Hi Alexi:

 

Zooming in on the polyhedral, I see faint blurry gnomon shadows. (~9:45 on the 
dial facing the viewer, and 10:15 on the equatorial)  These are the types of 
fuzzy shadows one might see indoors coming from an indirect light source- like 
an open window that has light bouncing all over the room.  I don’t think this 
dial is receiving direct sunlight, otherwise the shadows would be sharper.  The 
painting certainly is an indoor scene with the table, furnishings, curtain and 
rug.  This would explain the shadow time difference.

 

 

From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On 
Behalf Of Alexei Pace
Sent: Saturday, February 05, 2011 3:33 AM
To: [email protected]
Cc: [email protected]
Subject: Re: Google's Art Project and dialling

 

If I may ask - why is the dial face (the one facing the viewer) on the 
polyhedral dial different from the rest with the gnomon set on the 6 hour line? 
Yet the time is just 1 hour behind the two times shown on the other two dials.

 

Regards

 

Alex

 

 

On Fri, Feb 4, 2011 at 8:59 AM, <[email protected]> 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 persons as 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..

 

It doesn't (I think) help with viewing the anamorphic skull as a skull - or at 
least you still have to turn your monitor round to do so! - and I STILL don't 
understand the object behind the shepherd's dial...  Anybody know what that 
might be?

 

Patrick

 

 


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