this one,

  • Heather  Rivet  IPA

    Heather Rivet...

    powerful and original..fantastic

  • LittleHelen

    LittleHelen

    Gosh…the guy in the armor is cool. Great triptych ;)

  • Andriy Portyanko

    Andriy Portyanko

    Very cool! Interesting work!

  • Gerijuliaj

    Gerijuliaj

    Great triptych Paul – love the concept of the man in armour fading to the light of just his soul in the landscape on the left (peace), and how you have placed yourself centre on this spiritual journey….love the light/shade and tonings. Europe has obviously been a great inspiration for you.

  • DawsonImages

    DawsonImages

    Imaginative work, nicely done!

  • Gerijuliaj

    Gerijuliaj

    Meant to say also that I love how you have depicted the empty landscape for the soul as the beginning and the end of this triptych…as it is in life – everything goes full circle.

  • shaytay

    shaytay

    Intense!:)

  • conilouz

    conilouz

    very awesome,, great looking model too….

  • Julie Langford

    Julie Langfordcommunity host

    Breathtaking Paul – stunning work

  • Jamie Lee

    Jamie Lee

    The power you create in your images is impressive. This one is magnificent!

  • Paul Vanzella

    Paul Vanzellafounder

    WOW – I am so overwhelmed by the response to this image (smiling so much here) gives me enormous gratification to have the image so well received. Huge big thank you TO YOU ALL!!!

  • Colin Tobin

    Colin Tobin

    Wow Paul, this is on hell of an excellent and powerful tryptich. Your images convey your theme perfectly. This would be understoodeven without the included discription.

  • Kurt  Tutschek

    Kurt Tutschek

    fantastic combination of shots – a very impressive tryptich. beautiful work, Paul!

  • Chris  Kuck

    Chris Kuck

    great work !!!!! love it divided into 3’s

  • sweetscent62

    sweetscent62

    Great work Paul : ) I saw the images similar to Billyboy and Susan… as the soul ..perhaps a newborn…the man..and then the hardening that comes from living in this world being the armour that we all carry as protection. Wendy

  • fracturedfotos

    fracturedfotos

    Definitely a piece of art. Love this Paul!!

  • jotography

    jotography

    ..the more clothed we are, the darker the spirit. Brilliant and powerful work.

  • Birgitta

    Birgitta

    This is mind blowingly COOL.
    Ouch!!

  • Rosalie Dale IPA

    Rosalie Dale IPA

    Again I ‘read’ the storyboard from left to right, till I read your description. It works both ways. Stunning work.

  • coffeebean

    coffeebean

    This is STUNNING work

  • Jessica  Tremp

    Jessica Tremp

    came back to this…bloody hell Paul

  • Craig Goldsmith

    Craig Goldsmith

    Masterfully crafted as always Paul, there is so much depth to this series of images. I’m very impressed.

  • Ruben Flanagan aka (Flan)

    Ruben Flanagan...

    Very Nice Paul,

  • dazgwen

    dazgwen

    Great creation Paul you are a legend!

  • Travis Seale

    Travis Seale

    This is a very creative concept.

  • Tigeressly

    Tigeressly

    Great compostion, awesome! :-)

  • Daniela Reynoso Orozco

    Daniela Reynos...

    Very powerful, amazing composition!

  • GerryMac

    GerryMac

    outstanding work!

  • mary08

    mary08

    Great concept, brilliant artwork !

  • mklau

    mklau

    This image is just great. Like all of your work, a story emerges in the mind of the viewer…. no less than in mine. You’re a very talented artist

  • aner

    aner

    I love your work so much, its so inspiring and so original. You have work that sets itself aside from all others. So surreal just the same, I love it.

    This is one of my favorite pieces of yours.

  • claire jones

    claire jones

    awesome image, one of my faves!

  • stuieD

    stuieD

    Probablt the best artist I know!!!

  • MuscularTeeth

    MuscularTeethVoted Most Helpful Bubbler

    wow incredible series of images there. !!

  • NOverton

    NOverton

    very well done

  • paulevelin

    paulevelin

    love to see your work
    so inspiring

  • Michael J Armijo

    Michael J Armijo

    This has a unique sense of POWER to it…Great work. ;)

  • Winslow357

    Winslow357

    Great job Paul!

  • Sande Elkins

    Sande Elkins

    Exceptional! Such a strong statement and beautifully created as well.

  • David Robinson

    David Robinson

    I think it has all been said … but adding to the comments is a pleasure – it’s a fantastic image. Moving, creative and thought provoking. And the execution is fabulous! Great title as well … working from right to left the armour is stripped away leaving the spiritual … working from left to right the armour becomes the man and transforms him into the other …. the man in the machine … the bringer of death. Well …. just another brief interpretation to add to the rest!

  • H M Bascom

    H M Bascom

    Hmmm, very interesting work.

    The armor appears to protect the body, but in reality protects the inner man, the soul, from public view. Stripped of his armor, he is like every other man. Exposed every weakness and fear.

    Great work Paul.

  • Jan Piller

    Jan Piller

    Gee everybody has already said so much, doesn’t really leave anything else to be said; Except my great respect for your beautiful work here.

  • AQUALINA

    AQUALINA

    I am going to throw the cat in amongst the pigeons and forewarn you that a lot of you especially women may not like what I am going to say, but well…this is our men that we are talking about here.

    When I first saw this image it touched my heart in a way that I wasn’t quite sure about. I had to think about my feelings and digest before I had what to write.
    It made me feel very sad for the state of the male in our society, and it is a feeling I have often. People have been talking about him in his armour being the bringer of death, a danger to the world, an imbalance and his aggression being something that we need to get ride off.

    I don’t see this image or men like that, I see men have a quality of strength, power and a very subtle but true sense of balance that needs to be free, as it is in the contact that they have with their inner essence that they find their compassion and place in the world. I think men were made to fight and to conquer, and in that place lies their protective instinct and their nurturing qualities. Take that away from them and you have an insipid man who is pussy whipped, and on trial for his so called wrongs…for being a man. We take all these things from him and then complain as women: “where are the men, they are so weak and dependent on us”! We nag them for not speaking or expressing as we list of our list of complaints…and we wonder why!

    We need men to be men, as I look around in society I see the lack of men in children’s lives everywhere and it is having a huge impact on society.
    Why is this? I would think that feminism would say its because men are so aggressive and don’t love their kids but I think this is so far from the truth. I personally, (and am of course being overly simplistic for arguments sake, as this is a very complex argument), but I think it is because men can no longer be men, as women have taken over and stripped them of their balls along with the armour in an endeavour to over power them. It has been said by feminists that men fear the power of the womb and the vagina, but I also would say that women have a serious case of penis envy, and now the pendulum has swung back the other way.

    Give me a man who is wild and free, who wears his suit of armour and battles for his ideals, his family and his country. Men no longer have anything to fight for, and feel they don’t have a purpose or ‘fit’, and so we are loosing them and our boys in the process, (look at suicide & road crash statistics, in fact look everywhere). Without our men our boys cant be boys and cant grow up to be the men we need them to be, strong independent and self-sufficient, and ready to fight for what is right and what they believe in.
    I frequently see women say its so aggressive what boys do in the play yard…they shouldn’t fight or be rough and no swords or guns as its just not right!!! We have taken the identities of boys and men along with their armour.

    This is our men, and we need to fight for them and their freedom as women, as in doing this we will understand the completeness of our femininity.

    Go the mighty PENIS…!!!

  • AQUALINA

    AQUALINA

    and as an add: to tie it back into the image and what you Paul maybe have consciously or unconsciously stated but has not really been noted in the comments so far:

    if you strip away the armour, then the man, you may only find a distant landscape bearing his soul.

    and what is seen on that landscape, nothing.

    As you can see there is not much left when we take away his role!

    Bless men and their simplicity.

  • Paul Vanzellafounder replied

    Wow – this just blew me away… what an amazing retort and incredible perspective… Brilliant!

  • aynan

    aynan

    Saint George where is your dragon?.....Love this evolution of character..power..

  • Amanda Hammock

    Amanda Hammock

    Absolutely love this. I have nothing deep or introspective to say other then brilliant.

  • Jaeda DeWalt

    Jaeda DeWalt

    This self-portrait is outstanding Paul!
    Thought provoking and visually captivating, with poetic words -
    that beckon to the soul.

    but if you strip away the armour, then the man, you may only find a distant landscape bearing his soul. W O W

  • Jean M. Laffitau

    Jean M. Laffitau

    WOW! Fascinating!

  • Larasolnishko

    Larasolnishko

    How strange, I missed that triptych image. It is very powerful but very simple piece of Art. I amused again and again how lovely females balanced male’s energy. Aqualina wrote things which verbally stimulate thinking. I love females on red bubbles; many of them have opened to themselves there amassing writing talents.
    I think many women lost the art to be female and allowed man lead and rule the every day living. The happy couple is the one, where female is fine artist of relationship.
    I wish Paul will create one more image, where female is a neck and man is her head.
    It is her job trying to be flexible, turn him from left to right, allowed him to see things which only females soul can observed.

  • Paul Vanzellafounder replied

    wow – love your insight into this piece… thank you for commenting!

  • Ben Herman

    Ben Herman

    good sequence, can imagine it in a film.

  • Paul Vanzellafounder replied

    thanks ben. one of my favourite concepts… love your comment!

  • Angel Gold

    Angel Gold

    Tha capture, the freedom, the desolation, the chest. Love it and instant fave

  • Paul Vanzellafounder replied

    wow Selina, thanks for th emphatic comment – love it! Thank you!

  • Michael A. Morrison

    Michael A. Mor...

    love this tryptic work..the concept, statement, the text…excellent work.

  • Anthea  Slade

    Anthea Slade

    This work is breathtaking and emotionally intense. Love the bold, raw and powerful impact of the work and the narrative that flows through the three images and etches in the imagination way beyond the viewing. Achingly beautiful Paul.

  • deepbluwater

    deepbluwater

    Making my way blissfully thru all of your work, having already looked at and absorbed some of the layers in the images and now (and always) seeing how many more layers and levels of meaning and depth there are to decipher. This image and the concept behind it are ASTOUNDING! Your ability to fearlessly reveal our collective -and your personal-humanity thru your stunning images continues to blow me away. It seems all is not right w/the World unless I have recently engaged myself in another one of your almost unbelievably deep & beautiful images…

  • Paul Vanzellafounder replied

    oh my goodness, such beautiful words… I’m almost unable to respond… thank you so much deepbluwater… love how you see, engage and respond… Love the way your words hold a mirror up to my images – and for that I thank you deeply…
    -paul

  • RobertCharles

    RobertCharles

    wow – this is an experience!! so deep and meaningful. thank you.

  • ANNETTE HAGGER

    ANNETTE HAGGER

    Powerful composition…..anna : )

  • Heather  Rivet  IPA

    Heather Rivet...

    respect to the artist

  • Lorena Maria

    Lorena Maria

    So gorgeous! ~..being honest I knew you handsome but not that much!! ~ Great!
    lorena

  • simonesphotos

    simonesphotos

    Brilliant concept and wonderfully executed as always Paul!

  • Tahnja

    Tahnja

    wow, this is beyond words, excellence doesn’t even come close. This really and truly moved me, finally something with real depth!

  • KiwiAna

    KiwiAna

    Oh oh Wow! This is spectacular

  • Laurie Search

    Laurie Search

    Spectacular.

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