I Like the Big Pallium

I'll confess, I found the "new old Pallium" Benedict was using at the beginning of his papacy rather fetching:

The "new new old[ish] Pallium" that replaced it isn't terrible, but then I don't really see the point of making it different from the Archbishop's palliums in such a minor way:

I think it was certainly bizarre to change the official papal portrait in St. Paul's basilica just to reflect the change:

Sure, people were accusing it of being "archaeologism" based on a portrait of Innocent III that was apparently itself anachronistic:

But I don't see why recovering fuller forms is always a problem. To me, archaeologism is only an issue when it is used to justify cutting later developments or make things lesser. When it's used to restore fuller forms, I'm all for it. This is how the pallium was in the early Middle Ages, just look how St. Patrick is often depicted:

The only thing I'd say about the new old pallium (the big one) is that I would prefer if it had been pinned so as to hang down the middle rather than to the left. This was a very early development and sensible. It is also the main justification for the pins. When Benedict was using the new old pallium, he put the three pins on both sides and the middle, but traditionally they went one on the back, one on the left shoulder and one on the breast, because this made the bands hang down in the middle rather than the left, maybe something like this (an edited picture):

Finally, I wanted to share this picture I'd never seen before of Pope John Paul II wearing a "big pallium" once (it was apparently never seen again). I don't mind this one, but I liked Benedict's better: