Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates/Ptolemaic geocentric model

Ptolemaic geocentric model

Reason: A gorgeous picture and the best available old illutration of the Ptolemaic geocentric model of the Universe.
Articles this image appears in: Geocentric model, Bartolomeu Velho
Creator: Bartolomeu Velho (? - 1568). Photo by Joaquim Alves Gaspar

Support as nominator Alvesgaspar (talk) 12:37, 7 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Support High quality, plenty of wow, illustrates its subject well. Shoemaker's Holiday (talk) 13:40, 7 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Support I like it, though I'd like an article on Bartolomeu Velho to go with it. I'll start one. SilkTork *^{What's YOUR point?} 15:35, 7 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]
- Thank you, I'll see if I can contribute to its improvement -- Alvesgaspar (talk) 16:35, 7 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Support per nom. Durova^Charge! 16:41, 7 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Support--Mbz1 (talk) 16:26, 7 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Support - meets all the criteria.--Svetovid (talk) 23:16, 7 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Questions The yellow and light brown areas have an odd speckled quality to them. In some places it looks like noise, in others it looks like compression artifacts. Given the size of the pic and your abilities I assume that's not the case... was this an illuminated work? The field in the center looks like it's been flood filled; it seems so uniform compared to the rest of the picture. Again, I'm not accusing you of anything; I'm just describing what it looks like to me; I assume there's another explanation. Check out the (four star symbols?) immediately to the left and right of "FIGVRA" - don't they look kind of odd? To my inexperienced eye, they remind me of when I'm retouching a picture to despeckle it and haven't set the tolerance values correctly. Matt Deres (talk) 23:35, 7 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]
- Answers Yes, this is an illuminated work in the sense that gold was used in the painting. That might explain the funny looking of some of the smaller details, with clearly visible solid particles. The photograph was not manipulated other than the normal brightness and contrast adjustments. Alvesgaspar (talk) 00:03, 8 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Question This is from the 16th century, and it shows the American continent? diego_pmc (talk) 21:09, 9 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]
- Of course! America began to appear in maps as early as 1500, with the world map of Juan de la Cosa, in 1502, with the Cantino planisphere, and in 1507, with Waldseemüller map, the fisrt to use the name "America". During the 16th century, the Americas were shown in dozens of maps, with increasing detail and accuracy. See also, for example, the well konwon (at the time) map of Sebastaian Munster (1540) (here) -- Alvesgaspar (talk) 21:31, 9 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]
  - Sorry for dumb question. :\ For whatever reason I had the impression Columbus lived in the 17th century. diego_pmc (talk) 21:37, 9 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Promoted Image:Bartolomeu Velho 1568.jpg MER-C 09:01, 14 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]