We can argue about the other possibilities, but this shows all the characters, the titular tempest, the spirits of air which are so important to the plot, and juxtaposes the illusionary scene of terror with Prospero and Miranda in a compelling way. Plus, it's from arguably the most important illustrated editions of Shakespeare's plays; an edition which, by itself, commissioned and engraved about a hundred paintings of Shakespeare which are fairly widely agreed to be amongst the best produced. Quite simply, none of the others capture nearly as much about the play as this one, and, as such, I think this is the best in scope. -- Adam Cuerden (talk)
Comment This VIC is really interesting. I'd suggest to complete the description adding the caption of the depicted scene (you have written one just above :-) For such a scope, it would be nice to have an image of the play on stage. But the only picture available isn't very illustrative (File:Tempest 8329.jpg) and couldn't be a decent challenger. A possible completely different competitor might be File:FF The Tempest title.jpg, the title page from the 1623 First Folio, which is the very first published edition of The Tempest. --Myrabella (talk) 21:07, 22 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]
I've given a brief description. I didn't want to spoil the play, so I kept it to just the opening two scenes (Scene 2 happens roughly simultaneously with the first scene, and Romney blends in some of the revelations from that in his depiction of the first). I haven't tried to identify every character on the ship, since, without an authoritative source, this would involve a lot of guesswork. However, if you go through and count, and consider ages, you can get very convincing evidence that every important character, save Caliban, is shown in this image. Adam Cuerden (talk) 22:52, 22 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Support Agree with reason. Moreover, the completed description adds value (and makes want to see the play again :); thank you for the annotations too. I would also like to highlight, as it's not in the reason, the nice and tidy scan and restoration work done. I was balancing the nominated image and the title page in the First Folio edition, but I prefer this engraving. Even if the First Folio was lost or destroyed, The Tempest could still be played on stage, and the nominated illustration gives us a good catchline, making the subject recognizable even by non-Latin alphabet users. --Myrabella (talk) 06:41, 23 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]
