Changed w/o discussion: Barefoot Sage

From:

People always bring me their troubles, but do any of them bring me ointment?

To:

Just another shoeless hippie flower girl? Nope, actually a spiritual and all-knowing time traveler who gives you cryptic hints.

...but if you ask me, they're both pretty bad. Like, they both are better than nothing, I guess, but something about them rubs me the wrong way (mostly the caption for the latter, although she doesn't look very "sagey" to the point of almost - but not quite - being JAFAAC; the weird pose and facial expression of the former makes me wonder if, in spite of what the caption implies, he's actually proudly doing some sort of interpretive dance).

If I had to suggest an image, it'd be a tight crop of the center of Raphael's The School of Athens◊ (like this one Wikipedia conveniently already had made◊). The page emphasizing on how Socrates was the Ur-Example got me looking for a good image thereof, and this is the best thing that came up - although, technically, that's Plato and Aristotle in the center, not Socrates (who's the guy wearing olive-green on the upper-left, and whose lower extremities are being obscured by someone on the lower row). But heck, Plato's still not wearing shoes, and his pose does look like he's debating philosophy with his younger, sandal-wearing companion Aristotle there.

ImageSource.Arts doesn't list the painting as in use anywhere on the wiki, for what that's worth.

edited 1st Nov '15 10:16:30 PM by ShadowHog

Opened. I don't really have an issue with the current pic (although the caption is bad), but Socrates is pretty good.

edited 3rd Nov '15 7:42:14 AM by Willbyr

The old one seems to be a little off for this, the new one seems better but not perfect.

Here's my attempts at cropping Plato/Aristotle (the version on Wikipedia has weird contrast issues IMO):

350 wide:
350 tall:

edited 3rd Nov '15 9:11:57 AM by ShadowHog

The second works fine.

Agreed.

Hi! I agree that the first image wasn't good, it was just a placeholder for me until I found something better (I would probably suggest deleting it since now it isn't used anywhere). I also removed the caption for the current image (now that you say it, I don't like it myself).

Not really sure about Plato, since he isn't the only shoeless character in the painting (even in this fragment, there are several other barefoot characters in the background, so it seems like his shoelessness isn't meant to be symbolic). It kinda ruins the whole point, i. e. lack of footwear as a distinguishing trait and a symbol of enlightenment/detachment from social conventions. Conversely, the current image DOES convey this idea, since her bare feet are an important part of her "spiritual hippie" persona.

So I would probably stick with the current image, unless anyone suggests a fourth variant.

edited 3rd Nov '15 10:46:58 AM by JustTroper

Plato works better than either of the previous images.

4.2 works.

I'm a bit on the fence on the suggestions. While I think the Greek philophers are better than either the current or the former page image, the fact that Artistotle is clearly wearing sandals is sort of distracting.

Is it? I thought it added some juxtaposition against the barefoot Plato.

Hmmm, I figured it would be more obvious if both were barefooted, but Plato does fit more of a stereotypically "wise old man" look than his student. It's good.

Same here.

Bump. Any other thoughts?

I think the biggest problem with 4 is that without recognising the piece of work, there is nothing about the barefooted man that would suggest him to be any wise or sage-like than his sandal-wearing compatriot (who at the very least has a book in his hand, suggesting a learned nature).

As a suggestion, I'd like to nominate Guru Pathik.

edited 14th Nov '15 2:35:19 PM by peasant

That could work.

On the other hand, Plato is also carrying a book, and he looks much older than Aristotle, suggesting that he's at least wiser/more experienced.

I'm still voting for Aristotle.

Yeah, Aristotle's also holding a book, so I don't think that particular detail counts against 4.

15's not a bad suggestion, though.

edited 14th Nov '15 8:56:40 PM by ShadowHog

The Aristotle pic would probably need a caption to explain who it's referring to.

I think 15 is much clearer on illustrating the trope.

I agree with the arguments against 4. It looks more like two sages, only one of them being barefoot.

I think that 15 works better. He's barefoot and he gives every impression of being a sage.

Agreed, 15 is a much clearer illustration.

15 is clear enough to me.

15's pretty good...is there a pithy quote that could work as a caption?

I think I have one: "You must gain balance within yourself, before you can bring balance to the world." This quote is from him.

Alternatively: "Pants are an ilussion, and so is death." This one is from another character of the series.

edited 15th Nov '15 5:31:25 PM by DeisTheAlcano