Derby’s use of light and dark characterizes this
painting. Pale white immediately draws the eye to both the moonlight and
lighthouse. The manmade lighthouse, glowing above the moon, seems to rival it.
However, nature easily bests man in the comparison between the clouds and fortress’
silhouette.
By contrast, the men in the foreground draw little
attention. Dwarfed by their own creations, they humbly work in the shadows. The
whole piece juxtaposes man with nature, considering which is greater.
From The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
By Samuel Taylor Coleridge
The harbour-bay was clear as glass,
So smoothly it was strewn!
And on the bay the moonlight lay,
And the shadow of the moon.
