Meanwhile:

[mariness]

…I am absolutely delighted when another medievalist takes the time to make my argument for me.

Comments

[fbhjr]

I read that story this week. Although I've been known to take my calipers to all sorts of things to try and measure and compare things, doing this with those paintings seemed fairly silly to me.
But, I have experienced that sort of art in trying to figure out how they were holding swords. So, maybe I'm biased.

[mariness]

I don't have a real problem with using medieval images to figure out certain aspects - holding swords, basic costuming, plows, and so on - with the caveat that medievals in general were not interested in depicting reality in their art. The huge problem with this study was its assumption that art is a realistic mirror, which, no not really.

[silviamg]

If Medieval art were realistic, then that would mean Medieval people were all clones, cause they tended to look suspiciously sameish. Once you get to the 16th century you start getting people like Holbein the Younger, who wanna try and do the realism dance. But stuff looks kind of 2D before that. Duccio has this gigantic Virgin with mini-people around it. I doubt there was really an 8-foot virgin walking around.

[mariness]

Or the really freaky proportions at Autun (the picture doesn't entirely do them justice.