Link Stands Before a Giant Goron in a Lava Cave — Print & Oil Painting

Sparks drift upward through the whole height of this painting, hundreds of small orange flecks that thin out as they rise. They come from the seams of lava that run under the boy's boots and along the right-hand wall, and they are the reason every dark surface in the picture has a faint warm edge on one side.

The stance is braced and low: legs wide, weight on the front foot, a straight sword held out and down in the right hand, a round shield strapped to the left arm and turned toward the threat. He wears layered plate over a red skirt and red leggings, and his head is tipped up and back, following something much taller than he is.

That something occupies the top third of the canvas and is only half painted. A great mane of brown fur surrounds a pale bony face with two green eyes set wide and low, and one arm comes down out of the dark with a gold band around it. It is worth saying plainly that this giant is painted a long way from the boulder-backed rock folk the series usually gives us; it reads as a shaggy beast, and that changes the temperature of the meeting entirely.

The palette is nearly all grey basalt and ash, with the reds confined to the floor, the wall and his own clothing. From our Zelda collection. The towering shape in the dark cave stages a similar mismatch of scale, and the Fire Temple's glowing stairs keeps the heat and drops the monster.