This unusual tactic actually serves a very effective purpose, and ties into the rest of the picture's theme magnificently. By not showing the child's face, he/she maintains a certain amount of anonymity, thereby making him/her universal and shared. He/She could be any of us as children, any of our children, any of our siblings, cousins, neighbors, etc. By keeping his/her identity from us, we are allowed to fill in the gaps with memories and acquaintances of our own. The non-descript uniform carries this further, and even the team name on the crest of the shirt is blurred. .
The vanishing point of the ad is right along the horizon, and draws us to the plain white soccer goal in the background, set against a grove of trees. As our eyes scan the horizon we are taken back to fields of childhood sports games and memories long forgotten. There are no distinguishing features of the field or town, thus also conveying a universality that excludes no one and transports viewers back to innocent simpler days. The dull gray sky takes no attention away from the frozen moment of time showcased in the ad. It is a global theme; one that anyone who ever played sports as a child, knew a child who played sports, has seen a child play sports, or has children who play sports can connect with wholly and completely.
The Renaissance as we know it and the artistic innovations it produced were set in motion long before it actually started. The Early Renaissance and Late Gothic periods served to lay the groundwork for the massive upheavals that art would undergo in the coming centuries. Before these periods, the Middle Ages produced art of little impact and appeal to the masses. Medieval art was flat and untextured, and religious works were inhuman and beyond the realm of reality. One of the earliest artists to depart from this flat, otherworldly approach was Duccio di Buoninsegna. Duccio's The Betrayal of Jesus appeared on the back of a great altarpiece, called the Maestá.
