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Upload Date
3-25-2025
Department
Classics
Label Text
How did people interact with this object? One hint is that it is filthy. Grime cakes certain parts of the elephant, for example the edge of its left leg. Was it able to collect all this dust and dirt because it was rarely disturbed? Perhaps most people only looked at it while it sat on a shelf. Another interaction we can think about is a bit more obvious: the elephant’s creation. The first thing you might notice is the effort its craftsman must have had to put in. Imperfections are hard to spot. Each swoop in the bowl’s spiral is evenly spaced and the elephant looks like it has been frozen in place while rearing up. But if we look at this object at the right angles, subtler reminders of the human who designed it reveal themselves. One signal is the eyes. Once you notice them it is impossible to unsee that they are pointing in different directions. We can imagine the artist’s shaky hand causing that. Another sign is the lines on the bowl. When light shines through them, you can see the streaks in each band become visible. These are marks from the bristles in the artist’s brush.
Camera Settings: Aperture
f/16, f/20
Camera Settings: Shutter Speed
1/4, 1/10
Camera Settings: ISO
100, 200
Lighting
Overhead light and two fill lights were set to 100%
Photoshop Adjustments
Color correction, masking, and cropping used to prepare individual images for plate.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Found in
ADC study collections
