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Hand position

post #1 of 14
6/27/08 at 10:36pm
Thread Starter 
I saw in a lot of old painting people with the right hand in this position:

http://www.solarnavigator.net/histor..._bonaparte.htm

What does it signify?

--trajan
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post #2 of 14
6/28/08 at 12:25am
It's the "Don't fuck with me" sign
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post #3 of 14
6/28/08 at 12:57am
It's where they kept their sandwich.
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post #4 of 14
6/28/08 at 1:00am
It's a mafia thing. He motioning like he's reaching for a gun. Like a silent threat.
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post #5 of 14
6/28/08 at 1:01am
He's just tweaking his third nipple. Most dignitaries who had portraits painted of themselves had third nipples.
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post #6 of 14
6/28/08 at 1:23am
Some say that it was just a fad that started with Napoleon, but I think it predates him. I think it was considered a stately pose--perhaps the "shocker" of its day? (Or artists didn't know how to paint hands.) This article probably explains it all in excruciating detail: "Re-Dressing Classical Statuary: The Eighteenth-Century 'Hand-in-Waistcoat' Portrait." by Arline Miller. Art Bulletin (College Art Association of America), Vol. 77, No.2, March 1995, p.45-64.
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post #7 of 14
6/28/08 at 1:28am
Its the secret "Please rub my belly sign" know to tin pot tyrants and garden variety despots the world over.
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post #8 of 14
6/28/08 at 3:00am
Haven't you seen that Garmin GPS commercial? It's where he hid his little portable GPS.
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post #9 of 14
6/28/08 at 5:04am
Quote:
Originally Posted by kwilkinson View Post
Haven't you seen that Garmin GPS commercial? It's where he hid his little portable GPS.

Haha, beat me to it.
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post #10 of 14
6/28/08 at 2:43pm
I don't think it signifies anything except he wasn't comfortable with his hands by his side.
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post #11 of 14
6/28/08 at 3:17pm
It gives them something stately to do with their hands.
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post #12 of 14
6/28/08 at 3:23pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Teacher View Post
It gives them something stately to do with their hands.

I guess the truth had to come out sooner or later.

http://www.napoleon-series.org/faq/c_hand.html
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post #13 of 14
6/28/08 at 10:02pm
"old painting people"??

http://www.dupontobgyn.com/images/elderly.jpg
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post #14 of 14
6/30/08 at 7:01am
Yeah, I learned from a few different people that it was too hard to paint hands so they just stuck them inside their shirts.
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