Talk:The Annunciation (Tanner)

A fact from The Annunciation (Tanner) appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 3 April 2021 (check views). The text of the entry was as follows:

Did you know... that in his 1898 painting The Annunciation (pictured), Henry Ossawa Tanner uses a column of light to depict the angel Gabriel?

A record of the entry may be seen at Wikipedia:Recent additions/2021/April. The nomination discussion and review may be seen at Template:Did you know nominations/The Annunciation (Tanner).

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Did you know nomination

The following is an archived discussion of the DYK nomination of the article below. Please do not modify this page. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as this nomination's talk page, the article's talk page or Wikipedia talk:Did you know), unless there is consensus to re-open the discussion at this page. No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was: promoted by DanCherek (talk) 00:03, 29 March 2021 (UTC)[reply]

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The Annunciation (1898) by Henry Ossawa Tanner

... that in his 1898 painting The Annunciation (pictured), Henry Ossawa Tanner uses a column of light to depict the angel Gabriel? Source: "The Annunciation". Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Reviewed: Octet (Bruch)

Created by GeneralPoxter (talk). Self-nominated at 04:50, 11 March 2021 (UTC).[reply]

General: Article is new enough and long enough
New enough: Long enough:

Policy: Article is sourced, neutral, and free of copyright problems
Adequate sourcing: Neutral: Free of copyright violations, plagiarism, and close paraphrasing:

Hook: Hook has been verified by provided inline citation
Cited: Interesting:

Image: Image is freely licensed, used in the article, and clear at 100px.
Freely licensed: Used in article: Clear at 100px:

QPQ: Done.

Overall: Only one comment really. The image is really eye-catching, but looking at Commons it appears the current version in use is not as detailed as the original version – while the current one has much greater contrast and is arguably stands out more, there is definitely more detail in the previous version. Should the purpose of the image's inclusion match the "hook" vibe of DYK (in which case I think the current picture is best), or should it be a faithful reproduction (in which case I think the original is more appropriate)? MIDI (talk) 16:03, 12 March 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Yes I would much rather prefer a more faithful reproduction of the painting than one that stands out more. I checked the official page of the painting on the Philadelphia Museum of Art's website, and their image of the painting seems to be the original version you linked above. I would like to switch the images, but I'm not sure how to use an older version of a Wikimedia image without reverting the image history. GeneralPoxter (talk) 16:17, 12 March 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Hm it seems the Philadelphia Museum's image of the painting is of higher resolution than the current version on WikiMedia. Copyright policy of the museum states that "website content is protected by law", but would uploading this image to WikiMedia constitute fair use? GeneralPoxter (talk) 16:21, 12 March 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Comment Not mentioned previously, but this is a prime candidate for a specific date (25 March)... RandomCanadian (talk / contribs) 18:22, 15 March 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Interesting proposal RandomCanadian. @MIDI:, I changed the image out for a higher resolution alternative on WikiMedia Commons that appears to be a visual compromise between the original and current versions you linked above. Let me know what you think of the new image; I personally think it is acceptable. GeneralPoxter (talk) 18:41, 15 March 2021 (UTC)[reply]

I'm very happy with that one – we've got both the clarity of the original and the 'punch' of the other one, so from my point of view it's

good to go. MIDI (talk) 20:49, 15 March 2021 (UTC)[reply]

"Perhaps influenced by the fundamentalist teachings of the African Methodist Episcopal Church"

@GeneralPoxter: a quick question about this - before the line about Gabriel appearing as a shaft of light, the prose says "Perhaps influenced by the fundamentalist teachings of the African Methodist Episcopal Church"... I don't really see what the connection is between that and Gabriel appearing as a column of light? The first source connects the design with Tanner's experience in the holy land,[1] but doesn't say it's due to fundamentalist teachings... And the second source ([2]) no longer seems to be accessible. Is the connection made in that source? Or was it just your own supposition that the two things might be connected? Cheers — Amakuru (talk) 12:20, 2 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Luckily, I took screenshots of the book pages in case this happens. According to page 162: "The most striking contrast between the two works is Tanner's innovative use, possibly deriving from his fundamentalist religion, of a column of light to stand for Gabriel..." GeneralPoxter (talk) 13:15, 2 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]

And "fundamentalist religion" obviously does not refer to the Christian religion in general, but to a specific denomination, which is the AME as clarified in source 2 and in other parts of the Mosby book: "...African Methodist Episcopal literature, the denomination in which Tanner was reared." (p. 180) GeneralPoxter (talk) 13:35, 2 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]