Re: [HPforGrownups] How ‘alive’ are paintings?

[RoxyElliot at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 69742

In a message dated 7/12/2003 1:34:10 PM Eastern Daylight Time, 
RavenclawBlack at ColinGregoryPalmer.net writes:

> Hello everyone,
> 
> I am curious as to everyone's thoughts on the paintings in the
> potterverse.  Until book five, I thought of the paintings a bit like
> automatons.  The fat lady was like a computer program that checked who
> could be let in the door, and the other paintings didn't do much.
> But
> now, in book five, the paintings seem very lifelike.  Phineas
> particularly comes to mind.  Are the paintings like ghosts?  Can
> wizards choose to leave themselves behind in that form, or are they
> copies of the wizard's personality?  Can a painting be done while
> the
> person is alive, or postmortem?  (I'm thinking about Sirius here)
> 
> Anyway, I would like to hear what others think on this topic.
> 
> -Colin
> 

My guess is that the paintings are sort of like Riddle's Diary, a memory.  It 
would almost have to be the artist's impression of a personality rather than 
the actual person though.  The personality would be "painted" into the 
picture.  I wonder if there is some kind of spell for making a self portrait...

Roxanne
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hearing voices no one else can hear isn't a good sign, even in the wizarding 
world.
-Ron Weasley


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]