In Herman Melville’s classic book Moby Dick, Captain Ahab has it out for the elusive white whale who had taken one of Ahab’s legs from the knee down. The artist has painted one of the final scenes in the book where Ahab attempts to exact his revenge and is about to land a blow with a harpoon into the great sperm whale’s head. Queequeg, the Polynesian cannibal and member of Ahab’s crew, lets out the line behind him while others tumble into the tumultuous sea. In the background we see their whaling ship the Pequod, connoting the fate that will befall it.
