17th Century Photoshop

So I’ve been pretty disgusted lately with the way every damn thing is photoshopped these days to make it look “better”. Some of these whittalinks demonstrate the fact that no human can possibly look as perfect as these “photographs” seem to indicate.

As I was ruminating on this I realized that they used to do this hundreds of years ago too (SFW).

I guess we’ve just returned to the natural state of things.

Do you think all the buffalo and gazelles and shit on those cave walls were touched up?

No. :roll:

There is a famous portrait of an old man and his grandson, by Ghirlandaio (who was Michelangelo’s teacher IIRC), where little effort seems to have been made to spare the old guy’s vanity.

http://gallery.euroweb.hu/art/g/ghirland/domenico/7panel/08oldman.jpg

A true artist would never disguise a nose with that much character.

Dude, you’ve got a tiny facehugger on your nose.

With the wonders of modern technology, I’ve managed to touch up Ghirlandaio’s work a bit.

http://www.fileh.com/BooTx/photoshopped.jpg

Not bad, but where’s the “WOOO!!!” guy?

That is an excellent schnoz.