Two textual descriptions of a gladiatorial battle, from the poets Juvenal and Prudentius, both reference the pollice verso or pollice converso, the “turned” thumb, as the signal for death. He’s got a fist with his thumb pressing down on it.” “And right underneath, one of the referees is pressing his thumb. There’s two referees around them breaking up the battle and up above it says, in Latin, STANTES MISSI, which means ‘let the men who are still standing be released,'” he says. “What’s great about these is that they often have text accompanying them, so what you see very clearly is two gladiators fighting to a standstill. “A thumb can press or be pressed, it works both ways.”Ĭorbeill located an example of what exactly the gesture might look in Nîmes, in southern France, when he found an appliqué medallion that shows a scene from a gladiatorial battle. “The verb premere in latin is just as ambiguous as ‘press’ in English,” he says. The Latin term for the gesture of approval, Corbeill explains, is pollices premere, which means “press your thumbs” and has been described by Pliny the Elder as a common gesture of good wishes. Historical confusion about that thumb-pressing gesture exposes just how difficult it can be to track the evolution of body language. In other words, it’s the opposite of what we think.” “Sparing is pressing the thumb to the top of the fist and death is a thumbs-up. We have some sculptural references but it’s mostly verbal references,” says Anthony Corbeill, a professor of Latin at the University of Virginia, who wrote a book on gestures in ancient Rome. “We don’t have videotapes of people from antiquity. The thumbs-up sign that today means “O.K.” in that lexicon expressed disapproval. It’s not that gestures wouldn’t have been used to communicate such ideas, but rather that the Romans used a wide visual vocabulary in which the meanings of certain movements were different from their modern implications. But what’s the history of the gesture and how did it come to mean “yes” or “O.K.”?įirst off, the idea that the up- or downturned thumb originated as a gesture that would save or cost a gladiator’s life in Ancient Rome - an idea popularized by the movie Gladiator - isn’t quite right. It’s a widely recognized gesture: fingers curled into the palm, thumb stretched out, pointing skyward. com and you might find your answer in a future edition of Now You Know. This looks especially interesting.Do you have a question about history? Send us your question at. Do you have any progress pics? I always love to see how other artists construct their drawings and plan their details out.I'm curious as to how you actually developed this style! I have a feeling it's a little more complicated than just "anime and realism" however, and was curious as to how you decided to come to this, and what you specifically studied and did to practice to develop the style.Awesome work! It's a very cool style, similar to the one I was working on (although they are very different mediums and design wise it's much less line based), which is why I am hoping you can help me out and answer a few questions! Hey man, I've seen a few of your drawings around. but no need to exaggerate the issue so much. I'm pretty confused as to how this gained so much traction as well considering the amount of drawing and design issues in it in comparison to the amount of attention it got. Many more design and editing decisions are necessary to create a pleasing aesthetic than when you do something strictly from observation as a near-copy.Īnd, honestly, most RGD work isn't particularly front page, 22k upvotes worthy either. Stylizing this successfully is no easy task. Not masterful by ANY stretch, but it's certainly not average teenage quality. And the quality of drawing is much, much higher than standard teens. It's more just stylized realism rather than anime. But I mean.this has far more structure than standard anime stuff done by a teen. An ordinary teenager does gravitate towards drawing anime (primarily copying or using the exact same head construction formula resulting in same-face syndrome).
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