Artwork created in 1994

• Renderer: POV-Ray
• Heliotropism is the aptitude of certain plants to turn themselves towards the sun. Sunflowers are typically heliotropic.
• The war alluded to in the story is the 80-year conflict between Spain and the Dutch United Provinces, who freed themselves from the Spanish in 1648. Of course, the medieval weapon is totally anachronic in this context.
• The painter Carl Fabritius was killed in the 1654 powder blast that almost destroyed the City of Delft. Vermeer was his executor. Samuel Van Hoogstraten (brother of Jaap ?) is credited as the first artist to paint (in 1654) a truly photorealistic object-containing box.