That was the one on the flip side of I Wanna Be Created, right?
Wasn’t he a Real Man of beer ad fame
% Mr Creationist Biology Teacher, yeah! %
There’s the complication that the subject is one that Bruegel returned to on several occasions, using variations on the same basic composition. The closest to the one WhyNot has received is the version in the Szepmüveszeti in Budapest (at least according to Biblical Art on the WWW).
It’s difficult to be entirely sure from online reproductions, but the lecturer’s version may still be “improved”. The composition at least is however much closer to the Budapest version than to the V&A one.
I think some such phrasing as “a .pdf file of a version of a Bruegel painting of the Garden of Eden” ought to cover it.
Opps - I was assuming that this version was the V&A one, when it actually appears to be yet another version, which is in the Royal Collection. The V&A version does look near identical in composition to the Budapest one.
Heh. “Improved”. I like that. 
The colors in the one that Professor McFuckingon sent out looks like acrylic to me. After 400 years, you’re just not going to have scarlet macaws in purest cadmium red.
Overall, it suffers from poor composition. The trees in the original meet at the top of the painting, but in the velvet painting version, there’s blue sky between the top of the left-hand tree and the top of the right-hand tree. The pink roses in the top of the right-hand tree blend in to the top of the left-hand tree in the original, but in the knockoff, there’s a definite blue-sky-n-clouds gap there, which is jarring. The foliage in the original blends much more gracefully.
Also, the base of the tree that’s holding the two macaws, in the original, is murky brownish and blends in, but in the knockoff, it’s bright mossy green tree stump, almost photographic in its accuracy.
The palm tree behind Adam and Eve, in the original, is blended harmoniously into the other trees, creating a graceful perspective opening off into the distance, but in the knockoff, it’s outlined in blue sky around its foliage, plopped down there all by itself. Visually it stops the eye cold.
The white swans in the knockoff are extremely badly painted.
The bit of landscape directly above the brown cow on the left with its hindquarters upraised–in the original, it fades off nicely into the misty distance, but in the knockoff, it’s a sharply delineated, joltingly Blue Ridge mountains sort of landscape.
Actually, the whole thing looks like jigsaw puzzle art, the bright colors, the composition. But there’s no way Breughel painted it.
It’s “After Breugel”, perhaps. No doubt the artist felt he was improving on it. :rolleyes:
I think it’s an excellent letter. I’m not an academic, though, so I may not understand the mindset. In the corporate world, that kind of letter about a manager would definitely get noticed.
In a reasonable department, such a cordial and informative letter should be taken seriously.
It’s a very well-written, respectful letter, WhyNot. I’ve recently been involved in writing a respectful letter of concern to the Commanding General of the Army and the tone and tenor of your letter is very good.
Meaning yours was similar and you are still alive? Fortunately, letters to academic department heads cannot result in your summary execution. 
That’s a reasonably mature, professional, and civil letter. I might change the part about how the chair is going to discipline or intervene- you don’t want or need to tell him how to do his job (I hope). That’s more likely to offend than help. Still, on the whole, a good letter.
Bud Light Presents Real Men of Genius
*Real Men of Genius *
Today we salute you, Mr. Creationist Biology Teacher
Mr. Creationist Biology Teacher
Ignoring 300 years of Scientific progress and advancement, you still cling to dogma that reads like something from the Brothers Grimm.
Once upon a time…
Choosing which side wins between Darwin and the Bible by weighing them on a scale, you persevere.
Don’t mind my thumb here on this side
You teach a basic class in college, but what you really want to do is teach Sunday School.
Science and a puppet show!
So crack open an ice cold Bud Light, O Jesus Horse Rider. You may not be teaching actual science, but at least you’ve got God on your side.
Mr. Creationist Biology Teacher
You say you want an evolution…
[sub]with appologies to the late John Lennon[/sub]
Nice job, Tristan!