The artist is unknown, but the painting is a perfect example of 16th century European

portraiture.

Just as in the works of artists like Hans von Essen or Antoine Van Dyck, the majority

of the frame is taken up by the subject of the image, in this case an older noble gentleman,

while the background is filled with all sorts of activity.

That background seems to tell a story, although I'm confident it's not a story we would want

to hear.

In the distance we can see burning structures, with flames that lick upward toward a dark

yellow sky.

The subject of the painting stands in front of a crumbled wall, perhaps the last remnants

of a mighty castle or the defenses of the city behind him, but it's the man himself that

draws the eye.

Perhaps it's the corrupt glint in his eyes, or the mountain of human skulls that he stands

on.

Together with his gothic studded armor, he seems the very embodiment of evil.

But don't worry, the painting isn't real, and its subject, Vigo the Carpathian, is a

complete work of fiction.

He's the villain at the center of the 1989 film Ghostbusters 2.

Ghostbusters, of course, is all about investigation.

It's built around the idea that we can apply science to the unexplainable, to dig for the

truth, and to capture evidence that proves ideas our rational minds want to reject.

It opened up popular culture to new forms of entertainment, from the exfiles and supernatural,

...