Hand position

[trajan]

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

 

[lee_44106]

It's the "Don't **** with me" sign

 

[DocHolliday]

It's where they kept their sandwich.

 

[contactme_11]

It's a mafia thing. He motioning like he's reaching for a gun. Like a silent threat.

 

[Go Surface]

He's just tweaking his third nipple. Most dignitaries who had portraits painted of themselves had third nipples.

 

[mink31]

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.

 

[NorCal]

Its the secret "Please rub my belly sign" know to tin pot tyrants and garden variety despots the world over.

 

[kwilkinson]

Haven't you seen that Garmin GPS commercial? It's where he hid his little portable GPS.

 

[TUspiv]

Originally Posted by kwilkinson

Haven't you seen that Garmin GPS commercial? It's where he hid his little portable GPS.

Haha, beat me to it.

 

[Antonio Centeno]

I don't think it signifies anything except he wasn't comfortable with his hands by his side.

 

[Teacher]

It gives them something stately to do with their hands.

 

[DocHolliday]

Originally Posted by Teacher

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

 

[etl]

"old painting people"??

http://www.dupontobgyn.com/images/elderly.jpg

 

[Casey]

Yeah, I learned from a few different people that it was too hard to paint hands so they just stuck them inside their shirts.