BIBLIOGRAPHY
Zelinsky, Paul O. 1997. RAPUNZEL. New York: Scholastic, Inc. ISBN 978-0-590-38602-9.
PLOT SUMMARY
After a longing for a baby, a childless family discovers that the wife is pregnant. She craves the rapunzel from their neighbor’s garden and to ease her pregnancy, her husband sneaks into the garden to pick some of the herb. The neighbor, a sorceress, catches him stealing and demands in return for their unborn child. The sorceress takes the newborn baby girl and names her Rapunzel, raising her with care and satisfying all her needs. When Rapunzel turns twelve, the sorceress isolates her to live in a high tower in the woods with no doors and only one window at the very top.
For years Rapunzel lives alone in her tower with the sorceress her only visitor, until one day a prince riding through the woods hears Rapunzel's beautiful singing. Enchanted by her voice, he watches the strange tower to learn how to enter. After the sorceress has come and gone, the prince mimics her by calling "Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair!" Rapunzel's golden hair cascades down to the prince, who climbs up as he has seen the sorceress do. He falls in love with Rapunzel and marries her in secret in the tower. When the sorceress discovers the result of their forbidden love, she cuts Rapunzel's hair in a fury and uses it to lure the prince to tragedy. Blind and wandering through the wilderness for a year, he is saved by the sound of Rapunzel's sweet voice. The two are reunited and are welcomed back into his kingdom, where they live happily ever after.
CRITICAL ANALYSIS
The author takes this age old fairy tale and creates a beautifully illustrated picture book. The artwork in this version of Rapunzel is emphasized, and gives the story more meaning than the plot line itself. Exquisite, highly decorative and over-sized pictures establish, with an emanation of realism and drama, a specific sense to the era, action and personalities that make up this story. A peacock's shimmering plumes on one page, a marble wall background on another, an inlaid scissors on the next page, a convex mirror on the table, reinforcing the pregnancy theme achieve the Renaissance ideals of beauty through details. The artistic style depicts people, places and things as they are seen in the real life; this allows the reader to connect visually with illustrations that represent the world as the eyes see it.
Zelinsky perfects the oil painting, one of the artistic mediums mostly used by the Old Italian masters. This technique entails priming an absorbent surface after initial detailed sketching and then applying one or more layers of paint. The use of layers builds depth into the paintings. A closer look at the faces in the illustrations reveals “underpainting” in grays and browns under the skin of the characters. This effect exalts their expressions. The artwork is so rich, so lush; the reader could almost expect to feel the texture of oil paint.
Zelinsky’s writing is careful and gripping, and his stylized interpretation of the emotional themes in this timeless story is complex. Worthy of notice is that his sorceress is not depicted as a scary old witch, but yet as a motherly figure who wants to protect Rapunzel from the harsh reality of the real world. This idea is also provided through the tower where the sorceress locks Rapunzel in. The tower is beautifully painted with an ornate design and is described as having “many elegant rooms”. In each picture, Rapunzel also wears a beautiful dress and lovely necklaces. If the sorceress wanted to imprison Rapunzel as a punishment, she would have locked her in an ugly, barren tower.
This is a remakable, well-written retelling of the Rapunzel story, exploring ideas and themes that most versions of the fairy tale either gloss over or completely ignore. Borrowing from both the Grimms and previous versions of the tale from France and Italy, Zelinsky, with his masterful paintings of the Italian landscaping and architecture, captures the essence of the Renaissance and at the same time, offers the old story in fresh and new aspect. This is a book that, while appropriate for younger children, will probably be better understood and appreciated by older readers, including adults.
REVIEW EXCERPTS
Horn Book Magazine: “…it takes a scholar's mind and an artist's insight to endow the familiar with unexpected nuances-which Zelinsky does with passion and dazzling technique. Given the story's Italian origins, his choice of a Renaissance setting is inspired, allowing for many allusions to the art and architecture of the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries…. Simply put, this is a gorgeous book; it demonstrates respect for the traditions of painting and the fairy tale while at the same time adhering to a singular, wholly original, artistic vision.”
Publishers Weekly: “Zelinsky does a star turn with this breathtaking interpretation of a favorite fairy tale. Daringly and effectively mimicking the masters of Italian Renaissance painting, he creates a primarily Tuscan setting. His Rapunzel, for example, seems a relative of Botticelli's immortal red-haired beauties, while her tower appears an only partially fantastic exaggeration of a Florentine bell tower. For the most part, his bold experiment brilliantly succeeds: the almost otherworldly golden light with which he bathes his paintings has the effect of consecrating them, elevating them to a grandeur befitting their adoptive art-historical roots".
Booklist Reviews: “Zelinsky turns to the formal beauty of Italian Renaissance art as the setting for his glowingly illustrated version of an age-old story. ...this story is as much about the fierce love of mother for child as it is about the romantic passion between the imprisoned Rapunzel and the prince…. Rapunzel is both gorgeous and maidenly.”
AWARDS
Caldecott Medal Book, 1998
Carl Sandburg Award
CONNECTIONS
• Organize a field trip to a nearby museum or a virtual trip to the National Gallery of Art (www.nga.gov) to view old and new master works using oil painting to develop a rich appreciation of this medium.
• Arrange guest demonstrations of oil paintings by local artists or picture book illustrators.
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