on Perspective – szmz/teaching

Highly recommended reading: Erwin Panofsky: Perspective as Symbolic Form”
Translated by Christopher S. Wood, Zone Books, New York, 1991
magyarul: Erwin Panofsky: A perspektíva mint „szimbolikus forma”
in: Erwin Panofsky: A jelentés a vizuális művészetekben, Gondolat Kiadó, Budapest, 1984, 170-248. oldal,
a letölthető pdf az ELTE BTK Művészettörténeti Intézet Budapest 2011-es újraközlése, ebben a 151-221. oldalon található.

Highly recommended website: http://www.c3.hu/perspektiva/frameseten.html
webpages of the exhibition Perspective, Műcsarnok, 1999

Wall paintings from Catalonian Churches, 14th century

“Our contemporary notion of an image is mostly shaped by the Renessaince idea of perspective. Nothing is more characteristic of this type of picture than the common verbal mistake that does not always make a distinction between spectacle and image. In a large number of books that deal with the topic we find that the notions of spectascle(i.e., what we see) and that of the image are treated as being equivavalent with each other. In everyday language, ill-considered use of words and a common visual sense, blur the distinction between spectacle and image. This, however, is not very natural and was not all the case before the Renessaince or even after it for a long while as the concept of perspective started to spread.It is enough to refer to the image classifications of Saint John of Damascus or Reformist reactions to the idea of the image, such as the writings of Luther. The early notion of image did not primarily mean the planar surface cut out of its natural surroundings by means of a frame – in fact this meaning came from the Renessaince. Earlier a figure meant a figure, a portrait or a replica or some identifiable and proper sign of the similarity between a real and the depicted object, person or form. Early images are to be viewed as the orderly arrangements of figures and patterns composed out of contents and textures (or visual texts and redundant ornaments). They are not primarily spectacles but rather messages that were made spectacular whose motives can be deciphered and/or verbally defined.” (Miklós Peternák: On Perspective, in: Perspective, catalogue, published by Műcsarnok, 2001, p. 11-12.)

“A mai értelemben vett kép fogalmának kialakulásában döntő szerepet játszott a reneszánsz perspektíva. Mi sem jellemzőbb erre a képfajtára, mint az a tény, hogy a mai nyelvhasználat általában keveri a látvány és a kép fogalmait: nagy százalékban vehetünk elő bármely vizuális témával foglalkozó szöveget, azt találva, hogy nincs világos szétválasztás aközött, amit látunk, illetve egy kép között. A látvány és kép fogalma egymásra tolódik az átgondolatlan fogalmazás és a köznapi észlelet előtt. Pedig ez egyáltalán nem természetes, és a reneszánsz előtt, sőt a perspektíva elterjedése után is jó darabig nem volt így – elég elővenni Damaszkuszi Szent János képklasszifikációit vagy a reformáció képpel kapcsolatos megnyilvánulásait, például Luther Márton írásait. Képen korábban nem vagy nem elsősorban a kerettel a környezettől elkülönített sík felület volt értendő – ennek az értelmezésnek a kialakulásához épp e reneszánsz találmány vezet el. A kép korábban inkább alak, hasonmás, másolata vagy megfelelő, felismerhető jele az ábrázolás mintájául szolgáló tárgynak, személynek, formának. A korábbi képek inkább alakok, illetve mintázatok rendezett halmazaként tekintendők, tartalmak és textúrák (vagy vizuális textusok és redundáns ornamensek) egybeszerkesztései. Nem elsődleges látvány, hanem láthatóvá tett üzenet, melynek programja visszafejthető és / vagy megnevezhető.” PETERNÁK Miklós: A perspektíváról, in: Perspektíva, katalógus, Műcsarnok, Budapest, 2001, p. 5-6.)

Perspective is a software

What we call Perspective is an artificial method (algorithm) of depicting 3D volumetric objects on a 2D plane.

Leon Battista Alberti publishes his treatise “Della Pittura” first in 1435/6 (in the Tuscan dialect of Italian), then in 1439-41 in latin (De pictura). De pictura aimed to describe systematically the figurative arts through “geometry”.

left: Alberti’s algorithm, NR is the viewing distance; right: Distance point calculation, CD is the viewing distance (Jean Pelerin: De Artificiali Perspectiva, Toul, 1505, Nürenberg, 1509)

First of all, on the surface on which I am going to paint, I draw a rectangle of whatever size I want, which I regard as an open window through which the subject I am going to paint is seen, I divide the bottom of my rectangle into as many parts as it will hold.

Then I establish a point in the rectangle wherever I wish – the vanishing point. I draw lines from the vanishing point to each of the divisions on the base line. These lines show me how the successive transversals quantities visually change to an almost infinite distance.

I have a(nother) drawing surface on which I make a single line, and this I divide into parts like those into which the base line of the rectangle is divided. Then I place a point above this line, directly over one end of it at the same height as the vanishing point is from the base line of the rectangle. From this point I draw lines to each of the divisions on the line.

Then I determine the distance I want between the eye of the spectator and the painting, and I drop a perpendicular to the base line. This perpendicular will give me, at the places it cuts the other lines, the measure of what the distance should be in each case between the transverse equidistant lines in the pavement.mIn this way I have all the parallels of the pavement drawn.

Figure from the 1804 edition of Della pittura showing the vanishing point

Rendition of Alberti’s description of how a circle projected as an ellipse

Figure showing pillars in perspective on a grid

The Flagellation by Piero della Francesca, **1455-1461**

Sighting Grid, Leonardo da Vinci, Circa 1500

From the Codex Atlanticus: “Have a piece of glass as large as a half sheet of royal folio paper and set thus firmly in front of your eyes, that is, between your eye and the thing you want to draw. Then place yourself at a distance of 2/3 of a braccia from the glass fixing your head with a machine in such a way that you cannot move it at all. Then shut or entirely cover one eye and with a brush or red chalk draw upon the glass that which you see beyond it; then trace it on paper from the glass, afterwards transfer it onto good paper, and paint it if you like, carefully attending to the aerial perspective.”

(Royal Folio is about A4 or Letter Size, so the suggested size is 15 x 20 cm, and braccia is a measure of length, ‘arm’ in Italian, equal to 66-69 cm).

Note: The Codex Atlanticus is a 12-volume set of bound original drawings made by Leonardo between 1478 and his death in 1519. A complete digital scan of all Leonardo’s drawings can be found here.

Source: Codex Atlanticus, 1478-1519

Albrecht Dürer: Man Drawing a Lute, 1523/25

Dürer’s Door (Sportello),
Salomon de Caus,
1612

Sighting Grid
Albrecht Dürer
1525
Sighting Grid

Source: Underweyssung der Messung, 1525

Sighting Easel
Albrecht Dürer
1525
Sighting Easel

Source: Underweyssung der Messung, 1525

” In order to guarantee a fulli rational – that is, infinite, unchanging and homogeneous – space, this “central perspective” makes two tacit but essential assumptions: first, that we see with a single and immobile eye, and second, that the planar cross section of the visual pyramid can pass for an adaquate reproduction of our optical image. In fact these two premises are rather bold abstractions from reality, if by “reality” we mean the actual subjective optical impression. For the structure of an infinite, unchanging and homogeneous space – in short, a purely mathematical space – it is quite unlike the structure of psychophysical space: “Perception does not know the concept of infinity; from the very outset it is confined within certain spatial limits imposed by our faculty of perception. And in connection with perceptual space we can no more speak of homogeneity than of infinity.”
“…”
“Exact perspectival construction is a systematic abstraction from the structure of this psychophysical space. For it is not only the effect of perspectival construction, but indeed its intended purpose, to realize in the representation of space precisely that homogeneity and boundlessness foreign to the direct experience of that space. In a sense, perspective transforms psychophysiologigal space into mathematical space. It negates the difference between front and back, between right and left, between bodies and intervening space (“empty ” space), so that the sum of all the parts of space and all its contents are absorbed into a single “quantum continuum.” It forgets that we see not with a single fixed eye but two constantly moving eyes, resulting a spheroidal field of vision.”(Panofsky 1991, p. 28-30.)

Drawing aids are hardware tools
to accelerate depiction according to the rules of Perspective

Optical devices, measuring tools and drawing aids help to depict 3D volumetric objects on a 2D planes.