STEFAN ARTENI

Perspective as Form and Medium

and
the Interplay of Proportion Systems
and Perspective

III

SolInvictus Press 2006

Projection Systems
Systems used to depict recession in space
[from www.uic.edu]
Bayeux tapestry, overlapping
Byzantine mosaic, overlapping Ottonian miniature, diagonal
perspective and overlapping
El Greco (Domenikos
Theotokopoulos),
overlapping, vertical
and diagonal
perspective
El Greco
(Domenikos
Theotokopoulos),
overlapping and
diminution
Persian miniature, vertical perspective
Byzantine miniatures,
diagonal perspective and overlapping
The most common paraline or
parallel projections
(diagrams by Bruce MacEvoy)
Egyptian wall painting
Egyptian
wall paintings
Beatus de Liebana,
Commentary on the
Revelation of St.John,
about 945
Byzantine
illumination
Gothic illumination
Persian miniature
Persian miniature
Persian miniature
Villard de
Honnecourt

Anonymous Japanese master

Russian Icon
Russian Icon
Fresco, Christ Healing the Possessed, 1080,
Lambach Abbey Church, Upper Austria
Fresco, The Magi, around 1431,
Church of St. Peter am Kammersberg, Styria
 Ohrid Icon, mixed perspective system
(parallel projection and reverse perspective:
diverging oblique edges may give an effect
of reverse perspective)
The Modern Era

Gino Severini
 The Modern Era

Gris uses a mixed system of

projections [diagrams by
Fred Dubery and John Willats]

Juan Gris (Jose Victoriano Gonzalez)

 Byzantine illumination

Reverse perspective, also called inverse

perspective or Byzantine perspective, is a
technique of perspective drawing where the lines
diverge against the horizon, rather than
converge. Technically, the vanishing points are
placed outside the painting with the illusion that
they are "in front of" the painting.
A common interpretation is that the point of
perspective is on the viewer, hence The Almighty
looks upon him, rather than the viewer looks
upon The Almighty. It displays the spiritual rather
than the physical reality.

Russian Icon
The Modern Era

Juan Gris (Jose Victoriano Gonzalez)

and the use of reverse perspective
Perspective effects

Pompeiian mural of the pageant of Orestes, 2nd century 3D simulation of

AD, inspired by theatrical scenery (scaenographia)
Roman wall
containing both central convergence (black lines) and
‘fishbone’ parallel convergence for the peripheral features
painting
such as the roof rafters (white lines) [University of
[diagram by Christopher W. Tyler] Warwick's e-lab]
 Perspective effects

Roman wall paintings

Perspective effects

Roman wall paintings

Perspective effects

Roman wall painting

Perspective effects

Roman wall paintings

 Perspective
effects

Roman mosaic
(reverse perspective)
 Multiple systems used in the
same altarpiece [1]

Ugolino da Siena
41,4 x 58,1 cm
From the predella of an altarpiece for
the Basilica Santa Croce, Florence,
1325/26
overlapping

Ugolino da Siena
40,4 x 58,8 cm
From the predella of an altarpiece for
the Basilica Santa Croce, Florence,
1325/26
reverse perspective
 Multiple systems used in the
same altarpiece [2]

Ugolino da Siena
40,1 x 58 cm
From the predella of an altarpiece for the
Basilica Santa Croce, Florence, 1325/26
[perspective diagram by Stefan Arteni]
Duccio di Buoninsegna

Duccio di Buoninsegna
[perspective diagram by M.X. Benedict]
 Giovanni di Paolo di Grazia

Dieric Bouts

Giotto (Ambrogio Bondone)

[diagram by Christopher W. Tyler]
Leon Battista Alberti

renaissance method for constructing central perspective

from the instructions in Alberti's De pictura (1435)
[diagram by Bruce MacEvoy]

the perspective gradient

[diagram by Bruce MacEvoy]
 Franz Fischnaller's reconstruction of the relationship between the real
architecture of the refectory and the painted architecture in Leonardo da Vinci’s
Last Supper, www.fabricat.com/ultim_cen.html
[From the online book Psychology of Perspective and Renaissance Art
(WebExhibits) by Michael Kubovy and Christopher Tyler]
Leonardo da Vinci’s perspective
diagram for the Adoration of the Magi
Leonardo da Vinci,
Adoration of the Magi
Fra Angelico (Guido di Pietro da Mugello)
Fra Angelico (Guido di Pietro da Mugello), diagram by Stefan Arteni
 Rafaello Sanzio
[perspective diagram by Christopher W. Tyler]
Raffaello Sanzio: superimposed perspective and proportion
schemata [Michael Holzapfel]
… progressions can be used to generate perspective grids. In the
accompanying drawings on the geometric and harmonic
progressions, we can see how a linear perspective grid system
can be developed from either approach. The geometric
progression used in Figure 1 is
[From Mark Reynolds,
Geometric and Harmonic Means and Progressions,
Nexus Network Journal, vol. 3, no. 4 (Autumn 2001),
http://www.nexusjournal.com/GA-v3n4.htm]

1, 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, …

"One-point" (parallel)
perspective grid using
harmonic and
geometric
progressions.

The harmonic progression used in Figure 2 is

1, 1/2, 1/3, 1/4, 1/5,….

"Two-point" (angular)
perspective grid
using geometric and
harmonic
progressions.
This paper focuses on an aspect of perspective that we
cannot experience directly, a division of space that is
independent of our perspective or point of view.
Mathematicians call this division the cross ratio. As
presented in this paper, the cross ratio
is a ratio of ratios:
•May be computed using collinear segments [from David A.Thomas
•May be computed using concurrent angles The Mathematics of perspective:
•Is independent of the position of the observer An Introduction to the Cross Ratio
•Is invariant under projective transformations ON-Math Winter 2003/Volume 2, Number 2]
•Is the basis for the paper strip technique used by
cartographers
•Is an important mathematical basis for 3-D computer
graphics
Andrea Mantegna felt that he needed to
compensate for the distortion introduced by
linear perspective, since he both reduced the
size of the feet and enlarged the head. .
Creatively "adjusting" perspective distortion
has been one of the subtleties of painting. .
Marginal Distortions
[from Michael Kubovy and
Christopher Tyler,
webexhibits.org/arrowintheeye/
marginal3.html]
 The Game of
Magnitude (‘Perspective’ of Importance)
 Size of figures related
to their respective importance

Rome: mosaic from

Palermo, Sicily: mosaic
the Basilica of
from the Capella Palatina
Santa Maria Maggiore
 Size of figures related
to their respective importance

Mosaics,
Monastery of Hosios Lukas
Size of figures related
to their respective importance

Russian Icon Bicci di Lorenzo

Gentile da Fabriano
(Gentile di Niccolò di
Giovanni Massi)
Proportion Systems
Leon Battista Alberti’s musical ratios which could be traced back to Pythagoras
[graphic interpretation by Michel Gardes]
 Leon Battista Alberti’s musical consonances or ratios
[graphic interpretation by Angela Pintore]

Square area
[Area quadrata…La più corta di tutte è l'area
quadrata, i cui lati sono tutti eguali tra loro in
lunghezza, e i cui angoli sono tutti egualmente
retti.]

Sesquialtera
[Area sesquialtera…A questa segue
immediatamente l'area detta sesquialtera ('una e
mezza')...]

Sesquitertia
[Area sesquitertia... e dopo questa - sempre tra le
aree corte - si annovera quella sesquitertia ('una
e un terzo').]

Angela Pintore, http://www.nexusjournal.com/Pintore06.html

 Leon Battista Alberti’s musical consonances or ratios
[graphic interpretation by Angela Pintore]

Double
[Doppia…Pure tre si attagliano alle aree medie. La migliore
delle quali è quella doppia...]

Sesquialtera doubled
[... ad essa fa seguito un'area che si ottiene
raddoppiando la sesquialtera, e si costruisce nel
modo seguente. Una volta tracciata la dimensione
minore dell'area, ad esempio lunga quattro, si
costruisce una prima sesquialtera, di lunghezza sei; a
questa si aggiunge un'altra area lunga metà della
precedente, sicché la lunghezza complessiva risulterà
di nove. Quindi la dimensione maggiore, in questo
tipo d'area, supererà la misura più piccola del doppio
più il tonus del doppio.]

Sesquitertia doubled
[Area due volte sesquitertia…Pure tra le aree medie si annovera
quella che si ottiene costruendo due volte la sesquitertia secondo lo
stesso sistema testé illustrato. Quindi, con questo tipo di
costruzione, la dimensione minore dell'area sta alla maggiore come
nove sta a sedici; per conseguenza quest'ultima viene superata dal
doppio dell'altra per meno di un tonus.]

Angela Pintore, http://www.nexusjournal.com/Pintore06.html

 Leon Battista Alberti’s musical consonances or ratios
[graphic interpretation by Angela Pintore]

Triple
[Tripla…Nella costruzione delle
aree lunghe ci si regola come
segue. O si unisce una doppia a
una sesquialtera, ottenendo una
tripla...]

Double plus sesquitertia

[Area doppia più sesquitertia ... ovvero
una doppia a una sesquitertia, e allora
le dimensioni saranno proporzionali a
tre e otto...]

Angela Pintore, http://www.nexusjournal.com/Pintore06.html

 Leon Battista Alberti’s musical consonances or ratios
[graphic interpretation by Angela Pintore]

Quadruple
[Area quadrupla ... o ancora si costruisce l'area in maniera
che una dimensione riesca quadrupla dell'altra.]

Angela Pintore, http://www.nexusjournal.com/Pintore06.html

Leon Battista Alberti’s musical
consonances or ratios
[graphic interpretation
by John Boyd-Brent,
with Boyd-Brent’s spelling,
www.aboutscotland.com/harmony/
prop2.html]
Massacio’s use of musical ratios
[diagram by Charles Bouleau]
Botticelli’s use of the double
diatessaron, 9/12/16
[diagrams by Charles Bouleau]
Raffaello Sanzio: composition on the musical ratio coinciding with
perspective construct [diagram by Charles Bouleau]
A Unified Theory of Proportion

Jay Kappraff and Gary W. Adamson

www.mi.sanu.ac.yu/vismath/kappraff1
designs of ancient sacred geometry use a small
With the aid of Pascal’s triangle, the vocabulary of proportions such as √2, √3, the golden
golden mean and Fibonacci sequences mean τ = (1+√5)/2 and the silver mean θ= 1 + √2.
were generalized to a family of silver
means. The Lucas sequence was then
generalized with the aid of a close
variant of the Pascal’s triangle. These
generalized golden means and
generalized F- and L-sequences were
shown to form a tightly knit family with
many properties of number. Perhaps it is
for this reason that they occur in many
dynamical systems. The numerical
properties of the silver mean constants
are the result of their self-referential
properties which, in turn, derive from
their relationship to the imaginary
number i. We have shown that all
systems of proportion are related to a
set of polynomials derived from Pascal’s
triangle. These systems are related to
both the edges of various species of
regular star polygon and the diagonals
The n-gons for n = 3,4,5,6,7,8,10,12 with edge
of regular n-gons, and they share many
equal to 1 unit showing their diagonals.
of the additive properties of the golden
mean.
 Jay Hambidge and
dynamic symmetry

The root-2 Rectangle and Golden Rectangle

compared.

The dynamic rectangles are the root-2,

the root-3, the root-4, and the root-5.

[Diagrams by Thomas Detrie] [Diagram by Charles Bouleau]

The Golden Ratio,
diagrams by Michel Gardes

Leonardo da Vinci and

the Golden Triangle

Hypothetical Golden Ratio

diagram of Botticelli’s painting
Rogier de la Pasture
van der Weyden
Rogier de la Pasture van der Weyden, a subtle composition based on pentagons and the golden number
[diagram by Charles Bouleau]
Rogier de la Pasture van der Weyden
[detailed diagrams by Charles Bouleau]
Tintoretto
(Jacopo
Robusti)
Tintoretto’s dynamic composition based on the Golden Section
[diagram by André Lhote]
Armature of the surface
[diagrams by Charles Bouleau]

On the left of the image above, the

vertical division of the half rectangle
into two, on the right into three
Peter Paul Rubens,
construction based
on the armature of
the frame
[diagram by Charles Bouleau]
Botticelli’s
tondo
Botticelli’s
tondo,
the composition
establishes
the architecture
and perspective
[diagram by
Charles Bouleau]
 Geometry of the Root 3 System
Jay Kappraff
www.mi.sanu.ac.yu/vismath/kappraff/kap7.htm

Perhaps the most fundamental place that the √3 makes

An hexagonal grid
its appearance is in a figure referred to in sacred
illustrating the geometry as the Vesica Pisces. Draw a circle. Place a
root 3 system. point on the circumference and draw a second circle of
the same radius as the first.
Medieval
miniature
Raffaello Sanzio
Raffaello Sanzio,
composition on the
circles
[diagram by Charles
Bouleau]
Diagram of Raffaello Sanzio’s
painting by Gino Severini
Rabatment of the shorter sides
[diagrams by Chales Bouleau]
Raffaello Sanzio
Raffaello Sanzio
Raffaello
Sanzio,
rabatment of the
shorter sides
[diagram by
Chales Bouleau]
The algebraic properties of the Roman system
can be made palpable by considering the
equivalent geometric properties based on the
interrelation of the proportions: 1, √ 2, and θ.
THE ROMAN SYSTEM OF PROPORTIONS
Jay Kappraff, "The Arithmetic of Nicomachus of
Gerasa and its Applications to Systems of
Proportion", Nexus Network Journal, vol. 2, no.
4 (October 2000),
http://www.nexusjournal.com/Kappraff.html
The system of proportions based on x = θ where
θ = 1 + √ 2 is of particular interest. An integer
version of this system was used in ancient
Roman architecture and was written about by
Theon of Smyrna, a second century A.D.
mathematician and Platonist philosopher
All the tones of the Pythagorean scale are based
on the ratio of string lengths in which the
numerator and denominator are divisible by
primes 2 and 3, e.g., the musical fifth, fourth,
and octave: 2/3, ¾, and ½. The SR rectangle
[square root of two rectangle] is particularly
suited for creating the musical proportions of
the Pythagorean scale, since it has a natural
bisecting and trisecting property.
 The dynamic symmetry proportional
system is found in some Byzantine and
Russian icons of the fourteenth to
sixteenth centuries

Diagrams by Karyl M. Knee

http://web.ukonline.co.uk/pbrooke/a&r/knee
 The dynamic symmetry proportional system is found in
some Byzantine and Russian icons of the fourteenth to
sixteenth centuries

"Root" rectangles obtained from inside a square

[diagram by Karyl M. Knee,
http://web.ukonline.co.uk/pbrooke/a&r/knee]
 The dynamic symmetry proportional system is found in some Byzantine
and Russian icons of the fourteenth to sixteenth centuries

Russian Icon - root three rectangle

[diagrams by Karyl M. Knee, http://web.ukonline.co.uk/pbrooke/a&r/knee]
The dynamic symmetry proportional system is found in some Byzantine
and Russian icons of the fourteenth to sixteenth centuries

In the analysis of the icon, Baptism of

Christ, dating from the end of the
fourteenth century, at the Greek
Patriarchate, Jerusalem, there are two
vertical "root-eight" rectangles which
form its design composition. It can be
seen that the central figure of Christ is
in the "root-three" rectangle portion
vertically and that the mountain tops
are contained in the four upper
dynamic symmetry sections of "root-
five" through ''root-eight" rectangles.
The central Heavenly Ray comes down
the center of the composition. The
diagonal line of the right leg of St.
John the Baptist falls along a design
line beginning at the lower center of
the composition…At the lower level,
the River Jordan's edges fall within the
triangle shape from the lower corners
of the icon to the center at about
Christ's hip.
[diagrams and commentary by
Karyl M. Knee,
http://web.ukonline.co.uk/pbrooke/a&r/
knee]
The dynamic symmetry proportional system is found in some Byzantine
and Russian icons of the fourteenth to sixteenth centuries

In the icon, Simeon Stylites,

sixteenth century, Early
Stroganov School, Moscow,
in the Tretyakov Gallery, the
analysis shows that it is
constructed within two "root-
five" vertical rectangles. The
design is typical of
Palaeologian art.
[diagrams by Karyl M. Knee,
http://web.ukonline.
co.uk/pbrooke/a&r/knee]
THE PERSPECTIVE GRID WITHIN THE THE PERSPECTIVE GRID
GOLDEN SECTION RECTANGLE WITHIN THE SQUARE ROOT OF
PHI RECTANGLE

√φ = 1.272...

Diagrams from Mark A. Reynolds, "Perspectiva Geometrica", Nexus Network

Journal, vol. 5 no. 1(Spring 2003), http://www.nexusjournal.com/GA-v5n1.html
Jan Vermeer.
Perspective inserted within
proportion construct
[golden section diagram by
Charles Bouleau; perspective
diagram, in yellow,
by Stefan Arteni]
The Modern Era

The Modulor by Le Corbusier [diagram Serge Poliakoff

from the site conceived by the students of [from Carolle Gagnon-Marier, Serge Poliakoff et le
the Lycée Jean Monnet, Aurillac, France] Nombre d’Or, Vie des Arts, XXV 102, 1981]
The Modern Era

Jacques Villon
The Modern Era

Jacques Villon
 Stefan Arteni
The Modern Era [interplay of projection and proportion
systems within the φ rectangle]
 The Modern Era

Stefan Arteni
[proportion system within
the √φ rectangle]
 The Modern Era

Stefan Arteni
[interplay of projection and
proportion systems within
the √φ rectangle]
 The Modern Era

Stefan Arteni
[interplay of projection
and proportion systems
within the √φ rectangle]