Deviation Actions
Description
Alexander Vincenzio (1979-2060)
Study of the Supreme Leader
Pencil on paper
Gift of the Vincenzio Family; 2073.10
In all of his tenure as ruler of the free world, Drakken sat for only three portraits.
The first was at the start of his reign. It featured himself and his then Second in Command still flush with victory, their postures easy and their smiles sure. He sat upon a throne of his own design, a plush and gaudy thing of dark blue velvet and gold, while she stood behind him with one slim hand caressing the throne’s delicate filigree. There were shadows in her eyes even then— a portent, perhaps, of the betrayal that would necessitate the second portrait.
By then he’d adopted the style and manner that would come to define both himself and the duration of his reign. In the portrait he stood rigid against the backdrop of the Empire flag with his hands clasped in the small of his back and severity written in everything from his sunken glare to the sharp, drab lines of his tactical suit. Here was a Supreme Leader who would no longer be lulled by familiarity, or fall victim to conscience or mercy.
So it seemed, at least.
This, the third portrait, was one of dozens of studies of the dictator Vincenzio’s family found amongst his books and notes decades after the fact. Here Vincenzio displays his shrewd eye for sincerity within his subjects by capturing a lapse in Drakken’s stern demeanor. Though his posture remains unyielding, its effect is softened by the tilt of his head and the distant, troubled look in his eyes. It’s doubtful this was fancy on the artist’s part, as later accounts prove that Vincenzio was a firm opponent of Drakken’s reign and disgusted by the man himself. No, it appears that artistic integrity is what guided Vincenzio’s hand here, and a keen sense of survival is what led him to hide the incriminating drawing until after the regime’s fall.
Many have wondered why Drakken looks so lost in this portrait. Had the strain of rule begun to sink in? Was he struck by the absence of his Second in Command, who had been integral to his conquest and who, many suggested, he had counted as his only friend and confidante? Or had he been granted a flash of precognition that allowed him to see himself as history would: a bitter man framed by the trappings of his pyrrich success, alone?
(Paper texture from here)
