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What a tiny masterpiece reveals about power and beauty
- Finnucane 6y agoThat seemed interesting but it was too much work. Why is there so much scrolling for each bit of text?
- smiley1437 6y agoI felt that highlighting the particular subtlety and detail of each portion of the painting by zooming in was useful. The fact that the painting was so intricately detailed results in a lot of points of interest.
- telesilla 6y agoI agree, I felt as if I had a personal museum guide, and I was allowed to zoom in and out at will. My only complaint is the quality of the reproductions, it's a shame not to enjoy the brushstrokes.
- hellbannedguy 6y agoThe artists used Squirrel hair as brushes.
- qwertox 6y agoI stopped scrolling, it lacked usability with those small bits of text which wouldn't even snap to be centered. It's hard to tell how this could be made better. Tooltips on markers would increase control, but the story would lose linearity.
- tvb12 6y agoI viewed this on a desktop rather than a phone. The PgDn key worked pretty well, though the text didn't always end up in the same vertical position. Sometimes I had to hit the down arrow key a few times afterwards. Wouldn't a "Next" button do pretty much the same thing, though?
- wombatmobile 6y ago> Wouldn't a "Next" button do pretty much the same thing, though? I wondered the same thing, and decided no, the scrolling is something different, and to my surprise, it is better than a Next button, which would have been easier. Scrolling is more work, which is why I was wondering how to avoid it. But the work adds a quantitative linear dimension to the presentation, like walking the halls and corridors of a gallery. Would the Met be a better experience if you could sit in a chair whilst the paintings were brought to in front of your face, one by one, at the click of a button? I don't think that would be better, even though it would be less "work". Firstly, effort expended contributes to my appreciation of the value. Secondly, the spacial context of walking through the Met is a key factor in how I remember my time there. Place gives context to the art. Curators are highly mindful of this. Viewers are less mindful when the curation is done well, but they leave more satisfied because they are more able to take in the components of a collection which is well organised specially and temporally. Scrolling isn't as powerful a rendition of place as walking halls is - but it goes some amount in that direction. I think it adds to the experience.
- tvb12 6y agoOhh, that's cool. I guess I'm kind of burnt out on scrolling, though. Sometimes I wonder how many more spins the hardware in my mouse can take. For what it's worth, which is very little, if the chair/painting movements were reversed I think you'd be onto something. Roller coasters with art exhibits along the tracks?
- bernardv 6y agoIt’s a fascinating article and a beautiful piece of art.
- 8fGTBjZxBcHq 6y agoI know the religious art influence from europe is explored in this but it is really striking how much it reminds me of a byzantine christian icon. The simple full-body centering of the single figure, the use of color, the unnatural but symbolism-heavy pose. I don't know much about art honestly but something about the light also seems that way. Later catholic and I think russian? style icons became more realistic and don't have that look. The halo too but that's less interesting to me than the feel of the whole thing which is very icon-like.
- sloshnmosh 6y agoLook on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!' Nothing beside remains. Round the decay Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare The lone and level sands stretch far away
- spoonjim 6y agoWill be true eventually, but Shah Jahan’s works include the Taj Mahal which is one of the signal achievements of mankind.
- leoc 6y agoAnd Ozymandias himself is Ramesses II https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ozymandias#Origin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ozymandias#Origin , so in reality his posthumous recognition will probably last for a long time yet.
- lain98 6y agoNot the first time nytimes has given a tongue bath to a genocidal maniac.
- bernardv 6y agoOh please. Just admire something for what it is.
- blacksmith_tb 6y agoPresumably the gloriousness of any emperor, from any empire we care to name, was bought with the blood of masses of peasants and weaker neighbors? Looking over the list[1] I don't see anything surprising. 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shah_Jahan#Reign_(1628%E2%80%931658) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shah_Jahan#Reign_(1628%E2%80%9...
- dang 6y agoPlease don't post unsubstantive and/or flamebait comments to HN. It's not what this site is for, because it makes interesting topics more boring and much nastier. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- rtx 6y agoThis is highly offensive, we shouldn't be glorifying tyrants and mass murderers. These mugahls were responsible for untold attrocities in name of religion.
- sethjgore 6y agoI think it's more offensive to see somebody call this offensive. It's just an analysis of a series of paintings and the royal and the rich and the corrupt and the powerful will always be around. To call this offensive is to be coddled into a false worldview that attempts to suppress the rancid, messy and yet commendable truth of humanity.
- dilawar 6y agoI guess all kingdoms were built over untold atrocities.
- hellbannedguy 6y agoCan anyone name a kingdom that didn’t exploit?
- sneak 6y agoI agree, but Jackson is on the $20. We can evaluate the art separately from the people who made it or the people depicted by it, much like how we can play with TempleOS without endorsing its author’s racist views.
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- csrf-token 6y agoLove these scroll-zoom format articles from NYTimes that go through a work of art in detail. I always learn something interesting. Here are two others i've enjoyed: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/09/25/arts/durer-self-portrait.html https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/09/25/arts/durer-se... https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/08/07/arts/design/hokusai-fuji.html https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/08/07/arts/design/h...
- bigtones 6y agoI wonder what web tool they use to make them ?
- Swizec 6y agoThe guy who makes a lot of their dataviz is famously the creator of Svelte.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- bsenftner 6y agoBack in the early 90's I did 12 art history documentaries in a Ken Burns style very much like this article. The documentaries were still images with hot spots for navigation that triggered voice overs of with zooms on details, with an easily recognized voice doing the narration (I think we used Liev Schreiber). These were pre-CD-ROM interactive discs called CD-I, a failed interactive hybrid between CDROMS and laserdiscs from Philips.
- djohnston 6y agoI'm impressed this works so well on mobile.
- TruthWillHurt 6y ago"We behold the emperor beholding himself" Eat the rich.
- threevox 6y agoKeep your dogma off HN please
- MathYouF 6y agoKeep your dogma towards accepting the status quo on hacker news please, a diversity of opinions is valued here.
- 1996 6y agoCan I then suggest to eat the leftists? There are more of them and they profess their desire to help the poor. They should thus be happy to feed them directly! If it makes you uncomfortable, this is why it is better to keep proselytism out.
- threevox 6y agoCan't tell what you're saying here lol. But what the original commenter commented wasn't an opinion (replete with reasoning, argument, etc.); it was the mindless recitation of a phrase they'd indoctrinated themselves with (equivalent to regurgitating the propaganda of a totalitarian regime)
- dang 6y agoPlease don't post unsubstantive and/or flamebait comments to HN. We're trying for something altogether different here. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- mkinom 6y agoI wonder if there is any open source frontend library to make such interactive mobile friendly experiences?
- _3u10 6y agoYeah, VanillaJS is perfect for this. Works perfectly with https://motherfuckingwebsite.com/ https://motherfuckingwebsite.com/ platform too.
- mooneater 6y ago> Now, it belongs to the Metropolitan Museum of Art How did it come into their possession, I would be interested to hear.
- pradn 6y agoA few more notable Indo-Persian miniatures: A page from the Shahnameh of Shah Tahmasp, one of the most magnificent and fully-realized illustrated manuscripts in the tradition. Made in the workshops of the Iranian Savafids, contemporaries of the Mughals. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ec/The_Court_of_Gayumars.jpg https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ec/The_Cour... A portrait of Malik Amber, taken as a child from Ethiopia and raised in Yemen, rose to the prime ministership of a major sultanate in the Deccan - he was a major thorn in the side of Mughal emperor Jahangir because of his effective use of guerrilla tactics to evade conquest. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a9/Malik_amber_ahmadnager_hi.jpg https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a9/Malik_am... The painting traditions weren't only sponsored by Muslim empires, but also regional courts, such as those in the Pahari hills in the north of India, from where arose Nainsukh, a court painter for a minor raja known for his delicate lines and flat spaces. The man on the left is the raja himself, subdued by the divinity of Radha and Krishna. https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/38009 https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/38009
- r0b05 6y agoThis website itself is a work of art. The DOM is a modern day canvas.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- FounderBurr 6y agoHoly crap what an awful way to present information.
- lucasyvas 6y agoI completely agree - this is absolutely horrendous to consume and I'd like to see someone defend it since you were downvoted. 1. Complete loss of relative positioning. Additionally no idea where the beginning or end is. 2. Nauseating due to having to eye-track moving boxes and scroll behaviour. 3. Takes way longer to read as a result.
- bawolff 6y agoNicely done, although the subscribe overlay pitch kind of ruined it. I did feel like as a piece (the website not the painting) it lacked context - why am i looking at this and to what end? Is this a short thing i can scroll through or is this something i shouldn't look at unless i can dedicate half an hour? Sort of like being dropped into the middle of a museum without knowing what the topic of the exhibit is.
- jimmyed 6y agoMughals were famous for having very cool names. Akbar - means son of God Shah Jahan - king of the world Alamgir - One who snatched the world for himself Shah Alam - king of the universe Bahadur Shah Zafar - Brave, victorious King
- pradn 6y agoTo add: these were regnal names, taken after their ascension to the throne. For example, Jahangir was known as Salim before becoming emperor.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- jimmyed 6y agoOne can only wonder what Mirza Dara Sukoh would have called himself.
- smusamashah 6y agoAkbar means Big or Bigger, not the Son of God. Asghar on the other hand means Small or Smaller. Alam means world/universe so these make sense though.
- jimmyed 6y agoHmm, you are right. Akbar is "great", "big" etc. I know the Padshah was also called "Shadow of God on Earth" - do you happen to know the Farsi for that?
- smusamashah 6y agohttps://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Padishah https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Padishah I speak Urdu being from Pakistan and don't know much Persian apart from what I learnt as a kid.
- throwaway59553 6y agoI have to say this is a great way of highlighting details in the paintings. Small bits of text explaining things, zoom in the detail that the reader would probably not catch.