STEFAN ARTENI

Perspective as Form and Medium

and
the Interplay of Proportion Systems
and Perspective

XII

SolInvictus Press 2006

Composition as Collage or Assemblage
Organization

Architecture and design have always involved Construction

a search for general laws of beauty. Is beauty of the
in the eye of the beholder or does it come Golden section
about through intrinsic properties of space?
Three general principles: repetition, harmony,
and variety lie at the basis of beautiful designs.
Repetition is achieved by using a system that
provides a set of proportions that are repeated
in a design or building at different scales.
Harmony is achieved through a system that
provides a small set of lengths or modules with
many additive properties which enables the
whole to be created as the sum of its parts
while remaining entirely within the system.
Variety is provided by a system that provides a
sufficient degree of versatility in its ability to
tile the plane with geometric figures….
Proportional systems based on Phi , Root 2,
VT = TB = AB/2
and Root 3 were the principal systems used… AV = AG
Root 2 and Root 3 geometries also have
connections to the symmetry groups of the
plane.
Jay Kappraff
Construction of the root
phi rectangle: The root phi rectangle
1.Draw golden section can be divided into three
rectangle ARSZ. similar rectangles and so
2.It is next required that ad infinitum [from Matila
the long side of Ghyka, The Geometry of Continued subdivision
the rectangle ARSZ, that Art and Life] of a root-two rectangle
is, AR, be rotated
through arc RQ to point
into figures, with a
Q on the opposite side, ratio of three.
SZ, of the rectangle.
The drawing of the mark and the
subsequent self-interactions of the
mark create the form-space Etymology
[from French ‘espace plastique,’
from Greek plastikos “able to be to paint – to cut, to decorate with cut
formed, molded,” marks, to decorate with variegated
from plastos "formed," adornment
from plassein "to mold, to give form",] to write - to carve, scratch, cut
that is to say, the painting as
virtual irreality. mold - from Latin modulum (nom.
modulus) "measure, model," dim. of
irreality - the state of being modus "manner"
insubstantial or imaginary; not
existing objectively or in fact
virtual – efficacy, as good as real

Fine visual art is not necessarily figurative.

An artificial material visual image is not necessarily fine visual art.
Visual culture is not necessarily visual art.

Visual art ≠ artificial image No material equivalence

}
Artificial image ≠ visual art No identity
Organization and Structure

…a system's organization specifies a category, within which there may be

many specifically-realized instantiations. Specific systemic entities exhibit
more than just the general pattern of their organization -- they consist of
particular components and relations among them. The 'particulars' of a
given system's individual realization make up its structure…

Humberto Maturana (1975) notes 'organization' comes from the Greek and
means 'instrument'…A systemic unity's organization is specifically realized
through the presence and interplay of components in a given space. These
comprise the unity's structure…Maturana (1975) points out the word
'structure' comes from the Latin meaning 'to build'.

Randall Whitaker
Modified photograph
illustrating the
principle of organization
by means of areas

Byzantine Icon
Nicolas De Staël
Nicolas De Staël
 tapestry
Serge Poliakoff
Serge Poliakoff
Serge Poliakoff
Serge Poliakoff
Mario Sironi
Mario Sironi
Albert Gleizes, tapestry
Gino Severini
Juan Gris
(Jose Victoriano
Gonzalez)
Juan
Gris
(Jose
Victoriano
Gonzalez)
Juan Gris (Jose Victoriano Gonzalez)
Jacques Villon
Milton Avery
Milton Avery
Milton Avery
Milton
Avery
Giorgio Morandi
Mario Sironi
Stefan Arteni
Stefan Arteni
Stefan Arteni
Stefan Arteni
 Theatricalization

Vitruvius calls perspective scaenographia. Scenography

is a way of "view-planning," that is coordinating the real
with the visual, the rational with the painterly, usually
conventionalized as a system of screens: foreground,
middleground, background. Artifice creates new
stage settings, painted stage-settings , and painted
representations, artifice creates plays of visual
constructs. One may assign a value to each screen, e.g.
dark, light, grey, respectively, or one may follow
Jacques Villon’s idea and assign a dominant color to
each screen.
Benozzo
GOZZOLI
Vittore Carpaccio
Vittore
Carpaccio
Vittore Carpaccio
Vittore Carpaccio
Alessio
BALDOVINETTI
Filippino Lippi
Domenico Ghirlandaio
Francesco
di Giorgio
Martini
Andrea Mantegna
Piero
di Cosimo
(Piero di
Lorenzo)
Paolo Caliari Veronese
Tintoretto
(Jacopo Robusti)
Domenico BECCAFUMI
Pontormo
(Jacopo Carucci)
Nicolas Poussin
Nicolas
Poussin
Nicolas Poussin
Felice Casorati
Stefan Arteni
Stefan Arteni
Stefan Arteni
Stefan Arteni
Analysis of the Syntactic Code

"L'opera d'arte deve nascere fuori dalle

cause: è il fulmine a ciel sereno. L'opera
d'arte è l'unione tra il personale e l'infinito.
L'universale è il punto di
coincidenza". Arturo Martini

[The work of art must be born outside of

causality: it is a thunderbolt in the
cloudless sky. The work of art is the unity
of the personal and the infinite. The
universal is the point of coincidence.
Arturo Martini]
Sandro Botticelli (Alessandro di Mariano Filipepi),
The Adoration of the Magi
Sandro Botticelli
(Alessandro di Mariano Filipepi),
The Adoration of the Magi
[diagram by Stefan Arteni]
 φ

Sandro Botticelli (Alessandro di Mariano Filipepi), The Adoration of the Magi

[diagram by Stefan Arteni; the modified photograph indicates the areas of passage]
Sandro Botticelli (Alessandro di Mariano Filipepi), The Adoration of the Magi
[the modified photograph indicates that ruins and landscape were conceived
as set backdrops]
Sandro Botticelli (Alessandro di Mariano Filipepi), The Adoration of the Magi
[modified photograph showing the alternating planes acting as repoussoir]
Hugo van der Goes, Monforte Altarpiece
Hugo van der Goes, Monforte Altarpiece [perspective diagram by Stefan Arteni]
Hugo van der Goes, Monforte Altarpiece [modified photograph indicating areas of passage]
Hugo van der Goes, Monforte Altarpiece [modified photograph indicating the play
of screens: foreground, middleground in color, background]
Albrecht Dürer,
Adoration
of the Magi
 φ

Albrecht Dürer, Adoration of the Magi [proportions diagram and perspective diagram (in red)
by Stefan Arteni]
Albrecht Dürer,
Adoration
of the Magi
[modified
photograph
suggestive of
the preliminary
drawing]
Albrecht Dürer,
Adoration
of the Magi
[modified
photograph
indicating the
play of contrasts
and passages]
Fra Angelico (Guido di Pietro da Mugello), √φ φ
approximately a √φ rectangle
 Piero della Francesca,
subdivision of a root two rectangle
into figures, with a ratio of three,
embedded perspective, and musical
ratio 4/6/9 [diagram by Stefan Arteni]

9 6 4
Tiziano Vecellio,
composition within a root two rectangle
[diagram by Stefan Arteni]
Paolo Caliari Veronese, chiastic composition
Pieter Brueghel the Elder
[diagram by Charles Bouleau:
there is a set of parallel
oblique lines which join points
dividing the sides into nine
equal parts; other oblique
lines, each at a constant
angle to the first ones, form
another network]
 φ

Jan Vermeer
[diagram by Stefan
Arteni]
Variations on a Formal Theme:
the Deposition
 Novgorod Icon, 15th century

Wall-painting in the outer-narthex of

the Katholikon depicting the
Deposition of Christ from the Cross,
1312, Vatopedi monastery, Mount
Athos.
Luca Signorelli (Luca
d’Egidio di Ventura)

Filippino Lippi
Master of the St. Bartholomew Altar
Anonymous Flemish master
Jan GOSSAERT (Mabuse)
Pedro
Machuca
Jacopino del Conte

Giorgio Vasari
Daniele
da Volterra
Rosso Fiorentino
(Giovanni Battista di
Jacopo di Rossi)
Peter Paul Rubens
Peter Paul Rubens, composition on the dynamic musical ratio
[diagrams by Charles Bouleau]
Rosso Fiorentino
(Giovanni Battista di Jacopo di Rossi),
375 x 196 cm
Rosso
Fiorentino
(Giovanni
Battista di
Jacopo
di Rossi),
modified
photographs
Indicating
the play of
value
contrasts
and of
passages
Rosso Fiorentino
(Giovanni Battista di
Jacopo di Rossi),
detail
Rosso Fiorentino
(Giovanni Battista di
Jacopo di Rossi),
detail
Pontormo (Jacopo Carucci),
313 x 192 cm
Pontormo (Jacopo Carucci), dynamic composition
inscribed within a φ rectangle and based upon the
serpentine or spiral schema of which Giovanni Paolo
Lomazzo was so fond [diagrams by Stefan Arteni]

Pontormo (Jacopo Carucci), modified

photograph indicating the areas of passage
Pontormo (Jacopo Carucci),
detail
Pontormo
(Jacopo Carucci),
detail
Pontormo (Jacopo Carucci), details
Pontormo (Jacopo Carucci), details
Pontormo
(Jacopo
Carucci),
detail
Pontormo (Jacopo Carucci), detail
 Michael Polanyi and tacit knowledge:

One of the central concepts in Polanyi`s notion of knowledge is tradition. He writes: “An art
which cannot be specified in detail cannot be transmitted by prescription, since no
prescription for it exists. It can be passed on only by example from master to apprentice. This
restricts the range of diffusion to that of personal contacts. We find accordingly that
craftsmanship tends to survive in closely circumscribed local traditions…To learn by example
is to submit to authority. By watching the master and emulating his efforts in the presence of
his example the apprentice unconsciously picks up the rules of the art, including those which
are not explicitly known to the master himself. A society which wants to preserve a fund of
personal knowledge must submit to tradition.”

Tacit knowledge underlies many artistic capabilities. The workshop experience, stored as tacit
knowledge, reaches consciousness in the form of insights, intuitions, and flashes of
inspiration. The marvelous capacity of the mind to make sense of previous collection of
experiences and to connect patterns from the past to the present and future is essential to the
artistic process. The creativity necessary for innovation derives not only from obvious and
visible expertise, but from invisible reservoirs of experience.
Tacit knowledge, or implicit knowledge, as opposite to explicit knowledge, is far less tangible
and is deeply embedded into operating practices. Tacit knowledge include norms, values, and
standard operating procedures. Inaccessible from explicit expositions, tacit knowledge is
much harder to detail, copy, and distribute. What increasingly differentiates success and
failure is how well you locate, leverage, and blend available explicit knowledge with internally
generated tacit knowledge.