Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates/"Blind monks examining an elephant"

"Blind monks examining an elephant" edit

 
Original - "Blind monks examining an elephant", an 1888 ukiyo-e print by Hanabusa Itchō
Reason
This is a high-quality scan of an ukiyo-e depicting one of the central ideas of Anekantavada Jainism. It illustrates three articles and could easily illustrate a third.
Articles this image appears in
Blind Men and an Elephant, Anekantavada, (not now but could easily illustrate) ukiyo-e
Creator
Hanabusa Itchō
  • Support as nominator --Fryslan0109 (talk) 22:34, 15 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]
  • Support, although I wouldn't mind seeing a restored version with correction for fade and yellowing.--ragesoss (talk) 00:20, 17 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]
  • Weak Support I completely agree with Ragesoss. It's a nice scan, but it could be a tad better. SpencerT♦C 00:50, 17 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]
  • Support There's white ink used on the elephant and elsewhere. You can't use white ink on white paper, hence the paper is obviously supposed to be tinted =) Shoemaker's Holiday (talk) 01:01, 17 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]
  • Conditional support the use at Polyclonal B cell response looks like OR: please supply a citation for the allegory or remove. DurovaCharge! 09:06, 17 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]
    • Comment I removed it form the article (it seems rather out-of-place anyway). Fryslan0109 (talk) 17:14, 17 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]
    • I can't see how you can consider proving an allegory to explain something to be research. Narayanese (talk) 18:12, 17 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]
  • Oppose The illustration itself is not particularly visually appealing (elephant is bizarrely contorted, etc). It also doesn't really make sense to illustrate a South Asian concept with an ukiyo-e woodblock. Calliopejen1 (talk) 20:32, 17 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]
    • Comment The bizarre appearance of the elephant might represent a stylistic element inherent in the creator of the work or with ukiyo-e printing (elephants are obviously not native to Japan, so perhaps it is difficult for the artist to accurately depict them). As for the medium depicting a South Asian subject, the print represents a concept common to many Dharmic religions, including Buddhism which became quite prominent in Japan. Fryslan0109 (talk) 05:05, 18 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]
      • That's largely my point - the artist appears to have no idea what elephants look like. It doesn't make sense to illustrate this concept with something that looks more like the dog from Neverending Story than an elephant. I think a random Wikipedian (User:LadyofHats?) could do a better job of illustrating the allegory than this ukiyo-e. Calliopejen1 (talk) 13:01, 18 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]
        • Here are several better examples:
        • Other non-free images that are better illustrations are available here, here, here, and here. I just think that this artwork is not so significant in and of itself that we should be settling for a deformed elephant for our main illustration of the concept. Calliopejen1 (talk) 13:54, 18 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]
  • Oppose At least until this gets a color balance to deal with yellowing. Still not grabbed by it, and the anatomical innacuracies are also a hang-up. Clegs (talk) 15:21, 18 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Promoted Image:Blind monks examining an elephant.jpg --jjron (talk) 11:26, 23 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]