When I was still a teenager, I went with my parents one cold winter day to a bookstore and passed by their never-ending shelves stacked with beautifully decorated book covers and spines. Fiction novels, memoirs, recipe books; the bookstore offered all kinds of books but none of them caught my interest enough to make me want to bring out my wallet and carry a copy with me home. That is, all except one. On that winter day, when there was still snow on the streets, I bought my first coffee table book on a discount.
You might wonder why a teenager would be interested in a coffee table book when said teenager most likely doesn’t even own their own coffee table and possibly doesn’t even drink coffee. I might’ve wondered that too because I didn’t expect to come home with a large, square book filled with pictures. But, perhaps it wasn’t that odd after all because, if there is one thing I know about myself, it is that I’ve always liked looking at pictures and art.
Inside the shiny pages were masterpieces by Alphonse Mucha printed with accompanying texts and descriptions. Mucha created art nouveau paintings, a style which can be recognized by the swirling borders, large circles or half-circles often seen in the background, scattered flowers, and beautiful women looking like goddesses. It’s one of the more beautiful art styles in my eyes and when I stumble upon The Legend of Zelda fan art resembling art nouveau, well, you can probably guess how happy I become.
Artist Ayuunii is the creator behind this art nouveau-styled piece featuring two important people from The Minish Cap, namely Princess Zelda and the antagonist Vaati.
It is not only beautiful to look at, with the warm colors and decorative background, but also interesting when you look at the two characters in the center. One symbolizes good and peace, the other evil and chaos. They make a good contrast, but that is not all. If you look at their poses, you might get the feeling that something isn’t quite right.
Vaati shouldn’t look so intensely at Princess Zelda’s lips, and she shouldn’t keep her hand on his thigh. Yet, they are, and while the story behind The Minish Cap tells us that this is something that would never happen, it looks so natural in Ayuunii’s art. Who am I to question what’s going on? I would most likely have been horrified if the harmonious Princess Zelda had something like a fling with the power-hungry Vaati — he did turn her into stone after all — but for now, I’ll just sit back, let my eyes rest on this art nouveau styled-artwork, and pretend that, yes, this is normal indeed.
