HA C158

Section 3 (9.18.2014)

Jan van Eyck vs. Masaccio
Perspectives of these paintings seem important

Jan van Eyck
Critiques have said him not having a vanishing point is detrimental
o Reading tried to argue against this
Not lined up with any type of sight-line

Masaccio
Huge wall painting the size of the church
Skeleton in front (tombstone) but also an alter
Scaled to actual height of the observer relatively perfect point-of-view in the relative
space
Symbolically the vanishing point is where Adams skull is placed in other paintings
o Adam: first fallen man, sin reversed by this sacrifice
o i.e. usually vanishing point on painting of Mary is her womb

Linear perspective standard account of origins / discovery
Summers reading
o Origin of perspective: Brunelleschis biography
o Panel we can see how optical traditions led to its construction
Eyeball: living mirror
o Chapter mentions that Brunelleschi went to Rome to bring back some
architectural principles
o Perspective may have emerged from him trying to reconstruct projected geometry
out of buildings
o Steps
1. Scale of the ground
2. Scale of the building from the side
3. Line up at single intersection
4. Where ever they intersect becomes a grid point
5. Drew out details in each grid
Alberti
o Perspective geometry
o The verifying construction
o In Latin: perspective = optics
o Pavement based
o Method
Have a vanishing point
Connect to the bottom plane with a particular scale
Once you have a triangle, extends line to the same points
Draw transversals
o Not a mathematical theorem

Relief Sculpture Donatello
Receding colonnade
Checkered board entry point
Not entirely unified as a space
o Perspective when it was first discovered: a localized effect that could be used

1480s painting wall of Sistine chapel
Perspective unified in the entire space
Has a perspective that the viewers can never reach

Alexander mosaic
Collection of optical effects
o Reflection of dying face on the shield
o How horses buts are perceived in space

Summers: optical effects are not part of art
They become conventionalized

Elkins:
As far as they are decorative and unify as an optical object, it is artistic

Perspective: a result of an optically interest community working

Brunelleschi
Church
Simple columns, domes sink into pure geometric forms
Summers: Brunelleschis experiments are trying to create pristine optically projected
geometry

Elkins reading ideal city panels
No one knows who made it
Perfect perspective
No people in them
Potted plant sometimes
Strange, quiet, completely empty setting
Stereotypical painting when we think of perspective in a painting
Elkin: we should not think of paintings that way

Elkin: perspective was discussed locally within a painting Donatello, Masaccio
Ex) structure of domes, floors, ceiling, etc.
An ornament that shows diminution of space
Paolo Ucello great founder of perspective
o Painting of the flood
o No unifying vanishing point
o Whats valued is that one guys little collar
Shows up in multiple paintings
o Obsessed perspectivalist
Branches falling, people dying all depicted orthogonally
o Not sexually potent because obsessed with perspective name is a pun on penis
Michelangelo - Figures projecting out of the ceiling (foreshortening)
Wall of bodies
o Ornamental wall of bodies
o Top: monster figures twisting around
Receding wall behind
o Not about space, but when perspective comes in, it is ornamental

Elkins
Give rules to their perspectives

Other scholars
Discover the rules of perspective

Summers: re-read pg.46
How perspective is treated in the 20
th
century