Friday, November 20, 2009

The S.F. Chronicle flips over creation


The San Francisco Chronicle ran an Associated Press story on Thursday, November 19, 2009, about a new book that discusses Michelangelo's approach to creating the frescoes of the Sistine Chapel. What would a story about famous artwork be without an appropriate illustration? The Chronicle ran an image provided by the AP—a detail of the famous “Creation of Adam.” With a fine sense of artistic taste and discrimination, the Chronicle's layout artist determined that Michelangelo made an elementary mistake in his composition and was good enough to correct it for him. And it's not as though anyone is going to notice, right?

4 comments:

Jens Knudsen (Sili) said...

Sorry, but even I know that it's standard practice to flip pictures to make people face the text.

It's interesting, though, that Adam was a leftie originally.

vw: unabl

Zeno said...

Did I say it's not standard practice, Sili? What I'm saying is that it's silly to apply "standard practice" to a universally recognized image. Besides, flipping the artwork to make Adam face the text means that God faces away. (Perhaps the deity does not countenance the text.)

Taz said...

I'm just happy they didn't slap a fig leaf on it. I wonder how many complaints they got? Won't somebody think of the children?

Jens Knudsen (Sili) said...

I honestly don't think I'd have noticed if you hadn't pointed it out.

I recognise the image - duh - but I don't think it's handed in whatever corner of my mind it lurks.

Sorry.