STEFAN ARTENI

Perspective as Form and Medium

and
the Interplay of Proportion Systems
and Perspective

XIII

SolInvictus Press 2006

Surface Geometry as Matrix
…developing a space using a particular two-dimensional geometric
construction -- a matrix -- to create a ready-made framework into which the
imagery is then fitted. Further I would say that the imagery within the
paintings is sometimes directly inspired by the geometry and imagery of the
matrix itself. The matrix contains both a surface grid/pattern and the
diminishing proportions that provide the characteristic convergence, and the
controlled changes of scale necessary to create the spatial illusion. I will
demonstrate that this kind of matrix can be developed simply from the
geometric patterns found in pre-Renaissance paintings…The artists appear
to show complete control over the conjunctions of elements that are
spatially unconnected within the paintings. Elements that are on the
surface…appear to complement…elements that are deeper in space.

Richard Talbot,
"Speculations on the Origin of Linear Perspective", Nexus Network Journal,
vol. 5 no. 1 (Spring 2003), http://www.nexusjournal.com/Talbot.html
The process of the successive subdivision of a square (which produces a construct that corresponds to an Albertian
perspective construction) and the construction extended sideways:
it is conceivable…that the geometry of linear perspective may have been born out of a simple piece of flat geometry
derived from patterns, and not from a conscious desire to understand and rationalise space.

Richard Talbot, "Speculations on the Origin of Linear Perspective", Nexus Network Journal, vol. 5 no. 1 (Spring 2003),
http://www.nexusjournal.com/Talbot.html
Maestro
dell’Osservanza
Pietro Lorenzetti
Ambrogio Lorenzetti
Ambrogio Lorenzetti
Ambrogio Lorenzetti
Ambrogio Lorenzetti,
The Presentation
in the Temple
[floor pattern similar
to the floor in
Domenico
Veneziano’s
Saint Lucy
Altarpiece]
Domenico Veneziano
Domenico
Veneziano,
Madonna and Child
with Four Saints,
also known as
La Sacra
Conversazione
or the
Saint Lucy
Altarpiece
Domenico Veneziano’s
Saint Lucy Altarpiece

…the St. Lucy Altarpiece floor is not a true

hexagonal pattern, but is one that can be
derived from the repeated subdivision of
squares... I think that it would be fair to
assume that Domenico Veneziano was
following a process essentially the same
as that used by Lorenzetti…

Richard Talbot,
"Speculations on the Origin of Linear
Perspective", Nexus Network Journal, vol.
5 no. 1
(Spring 2003),
http://www.nexusjournal.com/Talbot.html
Paolo Uccello (Paolo di Dono)
Paolo Uccello
(Paolo di Dono)
Paolo Uccello (Paolo di Dono)
The panel on which Paolo Uccello's Hunt in a Forest (ca. 1467, Ashmolean
Museum, Oxford) is painted is 177cm wide x 73.3 cm high, giving it the precise
proportions of 2.414 : 1, or (1 + √ 2) : 1. The painted area is slightly less wide
and high than this. In order to demonstrate the general principle behind the
construction, I am only showing the lower part.
Richard Talbot, "Speculations on the Origin of Linear Perspective", Nexus
Network Journal, vol. 5 no. 1 (Spring 2003),
http://www.nexusjournal.com/Talbot.html
 Piero della Francesca… has linked elements of the receding architecture to a
spatially suggestive two-dimensional surface matrix, the geometry of which
also provides key points for the perspective construction.
Richard Talbot, "Speculations on the Origin of Linear Perspective", Nexus
Network Journal, vol. 5 no. 1 (Spring 2003),
http://www.nexusjournal.com/Talbot.html

The pattern…derived
from an octagon, is
the basis of the
elaborate floor pattern
within the palace
where Christ is
standing. It was used
in earlier paintings by
Gaddi and Cione, and
contains the √2
proportions that
control the
composition of the
painting.
Richard Talbot, "Speculations on the Origin of Linear Perspective", Nexus Network
Journal, vol. 5 no. 1 (Spring 2003), http://www.nexusjournal.com/Talbot.html
From the Line Associated with Color
to Chiaroscuro: Rhetoric of Contrasts
and Contours
According to André Lhote, one has to choose between ornament [line], color [flat areas of
color – aplats ] and chiaroscuro. For example, when ornament is exalted, color [areas of achromatic
or chromatic colors] will be subordinate to the rhythm of the composition and chiaroscuro will be
almost eliminated. Modulation [whereby some characteristics of the colored surface are varied]
may be achieved by means of graphic elements and/or the play of brushstrokes and of under- and
over-painting. One may speak of the rule of three contrasts: one contrast is dominant, the second
one becomes subdominant, and the third contrast will be subdued or almost eliminated.

André Lhote also describes the methods used to subordinate, through the use of passages, the
individual elements to the unified whole. The emphasis is on the emergent pattern which is
hypothetically in a dynamic equilibrium, that is the play of fiat boundaries [the limit of a pattern and
system is a fiat determination, i.e. a distinction] and bona-fide boundaries, in short on constrained
randomness of a morpho-chromatic structure of the color model including out-of-gamut transposition.

Figure-ground relationships – the rhetoric of contours –

consists of a triad of contrasts: outside contour, inside
shadow, and reflection. The effect of figure-ground
ambiguity and cue integration will allow figure and
ground to merge into an interwoven surface of shifting
planes by means of passages [the French term should be
used in the sense of going past, across, over or beyond.]
A passage simply indicates that a color or value has
melded with the same color or value adjacent to it, even
though that adjacent color or value exists on a
DIFFERENT plane.

André Lhote, an example of passages

Milton Avery
Milton Avery
Milton Avery
Raoul
Dufy
Vincent van Gogh
Vincent van Gogh
Vincent van Gogh
Vincent van Gogh
Giorgio
Morandi
Pierre Bonnard
Pierre Bonnard
Pierre Bonnard
Pierre Bonnard
Peter Paul Rubens
Peter Paul Rubens
Peter Paul Rubens
Milton Avery
Milton Avery
Pierre Bonnard
Pierre Bonnard
Raoul Dufy
André Derain
Raoul Dufy
Raoul Dufy
Kees van Dongen
Kees van Dongen
Peter Paul Rubens
Peter Paul Rubens,
detail
Peter Paul Rubens
Peter Paul Rubens
Pierre Bonnard
Pierre Bonnard
Peter Paul Rubens
Peter Paul Rubens
Peter Paul Rubens
Eugène Delacroix, copy after Rubens
Peter Paul
Rubens
Peter Paul
Rubens
André Derain
André Derain
Pierre Bonnard
Pierre Bonnard
Eugène Delacroix
Pierre Bonnard
Pierre
Bonnard
Pierre Bonnard

Peter Paul Rubens

Giorgio
Morandi
Pierre
Bonnard
André Derain
Giorgio
Morandi
Kees van Dongen
Milton Avery
Tintoretto
(Jacopo Robusti)
Lorenzo di Credi
Amedeo Modigliani
Amedeo Modigliani
Félix Vallotton
Félix Vallotton
André Derain
André Derain
André Derain
Félix Vallotton
Pierre Bonnard
Eugène
Delacroix
André Lhote
Milton Avery
Pierre Bonnard
Pierre
Bonnard
Félix Vallotton
Pierre
Bonnard
Pierre Bonnard
Maerten
van Heemskerck
(an apparently
unfinished work)
Maerten van Heemskerck
Maerten van Heemskerck
Maerten
van
Heemskerck
André Derain
Mario Sironi
Mario
Sironi
Mario Sironi