Link and Zelda Kneel Before a Mounted Warrior — Print & Oil Painting

Divide the canvas into thirds and the situation sorts itself out. The left third is taken by the mount, a heavy brown reptile with a row of blue dorsal fins, a lolling purple tongue and skulls hung from its harness. The middle third is water. The right third holds the two small figures in blue and, above them, a tall red-skinned figure leaning on a staff.

The rider is the reason for all the armour in the picture: red and gold plate over the shoulders and thighs, a crested helm, a long spear held upright with a red pennant hanging from it. Everything about the silhouette is designed to be read from a distance, and the artist has kept the face in shadow.

The two on the rock are not kneeling in the courtly sense, whatever the title of the piece suggests. They have gone down low on a slab in the shallows, one twisted round with a sword still sheathed on his back, the other crouched with her head turned away, and the posture is bracing rather than obeisance. It is worth looking at closely, because it changes the scene from a ceremony into an ambush.

Colour carries the strangeness: the water glows a poisonous teal from beneath, pink coral growths sprout from the rocks, and a whole crowd of pale rose figures with spears stands in the mist behind the palms, painted so thinly they might be a memory. From our Zelda collection, near the escape from ancient ruins together and the wounded princess held in the dark.