Trento - Buonconsiglio Castle - "Cycle of the months - January" ~ 1403
(with interpretation)
The whole scene is set in a snow covered landscape,
the first large representation of this kind in the history of western painting.
In the foreground, two aristocratic groups
(theorists and experimentalists) are having a snowball flight.
The scene is dominated by a castle close to Trento
(ivory mathematics towers) , painted in a realistic
way that reproduces the different construction styles.
A bridge (ALEX98)
connects the castle to the outside world. On the right there
are two hunters (engineers and application hunters)
coming through the snow, each with two dogs on a lead
(graduate students) .
One of the hunter's dogs is heading toward a bush in which a badger is hiding
(NP-hard problem) .
The whiteness of the snow-covered countryside is broken by the low
bushes and the fir trees
(the "real world")
under which there are some foxes (non-approximable problems) .
Adapted from: "Il ciclo dei Mesi di Torre Aquila a Trento", Provincia
Autonoma di Trento - Servizio Beni Culturali
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