Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates/Guardians of Day and Night, Han Dynasty

Guardians of Day and Night, Han Dynasty

Reason: Zoomorphic Chinese guardian spirits of day and night, clothed in Chinese silk robes, paintings on ceramic tile, dated to the Han Dynasty (202 BC - 220 AD); on the left is the guardian of midnight (from 11 pm to 1 am) and on the right is the guardian of morning (from 5 to 7 am). This image violates no FP criteria that I am aware of and is 1,208 × 1,140 pixels in size.
Articles this image appears in: History of painting, Zhang Heng, Han Dynasty, Chinese painting, Asian art, List of Chinese discoveries, History of the Han Dynasty, Science and technology of the Han Dynasty, Chinese mythology
Creator: PericlesofAthens

Support as nominator --Pericles of Athens^Talk 15:38, 30 June 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Oppose. Badly cropped (parts of the figures are cut off) and jpeggy. Is this a scan of an illustration from a book? Spikebrennan (talk) 13:57, 1 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Question The cropping is unfortunate, but I'm more concerned about the copyright status. A scan from a book would probably be alright if the photographer made no attempt at originality, but I'm not sure photos of three dimensional objects like tiles are so straightforward. Can someone more knowledgeable about such things please comment? Matt Deres (talk) 16:15, 1 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I've had this conversation before with User:Jappalang, and it was determined at Wikipedia:Featured article candidates/Han Dynasty/archive1 that this image is in fact 2-dimensional and flat. That is how the Han Dynasty article (in one way) passed its nomination for featured status. A 2-dimensional, flat image of ancient artwork is public domain. The book which this image is featured in, Robert Temple's The Genius of China (1986), provides nothing in the caption for this image to suggest that it is a raised-relief image, and only states that it is a painting on ceramic tile. The tile in the image is obviously flat, and although the etched painting lines might suggest a raised image, another verifiable source would be needed to prove this.--Pericles of Athens^Talk 18:08, 1 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

- I was less concerned about copyright status and more concerned about the grainy halftone from the book scan. Spikebrennan (talk) 22:58, 1 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Oppose – scans from books need to be of incredibly good quality (both scan and original plate) to be FP-quality and this is quite a bit short of both marks, I'm afraid. --mikaul^talk 13:28, 2 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

That's too bad. Perhaps I need to buy a different scanner?--Pericles of Athens^Talk 14:50, 2 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Best scanner in the world isn't going to improve the halftoning in the book. Spikebrennan (talk) 18:42, 2 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Not promoted --wadester 16 05:22, 9 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]