Superb. One of, if not the, best attempt at capturing the feeling of a painting in pixel art.
Wowzer, I really like the shading of the clothes, very well executed.
Very beautiful, stone background or cloudy skies would add add a nice touch to it.
Not really my cup of tea, but definitly very beautifully done! Compliments!
thanks for the thoughtful response, crab2selout. yea, it was from a while ago.. but i naturally tend to just go with low saturation.. like my pieces always end up with low saturation, and i usually have to make the effort to make them more contrasty if i thik it needs it.. thats the way its always been for me. But after a while of always intentionaly making things contrasty(because everyone thinks that is how it should be normally due to the beliefs around what makes a great game in the art aspect), I was like.. whatever, lets just try working the low saturation angle.. You have to have balance with thigns i guess, so more recently, im trying to mesh the two.. its always a constant experiment for me when it comes to art I guess..
Never heard of Tiepolo before. Gonna check him out now. Thanks for bringing him up. He had a unique way of handling drapery.
I really need to grab a book on renaissance symbology so I can go deeper into these renaissance pieces. I think I can figure out some of this. The dragon looks like it's actually a serpent carrying an apple from the tree of knowledge. Maybe that's why that angel to the right is sweeping across towards it. Trying to protect the immaculate conception. I've heard that golden apples also represented Elysium, though
You must've learned a ton trying to work the original into pixels. I have trouble enough trying to get a skull down on paper with the same proportions and line angles, but your copy(I mean that in the master copy sense and not this trace nonsense some people won't stop going on about) is incredibly close to the original. It's really easy to just say good enough and move on, but it's obvious you took your time to get it as right as you could.
Its interesting to see how you handled the different kinds of edges, too. Edges are definitely tricky to convey in pixel art. You can't really create lost edges. Pixels are just too precise to work like that. And you'd think you could create soft edges with several shades of AA, but often that'll just end up coming across as banding. I've always thought that banding gave a piece a weird out of focus effect, too. Definitely not a soft edge.
If I remember right, this is from a while ago during your low sat and contrast experiments. Do you still experiment with the colour like that?
[quote]This comment is a little hypocrite comming from you...
http://pixeljoint.com/pixelart/13330.htm [/quote]
haha . . . wow. But this was years ago.
I am absolutely glad this won something for the monthly top. I think it's magnificent.
I adore this piece 
Inspirational and riveting. Ading to my favourites!
PS: Interesting to the laundry done openly... 
MdNight17 if you read the top comment of that piece of art Elk he would "show his skill". And he did. So I would stop just trying to make people look like idiots. He isn't tracing anymore so it doesn't even matter.
Would love to see some new stuff from you, I am also a logtime admirerer!
You're like working on a follow up to the forester mockup? Great! 
I probably wont post anymore of my older works, I want to start making newer things. I'm working on something, ill post it up when I have it finished.
I'm definately a fanboy! Talk anything badly about Alex or his pieces and I'm personally hurt.
Can't wait for you to post the forrester mockup.
There are parts that look really good, like proper pixel-art, and overall it's good.
BUT... then there are parts that, if you look closer, looks garbled and unclear, making it look like an unfinished trace.
That's my honest OPINION okay? Don't slam me for that.
it is referenced as alex says - he stated so in the title.
if you actually bother to really look at his piece (paricularly shading and colours) you will see it is obviously not a trace. certainly not born of cunning and deceptive intent.
he has interpretted the shading to suit his style - added new tones etc. everything is his interpretatoin; outline, shading, tone, colour.
stop whinning.
i hope to see more work from you alex - don't be put off by skeptics
We all know he is.
And from what I read it clearly shows that the majority have seen his work on his outdated site or on Pixelation
... Do none of you know who Alex is or something? Piece is excellent btw. Can't wait until we see some more of your beautiful works. :)
If it was me, I would take the original painting, downsized, trace or lo-color coversion without dithering and then repaint \ repair some parts (like outlines) pixel by pixel.
My guess is this piece was done just like this, but theres no way to tell so ... :)
i remember this from your site :)
great stuff alex, I've always loved your style.
Renaissance pixels. Awesome. Traced renaissance pixels. Not awesome. But which is it? Eh, who cares, this is still quite nifty. I'd never seen the painting before, thanks for exposing me to it. Elk, you're such a cop.
Great shading and stuff, but I gotta agree that it does looks like it was traced.
But the piece is still great, so I am still adding it to my favorites.
Things like the dragon head and hand change angle, so its not a trace. The original piece is not my cup of tea. I like how you did the left hand and dragon head. The blue and orange mixing into skin tones doesn't work well on my monitor, makes the lady's face hard to read.
http://img15.imageshack.us/img15/509/dasfg.gif
Maybe.
I like the solid background on this, in addition to the entire piece in general. :)
basically took some coordinates of key features and then pieced it from that, definately not a trace.
overlays rather well when that image is downsized to 43%, but there are some small differences. Maybe just a good grid copy? Alex is a legitimate pixel-pusher, so if it is a trace I'm sure it's not meant to decieve us.
I'll wait for AlexHW's reply.
nice trace
http://www.bestpriceart.com/vault/wgart_-art-t-tiepolo-gianbatt-7_1760s-11immacu.jpg
We usually advise a transparent background, but I assume AlexHW knows what he's doing and meant for it to be displayed on this tone.
Great to finally have your stuff over here, loved this one the minute I saw it over at your site.
Wow