- Options
- Login
- Desktop Style
Options
Let's rate some bulls
- Let's rate some bulls
-
RE: Let's rate some bulls
JustAnotherTheory > 01-10-2026, 12:57 PM
"Forest cow", haha, almost spit out my drink
Anyway, those feet, the way they're drawn, once again makes me question what kind of person the VMS Artist really was. I mean, it should be obvious for any human being that it's not how feet work. He drew the knuckle so far backwards that it looks like a separate hoof.
Which echoes many other apsects of the Artist's style, it seems to me that he/she was wholly unaware of the basic properties of things surrounding him/her. It's not just a bad copy, it's a complete and utter misunderstanding of the components of an "animal". Like the lobster, too.
What kind of person was the Artist? A cave dweller? A hermit? A prisoner?
Is it possible to apply some profiling techniques to this person based on his/her drawings?
To be honest, there are times where I even doubt that we are dealing with a human here.
-
RE: Let's rate some bulls
Koen G > 01-10-2026, 02:47 PM
Medieval artists didn't necessarily have the modern reflex to "correct" back to nature what was in their example. Quite often, they copied what was in their example and made it worse. The living animal as it is projected on the retina is a separate thing from the way a culture depicts it.
When I was little, me and my classmates all drew houses with pointed roofs and rounded shingles. But shingles in this area are mostly straight-edged, like rectangles. But this was how we saw others draw a house, so we just adopted the technique. There was no possible sequence of events that would have made us go outside, observe shingles, and note that we were drawing them weird. Or that we had the orientation of the roof flipped compared to the usual position of the front door. Or that our layout of doors and windows didn't make sense, or that our chimney was in an impossible position. We just drew houses the way we saw others draw houses.
It is possible, maybe even likely, that when the VM artist copied this bull, the thought "what do actual bulls look like" did not cross their mind a single time. They were just copying the image, which was the only referent at that moment. If their example was already flawed or confusing, unclear, faded, degraded, they would have compounded these features rather than go out to the pastures, holding up a pencil to a bull while squinting one eye to take its proportions and shapes. -
RE: Let's rate some bulls
eggyk > 01-10-2026, 03:45 PM
(01-10-2026, 12:57 PM)JustAnotherTheory Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.Anyway, those feet, the way they're drawn, once again makes me question what kind of person the VMS Artist really was. I mean, it should be obvious for any human being that it's not how feet work. He drew the knuckle so far backwards that it looks like a separate hoof.
None of them are even THAT bad. Why are we acting like people had access to google images, or the desire to go sit next to a bull to copy their feet?
If the VMS artist had drawn human feet on the cow or something, I would agree. But it's clearly a hoof, which is good enough for pretty much all intents and purposes. -
RE: Let's rate some bulls
Oscroft > 01-10-2026, 04:00 PM
(01-10-2026, 03:45 PM)eggyk Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.
(01-10-2026, 12:57 PM)JustAnotherTheory Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.Anyway, those feet, the way they're drawn, once again makes me question what kind of person the VMS Artist really was. I mean, it should be obvious for any human being that it's not how feet work. He drew the knuckle so far backwards that it looks like a separate hoof.
None of them are even THAT bad. Why are we acting like people had access to google images, or the desire to go sit next to a bull to copy their feet?
If the VMS artist had drawn human feet on the cow or something, I would agree. But it's clearly a hoof, which is good enough for pretty much all intents and purposes.
Those hoofs are better than some of the human anatomy we see on some of the nymphs! -
RE: Let's rate some bulls
Koen G > 01-10-2026, 04:29 PM
The way the bull's hind legs bend is a worse issue though, comparable to the stuff we see with the nymphs. This is one of the reasons I think it's fair to say that the artist wasn't very experienced. Maybe young, or maybe someone who had never thought about how to represent skeletal anatomy.
Fun fact: when I point out the bull's legs bend the wrong way, people don't always realize I'm talking about the hind legs. That's how easy it is to get confused about these things if you don't have much artistic experience. -
RE: Let's rate some bulls
Rafal > 01-10-2026, 04:47 PM
"Forest cow" is probably aurochs or wisent. -
RE: Let's rate some bulls
Jorge_Stolfi > Yesterday, 09:32 AM
(01-10-2026, 12:57 PM)JustAnotherTheory Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.What kind of person was the Artist? A cave dweller? A hermit? A prisoner? To be honest, there are times where I even doubt that we are dealing with a human here.
Maybe an incomplete human?
I think it is quite possible that the Scribe was the Author's 13-year-old nephew, who agreed to work for Uncle Michiton for one candy's worth per page...
All the best, --stolfi