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Implied Space: Suggesting


Depth in Two Dimensions
Architecture, sculpture, and other art forms that exist in three dimensions
work with actual space. When we view the work, we inhabit the same space
it does, and we need to walk around it or through it to experience it completely. With painting, drawing, and other two-dimensional art forms, the
actual space is the flat surface of the work itself, which we tend to see all at
once. Yet on this literal surface, called the picture plane, other quantities
and dimensions of space can be implied. For example, if you take an ordinary notebook page and draw a tiny dog in the center, the page has suddenly
become a large space, a field for the dog to roam about in. If you draw a
dog that takes up the entire page, the page has become a much smaller space,
just big enough for the dog.
Suppose now that you draw two dogs and perhaps a tree, and you want
to show where they are in relation to one another. One dog is behind the
tree, say, and the other is running toward it from the distance. These relationships take place in the third dimension, depth. There are many visual
cues that we use to perceive spatial relationships in depth. One of the simplest is overlap: We understand that when two forms overlap, the one we
perceive as complete is in front of the one we perceive as partial. A second
visual cue is position: Seated at a desk, for example, we look down to see
the objects closest to us and raise our head up to see objects that are farther away.

4.41 Do Ho Suh. Reflection. 2004.


Nylon and stainless steel tube,
dimensions variable, each gate
life-size.
Courtesy Lehmann Maupin Gallery,
New York.

SPACE

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4.42 Maharana Amar Singh II,


Prince Sangram Singh, and
Courtiers Watch the Performance
of an Acrobat and Musicians.
Rajasthan, Mewar, c. 170508.
Ink, opaque watercolor, and gold
on paper; 2012 3534".
The Metropolitan Museum of Art,
New York.

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Many artistic cultures have relied entirely on those two basic cues to
imply depth in two dimensions (4.42). In this lively scene of acrobats and
musicians performing before an Indian prince, we understand that the performers toward the bottom of the page are nearer to us than ones higher up,
and that the overlapping elephants and horses are standing next to each
other in a row that recedes away from us. The most important person in the
scene is the prince, and the painting makes this clear. Framed by the architectural setting, he sits amid his courtiers and attendants, all of whom are
looking at him. The prince, too, is depicted in profile and does not seem to
be watching the performance. Yet this seeming inattention is not to be taken
literally. The prince would certainly have watched such a wonderful event.
Indian artists favored profile views, for they give the least information about
depth, and so lend themselves well to the overall flatness of Indian painting.

LINEAR PERSPECTIVE The sense of space in the Indian painting is


conceptually convincing, but not optically convincing. For example, we understand perfectly well that the princes pavilion is on the distant side of the
acrobats, but there is actually no evidence to tell our eyes that it is not hovering in the air directly over them. Similarly, we understand that the elephants and horses represent rounded forms even though they appear to our
eyes as flat shapes fanned out like a deck of cards on the picture plane.
Together, the flatness of Indian painting, the preference for profiles, the use
of saturated colors, and the conceptual construction of space make up a
coherent system for depicting the world. They work together to give Indian
artists tremendous flexibility in assembling complex, vivid, and visually
delightful scenes such as this one while preserving narrative clarity.
The chiaroscuro technique developed by Italian artists of the 15th century also forms part of a larger system for depicting the world. Just as
Renaissance artists took note of the optical evidence of light and shadow to
model rounded forms, they also developed a technique for constructing an
optically convincing space to set those forms in. This technique, called linear perspective, is based in the systematic application of two observations:
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THE VISUAL ELEMENTS

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Forms seem to diminish in size as they recede from us.


Parallel lines receding into the distance seem to converge, until they
meet at a point on the horizon line where they disappear. This point is
known as the vanishing point.
You can visualize this second idea if you remember gazing down a straight
highway. As the highway recedes farther from you, the two edges seem to
draw closer together, until they disappear at the horizon line (4.43).
The development of linear perspective profoundly changed how artists
viewed the picture plane. For medieval European artists, as for Indian artists,
a painting was primarily a flat surface covered with shapes and colors. For
Renaissance artists, it became a window onto a scene. The picture plane was
reconceived as a sort of windowpane, and the painted view was imagined as
receding from it into the distance.
Renaissance artists took up linear perspective with as much delight as
a child takes up a new toy. Many paintings were created for no other reason
than to show off the possibilities of this new technique (4.44). Here, the lines
of the stone pavement lay bare the mechanics of linear perspective. We can
actually observe the receding lines growing closer, and we can easily continue them in our imagination until they converge at a central point on the
horizon, where the sea meets the sky. The rooflines of the various buildings
converge at the same point, as do the lines that divide the ceiling of the covered portico in the immediate foreground.

4.43 Basic principles of linear


perspective.
4.44 (below) Francesco di
Giorgio Martini (attr.).
Architectural Perspective. Late
15th century. Furniture
decoration on poplar wood,
4'358" 7'758".
Staatliche Museen zu Berlin,
Preussischer Kulturbesitz,
Gemldegalerie.

one-point
linear perspective

horizon

vanishing
point

receding square in linear perspective

one-point
linear perspective

two-point
linear perspective

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4.45 Leonardo da Vinci. The Last


Supper (after restoration). c.
149597. Fresco, 15'118" 28'1012".
Refectory, Santa Maria delle Grazie,
Milan.

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THE VISUAL ELEMENTS

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Leonardo da Vinci used linear perspective to construct a very similar


space for his portrayal of The Last Supper (4.45). It was, above all, the measurable quality of the space created through linear perspective that intrigued
Renaissance artists. Here, regular divisions of the ceiling measure out the
recession just as the regular divisions of the pavement did in the preceding
example.
Painted on a monastery wall in Milan, The Last Supper depicts the final
gathering of Jesus Christ with his disciples, the Passover meal they shared
before Jesus was brought to trial and crucified. Leonardo captures a particular moment in the story, as related in the Gospel book of Matthew in the
Bible. Jesus, shown at the center of the composition, has just said to his
followers: One of you shall betray me. The disciples, Matthew tells us,
were exceeding sorrowful, and began every one of them to say unto him,
Lord, is it I?
In Leonardos portrayal, each of the disciples reacts differently to the
terrible prediction. Some are shocked, some dismayed, some puzzledbut
only one, only Judas, knows that, indeed, it is he. Falling back from Jesus
words, the traitor Judas, seated fourth from the left with his elbow on the
table, clutches a bag containing thirty pieces of silver, his price for handing
over his leader to the authorities.
To show this fateful moment, Leonardo places the group in a large banquet hall, its architectural space constructed in careful perspective. Cloth
hangings on the side walls and panels in the ceiling are drawn so as to recede
into space. Their lines converge at a vanishing point behind Jesus head, at
the exact center of the picture. Thus, our attention is directed forcefully
toward the most important part of the composition, the face of Jesus. The
central opening in the back wall, a rectangular window, also helps to focus
our attention on Jesus and creates a halo effect around his head.
In the hands of the greatest artists, perspective became a vehicle for
meaning, just as any other visual element. Here, for example, it is correct to
say that the space is constructed so that the lines converge at a vanishing
point in the distance behind Christs head. But if we view the painting as a
flat surface, we see that these lines can also be interpreted as radiating from
Christs head, as all of creation radiates from the mind of God. Leonardo has
purposefully minimized Christs shoulders so that his arms, too, take part in
the system of radiating lines. Spreading his hands, then, God opens space to
this moment, which He had foreseen since the beginning of time.

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