Theses
Thesis/Dissertation Collections
12-22-1977
My Snapshots
Arnold Sorvari
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Recommended Citation
Arnold Sotiva.nl
Candidate
for
the
Master
ofFine
Arts
Degree
in
the
College
ofFine
andApplied Arts
ofthe
Rochester
Institute
ofTechnology
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December
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1977
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.Encouragement
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ttA and colleagueAhaA
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that
a long-committed photographer Ahould
devote
Auch attentionto
the
"adverAary" arto&
painting
haA
Aerved aA adelightful
AtlmuluA.The
abAorblng
Atruggleofi
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andthe
accompanying
reAearch whichthlA
paper reportAhave
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me.The
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llfie.
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o{
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uAeo{
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{IrAt-perAon
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reader will accept aAIndication
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IntenAlty
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perAonal excitement.
PREFACE
Ill
LIST
OF
ILLUSTRATIONS
INTRODUCTION
1
PRIMITIVISM
3
NAIVE
REALISM
ROUSSEAU
MORANVJ
PERSPECTIVE
11
TO
THE
BEGINNINGS
TWO
KINVS
Of
SPACE
ILLUMINATION
HOW
IT
WORKS
REALISM
40
PHOTO
REALISM
PAINTERL1NESS
T0REGR0UNV1NG
SUMMARY
52
QEUVRE
55
THE
MECHANICS
BIBLIOGRAPHY
75
[1]
Curvilinearity
ofRetinal
Image
13
[2]
The
Vanishing
Axis
System
20
[3]
A
Fully
Curvilinear
Perspective
system21
[4]
Synthetic
andArtificial
Perspective
23
[5]
Ground-Plans
ofSome
Perspective
Systems
24
[6]
The
Annunciation
oft
the
Death
o{,
the
Virgin
26
[7]
The
VeAcent
{rom
the
CroAA
27
[8]
The
Arrival
otf
the
Emperor
CharleA
IV
29
[9]
The
ConAtructlon
ofa
the
Temple
o^
JeruAalem
30
[10]
Leonardo's
Theory
31
[11]
Flat
andSpherical
Planes,
One-Point
Perspective.
. .33
[12]
"Normal"Wide-Angle
Photograph
34
[13]
Lateral
Synthesis
ofSuccessive
Fixation
Points
...37
[14]
Vertical
Synthesis
ofSuccessive
Fixations
38
[15]
"Fish-Eye
Lens"Photograph
39
[16]
Toronto
Market
58
[17]
Toronto
Market
sketch59
[18]
Unlonvllle,
Ontario
61
[19]
Unlonvllle,
Ontario
sketches62
[20]
CooperAtown
Shop
63
[21]
CooperAtown
Shop
sketches64
[22]
ChokoloAkee
PoAt
0lce
66
[23]
ChokoloAkee
PoAt
O^lce
sketches67
[25]
Toronto
BeacheA
sketch69
[26]
Key
WeAt
HouAe
70
[27]
Key
WeAt
HouAe
sketches71
[27C]
A
Softer
Palm Tree
72
[28]
Key
WeAt
HouAe
II,
unfinished74
My
Thesis
Proposal
spoke ofexploring
"the
use ofthe
photographicimage
as abasis
for
painting,
along
with research andstudy
ofhistoric,
ethic and aesthetic attitudestoward
such use ofthe
photographic image."The
Proposal
also mentioned
"the
classicallinear
image,""metaphorical
reality"and
"highly-detailed
andperspectivally
accurate image" as ele ments ofmy way
of painting.Looking back,
these topics seemto
be
but
fragments
of a more specificissue:
"What
kind
of paintingshave
I
been
making?"That
is
the
question which thisThesis
Report
undertakes to answer.That
questionis
particularly
important
to mebecause
I
approachpainting
for
somewhatdifferent
reasonsthan
do
many
studentsin
this program.Having
an established vocation as ateacher
ofphotography,
painting
has
become
a majoravocation;
I
do
not planto
become
a "professional" painter.I
have
muchsympathy
for
thedeveloping
painters who areforced
to:. . . clamor
for
akilling,
with somerule-breaking
novelty,
before
they
reachtwenty-five.
Otherwise
they
may
neverbe
noticed.They
want to usethe
last
glimmer of avantgarde mystique
to
gain afew
collectorsbefore
everyone sees throughthe
threads onthe
elbow ofthe
tradition ofthe
new.lInstead,
the
process andjoys
ofpainting
areluxurious
endsin
themselves;
they
allow meto
paint asboth
aninquiry
into
and an enhancement ofmy
ownlife.
My
way
ofpainting
has
risenintuitively,
and out of thesensory
pleasures ofusing
the
materials--without conscious
intellectual
or movement-based choices.I
have
therefore
felt
the
needto
think
moreanalytically
aboutpainting,
to
reflectfurther
onpainting
in
an art-historicalsense,
andto
make athat
photography
here
is
in
the
service of painting.The
early
parts ofthis
reporttherefore
presentmy
reflections and rediscoveries on some "isms" ofpainting
which seem to meto
be
relatedto
my
own work andto
the "photographic"qualities of
that
work.A
fresh
look
is
also taken at perspective
andthe
cameraimage,
whichhas
caused me tofind
new excitementin
every
rememberedpainting
from
past arthistory
courses,
andin
the
photographicimage
itself.
Then
the
report reviewsmy
procedure ofusing
photo graphs asthe
basis
for
painting,
together with comments on thepaintings shown
in
theThesis
Exhibit--and a
few
others.Repro
ductions
ofthe
original photographic color slides ofthe
paint ings'subjects are
shown--they served as
"sketches"
for
thepaintings.
Color
reproductions ofthe
paintings areshown,
andthere
is
a speculation onfuture
directions
.NOTES
iGerald
Sykes
,The
perennialAvantgarde
(Englewood
. . .
Throughout
the
nineteenthcentury
there
wererecurring
tendencies
toward
the
oriental andthe
generally
exotic,
toward
the
Christian
and classicalnaive,
andtoward
the
provincial. . . . theirideal
ofthe
primitive,
imbued
withthe
old conception of a returnto
anharmonious
golden day-- ....differs
from
the
ferocious
primitivizing
ofthe
last
thirty
years ...What
is
Goldwater
getting
at?The
doyen
ofprimitiv-ist
criticism explainsthat
strains of primitivismhave
persisted
for
morethan
acentury
but
that
the
nineteenth-century
ethnographicdiscoveries
had
little
to
do
withthe
direction.
The
interest
in
primitiveart,
he
feels,
is
only
one ofthe
recent revivals ofinterest
in
historically-removed art,
suchas
the
eighteenth-century
love
ofChlnolAerle,
oflater
influ
encesfrom Japan
andPersian,
the
mid-east,
and classicalRome
andGreece.
The
nineteenth-century
Sunday
painters--the
"modern
primitives"--had no
knowledge
ofthe
ethnographicdis
coveriesbut
were called primitivesbecause
their
paintingshad
the
samekind
of appeal tothe
advanced artists asdid
the
primitive artifacts.
Picasso,
for
example,
discovered Rousseau
almostsimultaneously
withhis
discovery
ofIvory
Coast
sculp
ture
and archaicIberian
figures.
The
term
"modern
primitive"should
therefore
be
usedcautiously,
urgesGoldwater;
"naive" mightbe
better
for
contemporary
painters.NAIVE
REALISM
A
colleagueasked,
"What
did
youthink
ofJackie
Schuman's
calling
your paintings 'naive'?"Actually
shesaid,
"In
this
painting
. . .there
is
a naivequality
that
basically
is
extremely
sophisticated,"
Research
was calledfor.
The
ambiguity became
alittle
clearer with a comment
by
Stev,
who waswriting
aboutthe
Ameri
can
Primitive
(!)
painterHorace
Pippin:
Unlike
the
famous
mirror,
mirror onthe
wall,
folk
arttoo
oftentells
you what you wantto
hear.
Looking
ata "naive"
painting,
modern criticsdiscern
elements of "sophisticated"abstraction;
. . .It's
too
bad,
because
folk
artdoesn't
deserve
thiskind
ofsloppy
looking. 3
What
atfirst
seemed a condemnation ofSchuman's
remarkis
softened
in
the
concluding
paragraph:. . .
the
trick,
in
looking
at good naiveart,
is
to savorthe
sophistication andthe
naivete together.4
That
turned
out not tobe
entirely
clear,
either,
soGoldwater
had
to
be
consulted.He
calls attention tothe
prevalence
of"evenly
distributed
pattern and . . . contrasts andbalances
of pure andbrilliant
color,
whose enjoymentis
the
basis
of one side ofthe
admirationfor
[naive]
work"^for
both
painter and viewer.
He
points outthat
the characteristic patterns
in
all the naives ' paintings"would
seemto
indicate
that
they
take
pleasurein
the
rhythmic movementsnecessary
for
their
production as well as
in
the
final
visual effect."6As
a resultthe
"exaggeration
of realisticdetail
andin
its
making
rigid allthe
forms
that
it
renders givesits
scenesto
the
sophisticatedeye a symbolic permanence."'
In
thisway
the
naives'painting
is
related tothe
African
sculptures,
whoseformal
qualitiesare
the
cause ofthe
"relative
permanence ofthe
state offeeling
which
it
renders."8Fascinating!
With
these commentsI
begin
toenjoy
the
designation
of"naive"
and
I
alsofind
arelationship
between
twodissimilar
painters whose work
I
have
long
admired:Rousseau
andMorandi.
Rousseau
naively
made picturesfrom his
isolated
andlimited
experience.
Morandi
made anintellectual
choice which wasinfluenced
by
his
understanding
of past painters.The
work ofboth
suggests"permanence
of the state of feeling."Archaism
and primitivism of
the
twentiethcentury
callfor
further
study.The
arthistorian
Haftmann
attributesto
Kandinsky
anin
The
first,
followed
by
Delaunay
andhimself,
is
that
of"the
Greater
Ab
straction";
the
other,
followed,
for
example,
by
the
Neo-Primitive
Henri
Rousseau,
is
that
of"the
Greater
Reality".
The
secondpath,
like
the
first,
leads
beyond
visiblereality
and reveals a newaspect of
it,
whichKandinsky
calls"the
fantastic
in
the
hardest
matter".9
What
atantalizing
idea--to
be
making
representations ofsolidly
and
carefully
defined
things,
allthe
whilehinting
atideas
which
may
notbe
definable
at all.I
feel
comfortable withthat.
But
how
is
it
that
Rousseau,
called retardatalreby
his
contemporaries,
earns suchhigh
standing
from
Kandinsky?
And
how
canmy
painting
have
drawn
nourishmentfrom
Rousseau?
We
shall see.Haftmann
notesthat
modernart,
in
the
work of painterslike
Delaunay
andKandinsky,
had
turned
away
from
"the
familiar
world ofthings",
away
from
the
positivism of nineteenth century
art,
to
searchfor
spiritual valuesby
means of abstraction.But
the
inanimate
object was notwholly
eliminated,
being
perceived as a potential new symbolic experience.
Attention
to
isolated
objects was promptedby
turn-of
-the-centurydiscov
eries of primitive and peasant arts.Their
color andform
inspired
Kandinsky
and othersto
abstraction while onthe
otherhand
Picasso
and others wereimpressed
by
the
magicalimpli
cations ofAfrican
andIberian
figurative
art."The
primitive,
the
daemonic,
the
archaic:behind
them
the
modern mind sensedthe
old magicalunity
between
man andhis
environment.A
yearning
wasborn
to
returnto
this
magical world."In
the
resulting
searchfor
appropriateforms
to
expressthese
feelings
the
Italian
Primitives
were rediscovered:Giotto,
Masaccio,
Uccello,
Piero.
"They
did
not paintthe
thing
in
its
unique,
accidentalcontexts,
but
the
objectiveidea
they
formed
ofit.
They
brought
the
image
ofthe
thing
into
conformity
12
with
their
definition
of it."The
excitement offinding
anal ogiesbetween
archaicpainting
andthe
new anthropologicaldis
ity
presenting
images
of"the
hardest
-of magicalrealism-
brought
outthe
unexpecteddiscovery
that
a number ofcontemporary
painters existed whose worksdemonstrated
just
this
quality:the
non-professional painters--theSunday
painters--of
the
turn
ofthe
century.The
naive realism ofSeraphine
de
Senlis,
ofAndrg
Bauchant
, ofLuis
Vivin,
ofCamille
Bombois,
and
especially
ofHenri
Rousseau,
demonstrated
the
"minute
styleof
the
lay
paintersintent
onthe
cleardefinition
of each13
separate thing."
"Like
the
early
Italian
Primitives,
[the
Neo-Primitive]
brings
the
visibleimage
ofthings
into
conformity
with
his
idea
ofthem.
His
paintingsdo
notmerely
reproducethings,
but
define
them."In
the
sameway,
the
cruel and sometimes -confusingexcesses of
the
photographicimage
canbe
selectively
alteredto
present"things
ofthe
hardest
matter"as a
fantasy
of whatthey
oughtto
be;
to
redefinethem;
orperhaps,
to
show them asI
like
to
think
they
actually
were."The
mentalimage
correctsnature
[which
is
alltoo
redundantly
presentedby
the
camera]
and
becomes
representation of reality."ROUSSEAU
The
naive painteris
known
to
satisfy
his
intent
by
very
systematic procedures.He
generally
considershimself
acraftsman and goes about
his
work withthe
care of a cabinetmaker;
no action painteris
he!
The
way
ofworking
ofHenri
Rousseau
is
typical,
andis
welldescribed
by
Shattuck:
Rousseau's
primitivism andhis
modernismfinally
came
into
focus
mostrevealingly
in
his
method--forhe
had
a method.It
involved
a regular sequence ofprocedure,
andrested,
despite
his
estimate ofhim
self,
far
more on plane composition andinterplay
of color than on conventions of optical representation.Usually
he
began
with a smallrudimentary
version ofhis
subject: a photograph,sketch,
or engraving.The
subjectshe
chose wereformal
and(except
for
the
tropicalscenes,
whichhe
rapidly
madehis
own)
famil
iar.
His
basic
method wasfree
copying,
a techniquethat
allows a painterto
workquietly
in
his
studiohe
outlined a general scheme ofthe
composition andindicated
areas of color.Then,
starting
atthe
top
andworking
towardthe
bottom
"like
pulling
down
a window shade,"he
filled
in
color and
detail.
In
huge
paintingslike
the
tropical
scenes,
he
found
it
preferableto
apply
one color at atime,
. . .Yetin
generalthe
making
ofthe
finished
work was a matter ofsteadily
applied
craftsmanship
during
whichhe
could reckonthe
number ofdays
or weeks requiredto
completethe
task.
We
owehis
unfailing
meticulousness ofdetail
to
anability
to
sustainthe
craftsman'srole
throughout
the
long
labor
oftransferring
onto canvas
the
compleximage
in
his
imagination.
Speed
of executionis
notthe
flavor
ofhis
art.17Rousseau's
decorative
senseis
almost as sure ashis
sense of colorand,
like
it,
servesthe
luxury
effect as well asthe
needfor
order.(The
terms
areRoger
Fry's).
In
both
color andform,
decorative
stylesfall
into
two
general cat egories: repetition and variation. . . .The
for
mertends
toward
simple rhythmical patterns ,like
arow of
trees;
the
latter
tends
toward
whatFocillon
calledthe
"system
of labyrinth"--Arabicdecorative
borders,
baroque
devices,
and old-fashioned stencils.Most
"primitive"art
favors
repetitivedecoration;
Rousseau
employedboth
techniques
.18
Reading
this
was astunning
experience.But
for
afew
minordetails
this
couldbe
adescription
ofhow
I
have
worked onthe
paintings of
the
recent period!In
asurprising
analogy
this
craftsmanlike method wasnot
too
remotefrom
that
ofthe
Italian
Primitives,
whose wallpaintings
involved
simplification of naturein
favor
ofdesired
didactic
and symbolic religious scenes.Their
execution wasusually
guidedby
a cartoon andthe
final
executionleft
to
the
craftsmanship
ofthe
designer's
assistants.White
also remindsus
that
Giotto's
Arena
Chapel
murals wereindeed begun
atthe
top
and were completedin
registerstoward
the
bottom
"like
pulling
down
a window shade."No
actionpainting
there!
M0RANV1
need
to
redefinethe
"world
ofthings"--a
reflection ofthe
need
for
a"greater
reality"--was stimulated
by
the
availability
of works of
the
Italian
Primitives.
To
somedegree
the
patri oticfervors
ofthe
First
War
developed
a new sense ofItallanlta
which madethose
archaic painters even more seemto
be
the
source of a new and vitalphilosophy
of painting.To
the
outsideworld,
archaic realism washeld
to
be
the
only
valid
Italian
contributionto
modern art.At
the
time
ofhis
break
withFuturism,
"Carra
spoke ofGiotto's
'magical
serenity
of form' and of
Uccello's
"brotherly
relation with things'."In
apainting
called"Daughters
of Lot"Carra
"attempted
to
rediscover
Giotto's
greatness on a modern plane, whichhe
iden-20
tified
with Rousseau."Carra
became
philosophicalleader,
the
protagonist of archaic realism andthe
principleItallano
, of a quiet andformal
grandness.Morandi,
a reclusiveBolognese,
had
contacts withthe
Metaphysical
painters,
althoughhe
never "joined"the
group,
preferring
anindividual
direction
andfreedom
from
polemics.He
had
abandoned studiesin
the
local
artacademy
in
1913
to
become
apractising
painter,
. . . procendo
dalla
nativa comprensionedei
grandimaestri
italiani,
fra
cuiil
gravePiero
della
Fran-cesca,
da
lui
forse
considerato pernod'un
linguaggio
pittorico strettamentogeometrico,
idea
precisa nelle venientifasi
della
sua opera.Incontratosi
con . . .Carlo
Carra,
. .and was attracted
to
Pittura
Metafisica
by
his
interest
in
the
Italian
Primitives
whomCarra
extolled.Carra
himself
says ofMorandi
that:. . . above all
he
found
justification
in
his
study
of
the
Renaissance
painters andprimitives,
Giotto,
Piero
della
Francesca,
Masaccio.
His
'exile
in
the
past'
was
the
exile of a man whoproudly
knew
that
he
was capable ofinterpreting
his
owntime,
but
who,
in
avoiding
both
the
adventitious andthe
merely
polemi cal, sought ease and comfortin
the
lucid
geometry
ofArezzo,
Florence
andPadua,
in
the
'sweet
perspective'[Uccello's
words]
thatinduced
the
solitude of poetic meditation.22
Critics
agree thatMorandi
'the
archaic masters.His
emotionalinvolvement
withthe
singleobject
led
to
constructionsin
aGiottesque
pictorialspace,
often as
if
curtains weredrawn
acrossthe
back.
Most
ofthe
paintings--even
the
few
landscapes--weredesigned
to presentthe
objectsfrontally
andin
shallow,
receding
planes.White's
comment
"In
all primitive artsthe
first
stagein
the
representation
ofany
cubic objectis
invariably
to
showonly
a singleside of it"23 explains
Morandi 's
compositionby
way
ofhis
admiration
ofItalian
Primitives.
It
is
seen"throughout
his
art."24There
it
is.
Naives--primitivists--tend
to
present theiremotive objects
frontally,
in
shallowlayered
pictorial space.Usually
there
is
an elaboration of the painted surfaceby
complexpattern and
there
is
a stillness, a sense oftime
suspended.Morandi
adoptedthese
qualitiesfrom
study
ofthe
Italian
Primi
tives.
Rousseau
arrived at themby
naiveintuition.
For
having
seen some of
these
naive and archaic attributesin
my
work,
Jackie's
commentis
gratefully
accepted.NOTES
Robert
J.
Goldwater,
PrlmltlvlAm
In
Modern
Painting
(New York:
Harper
Brothers
Publishers,
1938),
p. xx.Jackie
Schuman,
NewAroom
(Rochester:
Channel
21,
April
27,
1977),
review ofR.I.T.
Graduate
Thesis
Exhibit.
Mark
Stev,
"Pippin's
Folk
Heroes,"NewAweek
(August
22,
1977),
p.59.
4Ibid.,
p.60.
5Goldwater,
p.149.
Goldwater,
p.150.
7Goldwater,
p.124.
oGoldwater,
p.123.
lIbid.
, p.167.
Hlbid.
l2Ibid.
, p.168.
i3Ibid.
, p.172.
l4Ibid.
, p.168.
15Ibid.
, p.173.
l6Roger Shattuck,
The
Banquet
VearA
(Garden
City:
Doubleday
Company,
Inc.,
1961),
p.101.
17Ibid.
, p.103.
!8lbid.
, p.105.
l^Massimo
Carra,
MetaphyAlcal
art(New
York:
Praeger
Publishers,
19
),
p.175.
20lbid.
, p.176.
2lP.
M.
Bardi,
Giorgio
Morandi
(Milan:
Edizione
Del
Milano,
1957)
, p.XII.
22Carra,
p.24.
2
3john
White,
The
Birth
andRebirth
o
Pictorial Space
(Boston:
Boston
Book
andArt
Shop,
1967),
p.26.
Because
ofmy
reliance on photographs as sourcesfor
my
painting,
the
attributes ofphotographs--expecially
asI
choose
to
makethem
for
my
"sketchbook"--have a
strong
influ
ence on
the
painting.One
ofthe
strongest attributes ofthe
camera
is
its
perspectiverendition,
as notedby
Ivins
:Photography,
omitting
the
draughtsman,
produced pictures
in
which . . . mathematical perspective wasinherent.
. . .Today
we areflooded
withPhoto
graphicpictures,
i.
e.,
picturesin
which geometrical perspective
has
been
automatically
incorpo
rated.!
Somehow,
though,
I
find my painting
taking
little
advantage of2
"mathematical
perspective"--that
"Italian
perspective" whichso
meticulously
skewersits
multiplevanishing
points withits
receding
orthogonals.I
preferthe
simple, archaicfrontal
viewpoint
in
whichthe
orthogonals converge and unite out ofsight,
behind
the
central object.I
preferthe
simpletactile-3
muscular shapes of
facades
which are parallelto
the
pictureplane.
From
its
beginnings
photography
has
been
usedto
bypass
the
tedium
ofdraftsmanship,
andit
has
oftenbeen
attackedfor
permitting
this
laziness
in
painters.For
methe
answeris
notquite so simple.
The
camera makes avery
rapid sketch whichdoes
notdelay
travel;
it
provides all ofthe
detail
visibleto
close
scrutiny but
which a traditional sketchdoes
not;
it
allows
free
elimination ofdetails
whendesired but
does
notrequire symthesis
from memory
ofdetails
missing
in
the
originalsketch.
I
feel
comfortable withthose
painters"who
usethe
camera as
something
morethan
atranslation
device
....[and
who]
are aware ofits
shortcomings andgladly
make use ofthem
4
Because
I
find
in my painting
akind
of pleasurablepain which
has
to
do
withthe
viewpointinvariably
chosen,
andwhich
itself
encounters one ofthe
theorems
ofperspective,
it
became
important
to
find
whatis
in
print about perspectivewhich might enlighten me.
Ivins
suggests somedirections
by
stating
that:
. . . physiological optics and perspective are
actually
in many
waysdifferent
from
the
monocularoptics and perspective of
the
geometer andthe
photographic
lens,
andthat
our eyes, when we caninvent
situationsin
whichthey
are notdominated
by "conditioning",
give us returnsthat
frequently
are at variance withthe
constructions ofthe
draw
ing
board
andthe
camera.All
the
world talks about"photographic
distortion"but
withoutrealizing
that
the
"distortion"is
no morein
the photographthan
it
is
in
our mentalhabits
and our ownindividual
mechanisms.
5
As
in
looking
up
a single wordin
the
dictionary,
the
researchleads
to
successivefindings
about perspective which are allrelated
to
an analysis ofmy
painting.As
in
the
dictionary
search,
there are groups ofsynony
mous and
overlapping
and seemingly-synonymousterms
whichdeal
with
perspective,
depending
upon a writer's personal preference.Some
closely
related words whichdeal
primarily
withthe
function
of
the
eye--how
it
sees--are naturalperApectlve,
Euclidean
optlcA and phyAlologlcal optlcA or perApectlve.
The
dominant
naturalistic
discovery
ofthe
Renaissance
wears wordslike
artificial
perApectlve,
geometricperApectlve,
mathematicalperApectlve,
one-pointperApectlve,
monocularperApectlve,
central
perApectlve,
central projectlon
andlinear
perApectlve.A
less-known
Renaissance
conceptis
referred to as Aynthetlc perApectlve,
curvilinear perApectlve(this
is
complicatedby
find
ings
that
the
eyenormally
sees straightlines
ascurves,
asin
Illustration
1)
and naturalperApectlve,
whichis
Leonardo's
contradictory
termfor
the
sameproblem,
whichhe
grappled withinconclusively.
So
muchfor
ambiguity;
I
shalltry
to
keep
the
different
authors'terms
in
contextin
orderto
keep
meaningsVIEWING
DISTANCE
[1]
Curvilinearity
ofRetinal
Image.
When
looked
atirom
the
Indicated
dlAtance,
the
bowed
outerllneA
Aeemto
be
Atralght.
ThlA
Ia
becauAe
the
Image
formed
by
the
the
Apherlcal Aunfiaceofi
the
retina.A
Almllarly
viewed,
wouldbe
perceived aAbe dlfifilcult
to
acceptbecauAe
ol
priorAquareneAA .
Curvilinear
[or
Aynthetlc)
baAed
onthlA
phenomenonbut
rather onthe
lact
that the
turning
ofa
the
head
and eye cauAeAcontlnuouAly
varying
polntAoft
view.eye'A
lenA
{allA
uponnormal
checkerboard,
rounded,
but
thlA
wouldTHAT
INSISTENT SQUARENESS
Why
do
my
paintings seem so angular?So
aggressivly
square?
I
like
it
that
way,
of course, orI
wouldn'tdo
them
that
way.A
building's
facade
Ia
usually
formed
ofninety-degree
angles--as
nearly
so as artisan and materialspermit;
and of course
the
frontal
viewpointdoesn't
allowsoftening
by
the
variety
of angles whichlinear
perspectivebestows.
Moving
around anobject--a building--does
continuously
providevarying
perceptions ofthose
anglesbut,
even whenstanding
quietly
atthe
viewpoint whichI
invariably
select,
the
buildings
themselves
don't
seemto
insist
onthe
foursquare
flavor
to
my
senses.
Why
is
this
so?And why do
the
paintings soinsist?
Is
this
curiosity
about ninety-degree anglesmerely
a personalaberration?
I
can atleast
take
some comfortin
Kainz
' s remarkthat
"the
experiments ofthe
GeAtalt-Tpsychologists
showclearly
that
phenomenally
there
is
no angle of85
degrees
or of95
degrees,
but
that
instead
ofthese
there
are right anglesthat
aretoo
small or
too
large."White
takes
adifferent
direction
whenhe
statesthat
"it
seemsto
be
establishedthat
extensive use of straightlines
gives a cold effect to a work of art, and
that
a certainpsycho-7
logical
discomfort
is
involved,
No
matter;
my
curiosity
leads
rightinto
what othershave
observed or concluded aboutperceptions of visual
space,
andto
some speculations ofmy
own.How
far
back
shall welook?
TO
THE
BEGINNINGS
Homo
AaplenAhas
been
making
representationalimages
for
somethirty
thousand years.The
paintings ofAltamira
andLascaux
excitethe
admiration of sophisticated viewerstoday,
even
though
they
do
not seemto
showany
concernfor
that
representation of space called "perspective."
Did
paleolithic painters place their
figures
in
apurely
conceptualspace,
one notneeding
perspectivalrepresentation,
onedealing
with convenit
that
"the
space conception of primeval artis
one ofthe
one-ness of
the
world;
a world of unbrokeninterrelation,
whereeverything
is
in
association,
wherethe
sacredis
inseparable
Qfrom
the
profane"?Could
it
be
that
the
Renaissance
formu
lations
were at alower
conceptuallevel
than
the
primeval?Giedeon,
in
speculating
onthe
space representation ofprehistoric
painters,
holds
that
the
later
Renaissance
mode ofperspective
drawing
merely
showsthe
appearance ofthings
in
arestricted way:
In
linear
perspective--etymologically
"clearseeing"
-objects are
depicted
upon a plane surfacein
conformity
withthe
way
they
areseen,
without referenceto
their
actual shapes or relations.The
whole picture ordesign
is
calculatedto
be
validfor
one station or observation pointonly
. . .every
elementin
a perspective representation
is
related tothe
unique point of view ofthe
individual
spectator.Nothing
oh
thlA
Aort exlAted
In
prehlAtory
.(Emphasis
mine.)
Although writing in
a volumedevoted
to
Greek
andRen
aissance
art,
Ivins
supportsGiedeon 's
conclusionby
anotherline
of reasoning.He
speaks ofhis
conviction that one set ofhuman
perceptionsdepends
upontactile-muscular
information--the
kind
ofinformation
that
wouldbe
availableby
reaching
outand
touching
objects.Objects
sensedin
full
frontal
or profilepositions would
be
immediately
recognizedbut
those
in
obliquepositions would not so
easily
be
recognized;
"the
shapes ofobjects as
known
by
hand
do
not change with shiftsin
positionas
do
the
shapesknown
by
the
eye."In
contrast,
purely
visual
information,
receivedby
successive glances asin
a motionpicture
film,
provides that"objects
continually
changetheir
shapes as we move around them" and that visual
data
generally
is
of"shifting,
varying,
unbrokencontinuity
of quitedifferent
visual effects."
It
follows
that
to
the
tactile-muscular
senses objects exist almost
independently
and areknown
in
theirmost
identifiable,
most significantaspect,
as arethe
parts ofthe
body
in
ancientEgyptian
art.Even
whenvisually
perceived--out of touch and
reach--"tactile"
objects are recognized
by
their
tactile
attributesbecause
of previous eye-hand associationsThe
heart
ofIvins
'There
is
no sense of contactin
vision,
but
tactile
awareness exists
only
as conscious contact.The
hand,
moving
among
the
things
it
feels,
is
always"here",
and whileit
has
three
dimensional
coordinatesit
has
no point of view and
in
consequence novanishing
point;
the
eye,
having
two
dimensional
coordinates,
has
apoint of view and a
vanishing
point,
andit
sees"there'',
whereit
[the
eye]
is
not.The
resultis
that
visually
things
are notlocated
in
anindepend
ently
existing
space,
but
the
space,
rather,
is
aquality
orrelationship
ofthings
andhaA
noexlAt-ence without
them. 13
(Emphasis
mine.)
Thus
it
wouldbe
reasonableto
concludethat
primevalpainters were
object-oriented,
tactile-mindedthinkers,
concernedwith
the
animalto
eat,
its
significant-profileimage
in
magic ofprocreation,
and withthe
tactile-ly
round sun or moon as a signalof
time
to
gatherfood
or tomigrate;
tactile-muscularinfor
mation
certainly;
time
data
perhaps;
but
notdata
of visual spacereceding
to
avanishing
point.Tactile
images,
overlapping
and
transparent--animals
in
most-significantprofile--are
every
where
in
the
caves.If
square objectshad been
a part of thatworld
they
wouldundoubtedly have
been
shownfrontally
and withright-angled cornerAl
THE
ANCIENTS
The
leap
from
paleolithic art spans various selectedapplications of
isolated
parts ofthe
totaltheory
of perspective;
the
development
of a unifiedtheory
wasdeferred
by
lack
of
need,
intellectual
preference,
lack
ofcuriosity,
orintel
lectual
rigidity.It
seems tobe
agreedthat
the
workings of"natural"
perspective--the
functioning
ofthe
eyeto
relateobjects
in
space and to estimate distances--hasbeen
a properactivity
ofthe
eyefrom
the
arrival ofHomo
AaplenAto
his
present state of
development.
However,
the
needto
make pictures,
andthe
intended
use of thosepictures,
did
not callfor
the
representation ofthe
voldAbetween
objectA untilthe
early
Renaissance,
withthe
full
systemization ofthe
methodoccurring
during
the
rise ofhumanistic
concerns ofthe
high
Renaissance.
real-istic
representations--according
to
their
convictions--of carefully
observed objects and ofbeings
in nature, but
their
way
of
image-making
utilizedonly
alimited
portion of whatthe
natural perspective of
the
eye revealedto
them.
The
manner ofrepresentation
differentiated
socially,
withthe
images
ofthe
divine
rulersbeing
mostrigidly
prescribed;
lesser
beings
wereshown with clear evidence of
understanding
whatthe
eyesees,
figures
overlapping
to
show shallowdepth
andin
partialfore
shortening
to
show athird
dimension.
The
extent ofdeparture
from
prescribed modes showsthat
further
extensionsinto
full
perspective would not
have
been
technically
impossible.
Yet
"the
ancientEgyptians,
andtheir
contemporaries,
never usedlinear
perspectiveto
produce a unified picture of a whole scenegiving
a representationin depth
ofthe
component parts withtheir
apparent size and position."The
Gteeks,
according
toPirenne,
introduced
some partsof
the
total
theory
of perspectiveinto
theirwork,
possibly
ona
purely
empirical way.By
the
middle ofthe
sixthcentury
B.C.
there
were vase paintingsshowing
both
foreshortening
of thefigure
and other perspective effects atthe
sametime.
Unfor
tunately,
noGreek
paintings survive,but
"certain
architectural
views unearthed atPompeii
. . . areprobably based
onearlier
Greek
original paintings, and containthe
representationof parallel
lines
perpendicular tothe
pictureplane,
of whichmany
(but
notall)
converge towards a single point."With
the
knowledge
that
the
Romans
simply
adoptedGreek
forms
in
allthe
arts,
this
seemsto
be
a reasonable conclusion.Ivins
objectsto
crediting
theGreeks
withany
knowledge
of perspective at all.
The
first
step
ofhis
argumentis
that
there
is
no attributable example ofHellenic
painting,
andthat
much of
the
sculptureis
known
only
by
fragments
orby
Roman
copies.
Further,
he
holds
that
what wehave
long
held
up
for
admiration
is
conditionedby
nineteenth-century
archaeologists,
whose
training
was notin
aesthetic values.Among
the
mostcomplete
surviving
examples arethe
vase paintings;
these
are. . .
distinctly
a minor art ofdecoration,
in
general not
too
far
removedfrom manufacturing
crafts manship. . . .[they]
arethe
last
possible word ofstylized,
dandiacal
drawing,
decorative
spacing, andfashionable
arrangementin
two
dimensions
--butbeyond
that
they
do
not go.They
rarely have
morethan
the
mosttenuous
emotionalunity,
andthey
never repre sentthings
as seenrelatively
to each otherin
three-dimensional
space.I7
Then,
turning
to
his
previously
citedtheory
oftactile-muscular
mentality,
Ivins
examineshistorical
Greek
geometry
and points outthat
Euclid
andhis
followers
werelimited
by
tactile
and muscular
intuitions
and weretherefore
unableto
cope withthe
idea
ofinfinity.
"Infinity,
whereverit
is,
asby
defi
nition escapes
handling
and measurement.Intuitionally
it
belongs
in
the
field
of vision."Renaissance
perspectiveneeds
infinity
for
its
vanishing
points,
but
because
Euclid
wasable
to
heel
that
parallels nevermeet,
there
couldbe
no consideration of
infinity,
where parallelsvisibly
do
meet.As
another evidence of theGreek
mental setIvins
callsattention
to
the
meticulously
constructed models ofGreek
monumental sites which exist
in
our museums.Exclusive
concernfor
the
tactile
qualities of objectsis
displayed
by
the
fact
that:. . . each
monument,
statue,
theatre,
temple,
is
placed wherever room canbe
found
for
it,
like
potson an
untidy
shelf,
with nothought
of vistas orapproaches,
and no thoughtthat
one erection couldget
in
the
way
of or makeany
difference
in
another.The
fact
that
these
sites werebuilt
up
overthe
generations on agroup
of sacred placesdoes
notaccount
for
the
helter-skelter
arrangement.As
anexcuse
it
admitsthe
fact.
The
only
thing
that
canaccount
for
that
is
an obliviousness to aninter
related or organized visual order.1"
If
we assumethat,
asWhite
believes,
Pompeiian
fresco
painting
reflectsGreek
perspectivediscoveries,
we must alsoconcur with
his
comment thatthe
variousPompeiian
foreshortening
modes
"illustrate
[only]
the
partialunderstanding
of spatialrealism,
or[alternatively,]
the
limited
interest
in
it,
. . .This
disinterest
in
fundamental
realismcan,
attimes,
descend
into
a pure confusion."We
areleft
withthe
conjecturethat
squareness of structures and
the
way
they
wereactually
Aeenby
the
eye,
andthat
elements of avanishing
axis system ofperspective were
being
examined experimentally.(Illustration
2)
Such
a system would record successive eye-fixations while scanning
andblend
them
together
to
actually
depict
structuresto
the
right andleft
ofthe
viewer asreceding both
laterally
andback
from
the
viewer--on a curved
line.
Verticals
would alsohave
to
be
curved,
asin
Illustration
3,
but
to
avoid confusionin
representing
details
known
(to
the
tactile-muscular
senses)
to
be
square,
straight vertical chords weresubstituted,
asin
Illustration
2,
and straighthorizontal
lines
were represented asstraight chords of
the
curving
line
of recession."Here
thereis
no
confusion,
but
the
curving
composition whichboth
organizesand expresses
in
artisticform
the
everyday
experience of the21
turning
head
andthe
roving
eye."Even
if
we allow this argument on antique
perspective,
the
Pompeiian
Fourth
Style
was putto
an endbefore
its
paintings could serve as abasis
for
any
continuing
experiments todepict
unified space.TWO
KINVS
OF
SPACE
The
humanistic
concerns ofthe
Renaissance
requiredthat
the
voidsbetween
objects--buildings--be
represented,
for
that
was,
afterall,
wherethe
new mantravelled.
Although
the
camera oAcura was not
described
untilthe
mid-sixteenthcentury,
revealing
magical projections ofthe
visibleworld,
painterswere
already
concerned about naturalismin
the twopreceding
centuries.
Two
different
ways ofthinking
evolved,
one concerned with
the
experience of the eye andthe
other with whatwas
to
be
confirmedby
the
cameraOAcura,
in
which aflat
"window
into
space"would
be
usedto
alterthe
sphericaldomain
of
the
eye.As
Ivins
has
stated,
the
cameraway
has
become
the
universal
one;
I
am curious aboutthe
other way.The
conflictbetween
reality
andthe
eye was sensedby
Cimabue
in St.
Peter
Healing
the
Lame
atAssisi.
In
order notK
y
^ >^
V
A
N.
M
N
AL
x>'
/ /
/
7U\
/
s
\ s \ ^
\
\
\LM
[2]
The
Vanishing
Axis
System.
ThlA
Ia
a Acheme poAtulatedby
White
aAthe
empiricalbaAlA
oh
Pompeiian
h^^coeA
.The
AyAtem accountA
hofl
l&ck
oh
parallellty
In
painting;
the
eyeIa
claimedto
have
turned
toward
each Atructureto
give each adlhh<LH-<int
pointoh
view--ahoierunner
oh
Aynthetlc perApectlve.
The
phyAlcalknowledge
oh
Atralght architecturalhormA
waAtaken
careoh
by
uAeoh
Atralght AegmentA aAknown.
The
AyAtemhinted
at a cylindrical AyAtem with a vertical axlAInAtead
oh
& singlevanlAhlng
point.[At
the
leht.)
On
the
rightIa
the
adaptationoh
the
vanlAhlng
axlA AyAtemby
the
Italian
VrlmltlveA.
LlneA
known
to
be
parallelto
the
picture Aurha.ce were retained aA parallel.The
resulting
AenAeoh
Apace,
eApeclally
In
InterlorA
, reAultAIn
a^ee-Ltng
oh
"opening
outtoward
the
[3]
A
Fully
Curvilinear
Perspective
System.
The
conAtructlonoh
the
Image
oh
& rectangular object aA Aeenby
eyehfl0m the
centeroh
the
Aphere on whichIt Ia
projected.Compare
withIllustrations
11
and15.
From the
Aame poAltlonoh
the
eye,
the
rectangular object wouldbe
Imaged
aA rectangularlh
athrough
the
pictureplane,
the
sceneis
constructedfrom
three
separate viewpoints.
The
central structureis
presentedfront-ally
andthe
two
side structures arein
foreshortened
frontal
mode,
which preventsthe
viewerfrom escaping
by
running
the
foreshortened buildings
to
the
decorated
borders
ofthe
panel.The
effectis
that
ofinverted
linear
perspective,
withthe
vanishing
pointin
the
viewer's position.It
is
asif
the
viewer were
to
look
simultaneously
atthe
buildings
from
the
center and
from
the
extreme right andleft
ofthe
scene.It
was a
daring
experiment withthe
"turning
head
andthe
roving
eye."
(Illustrations
4
and5A)
The
early
fourteenth-century
Arena
Chapel
frescoes
by
Giotto
show great concerns with volumes andharmony
between
the
subject and
the
flat
wall whichvisibly
supportsthe
frescoes.
It
was apainterly
concern.One
panel,
The
TeaAt
atCana,
is
held
to
be
"the
first
clear-cut example of[the]
tendency
toapply
to
architecturaldetails
the
rules of natural visionbased
upon
the
turning
of eye andhead
to
look
directly
atthe
various2
3
objects
in
the
field
of vision."The
energy
expendedby
Giotto
and
his
followers,
unlikethe
experiments atPompeii,
remainedclearly
visiblefor
study
anddevelopment.
(Illustration
5B)
Giotto's
studentMaso
di
Banco
followed
thisidea
in
the
frescoes
ofSta.
Croce
atFlorence;
they:. . . seem
to
reveal aconsistent,
and ever moreclearly
expressedtendency
to
makethe
painted sceneconform
to
the
appearance ofthe
real world asboth
head
and eye are turnedto
focus
onits
multifariouscontents. . . .
The
end effectis
ofcompletely
curvilinear
compositions,
painted asif
onthe
surface ofa hemisphere.24
Paralleling
Maso's
curvilinearity
,Ambrogio
Lorenzetti
painted
City
oh
Good
Government
atSiena
andfollowed his
ownempirical experience of
vision,
which wasto
be
in
conflict withthe
invention
of a one-point perspective systemin
the
early
part of
the
fifteenth
century.(Illustration
5C)
Lorenzetti 's
fresco
. . . curves
backwards
from
the
centre,
asif
receding
softly
from
the
observer'sshifting
gaze- . .it
situa-_____ o
b
<?
c s>p>
i
M/
Synthetic Perspective
Artificial Perspective
Figure
ia.
Frontal
c.Foreshortened Frontal
b.
Complex Frontal
d.
Oblique
(Extreme)
e.
Softened Oblique
[4]
Synthetic
tlve
Ia
a namedo
notdepend
In
"c"above,
parallelto
th
the
AtructureA alAo parallelAldeA
oh
the
aand
Artificial
Perspective.
Synthetic
perApec-hor thoAe
AchemeAho!t
depletion
oh
Apacewhich
on
the
one-point photographic modeA.For
example,
the
right-hand view AhowAh^^tA
oh
AtructureAe picture plane and
the
nearer,
Inner
vlewAoh
' AldeA.The
Aynthetlc verAlon AhowAthe
h*-ontA
to
the
picture planebut
alAo AhowAthe
outer [image:31.541.48.475.78.623.2]T
T
T
B
T
T
T
\]>
[5A]
Cimabue.
The
Roving
Eye
Ia
taken
to
dramatically
Aepa-ratedvlewpolntA;
the
outer AtructureA, Aeenh,l0m their
har
AldeA,
reAultIn
a AenAeoh
convergence atthe
Apectator.
[5B]
Giotto.
Late
thirteenth- andearly
hu,t-teenth-century
palnterA uAed oblique vlewA
to
Ahow three-dlmenA
tonality;
adepletion
oh
unlhlcd Apace waA notthe
objective,
aothat the
Roving
Eye
waAtaken
to
polntA appropriatehofl
zachAtructure.
[5C]
Abrogio
Lorenzetti.
Turning
the
eyetoward
each Atructure
putA each at adlhherent
angle,
cauAlng
the
Atralght
line
tion,
alwayslooking
outwardsfrom
himself,
the
centre of
this
world.It
is
the
reverse ofthe
fro
zen stare ofthe
fifteenth-century
perspectivein
which
the
composition
is
suckedin
towards
a singlepoint
by
centring
[Ale]
orthogonals.26Uccello,
consideredto
be
one ofthe
inventors
ofthe
one-point
perspective
system,
nevertheless continuedto
strugglewith
the
ideas
putforth
by
his
predecessors,
to
try
to
reconcile visual
truth
to
nature with mathematical perspectivetheory,
The
Flood,
in
Sta.
Maria
Novella
atFlorence,
shows straightlines
as subtlecurves,
withvanishing
pointschanging
asthe
viewer scans
the
picture.He
was notmerely elaborating
ever more complexapplications of
the
theory
of artificial perspective
... .He wasinquiring
into
the
nature andvalidity
ofthe
newmethod,
andweighing
it
againsthis
experience ofthe
natural world.Brunelleschi
himself
[had]
apparently
felt
the
contradiction ofhis
eyes which seemedto
be
entailedin
his
new system.27
ILLUMINATION
The
boldest
experiments withthe
concept of synthetic(curvilinear)
perspective are shownin
the
manuscriptillumi
nations of
Jean
Fouquet
which were made afterhis
Roman
trip
of
1445-1448.
He
wouldhave
had
opportunity
to
seethe
early
Italian
solutionsto
the
questions of synthetic perspectivewhile
he
studiedthe
new one-point systemjust
then
emerging.The
Italian
experimentsturn
outto
have
been
very
cautiouswhen compared with
Fouquet 's
subsequent work.In
his
first
commission afterreturning
to
France,
The
Book
oh
HourA
oh
Etlenne
Chevalier,
Fouquet
boldly
curvedstraight
lines
to
makeforeshortenings
to
both
right andleft.
"Straight
lines
now curveovertly;
sodo
the
braided
tresses
of2 8
the
mat,
as well asthe
beams
ofthe
ceiling.""
"Sometimes,
29
the
dome
ofthe
sky
is
revealed as animmense
orb."(Illus
trations
6,
7)
Later,
having
given more attentionto
the
problem,
Fouquet
illustrated
LeA
GrandeA
ChronlqueA
de
France
andadvo-[6]
The
Annunciation
oh
the
Death
oh
Virgin.
Fouquet,
ca.1449.
cated
in his
theory
ofsynthetic
perspective."30 (Illustra-"tion
8)
In
LeA
AntlqulteA
JudalqueA
Fouquet
exploredthe
convergence of
tall
buildings
when see