On 04/02/2011 07:59, patrick_pow...@compuserve.com wrote:
After only recently learning of the Google Art Project, I looked at
Holbein's /Ambassadors /today and like many others I was amazed at the
resolution. This huge painting, it's not far off 7ft square, is here
in London at the National Gallery and it is now available to view
under Google's Art Project at:
http://www.googleartproject.com/museums/nationalgallery/the-ambassadors
Painted in 1533 it has the most interesting collection of contemporary
dialling equipment all of which are painted in immense detail. There
are two globes (one terrestrial and one celestial), a quadrant, a
torquetum, a polyhedral dial and a shepherd's dial and some others I
don't know, all of which are set in such a way as to tell some 'story'
to the understanding viewer.
Until now it has been almost impossible for a sundial-interested
visitor to the gallery to attempt to understand much of the detail -
there just isn't time - but now with this view you can. You can even
see for yourself the four place names marked on the terrestrial globe
(one of which helped to identify one of the depicted personsas Jean de
Dinteville, the Seigneur of Polisy) and you can even read the music
and words in the open book and guess at the date and time shown on the
shepherd's dial..
Yet another astounding service from Google. Thank you Patrick!
I've often wondered at the sheer graphical precision of e.g. the ellipses and
polyhedra painted in seemingly perfect perspective in 'The Ambassadors'. I'd
not be surprise to learn that Holbein used an aid such as a simple pinhole
camera to enable him to portray everything with such perfection.
Tony Moss
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