Concept of Space and Spatial Organization in Art Author(s): Irving L.

Zupnick Reviewed work(s): Source: The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, Vol. 18, No. 2 (Dec., 1959), pp. 215-221 Published by: Blackwell Publishing on behalf of The American Society for Aesthetics Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/427268 . Accessed: 04/12/2011 22:09
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CONCEPT OF SPACE AND SPATIAL ORGANIZATION IN ART IRVING L. ZUPNICK Sensations of space or depth are important visual effects of art. The manner of arranging elements of design to create these sensations is a function of the artist's intuition; however, his intuition is influenced not only by his training and background but also by ideas about the nature of space that he shares with his contemporaries. Since the knowledge of this relationship of artist and milieu is crucial to our understanding of the types of spatial organization in each historical period, it would be tempting to trace a parallel historical development in art to recent histories of spatial concepts in science, (e.g.: Max Jammer, Concepts of Space-The History of Theories of Space in Physics1 and Alexandre Koyre, From the Closed World to the Infinite Universe2), except that such a history could be misleading. That is, a history of this type would seem to imply unjustifiably that there was a close relationship between artists and scientists, and it would be an over-simplification in minimizing the other factors that influence an artist's compositions. In studying spatial organization in art, we must not only describe or define, but must try to explain its development. The materials of our research are primarily final results-pictures, statues, or structures. Theoretical systems, like rules of perspective or canons of proportion and composition, are aids to our understanding, but they do not explain variations and individual differences. This is true because the final results reflect a combination of varied proportions of both intuition and system. It should be understood, therefore, that in defining or describing the modes of spatial organization in the following pages, we are not using the term "system" to describe a consciously applied modus operandi, but rather to delineate a configuration of attributes which have been noted in the works of art themselves. There are at least seven of these "systems" or varieties of spatial organization in the history of Western art. We have named the first three as Classical, Renaissance, and Baroque, since they were most fully developed in those arthistorical periods after which they are named. The other four, the Primitive, Conceptual, Empirical, and Relativistic varieties of spatial organization, have not been named after historical periods to emphasize the fact that they have been recurrent tendencies throughout the history of art. In Classical art the sensation of space was developed in discrete parallel units or planes without a unified perspective system. Thus, in paintings or reliefs there is a measurable, clearly-defined recession into depth, with background figures failing to show perspective diminution. Frequently the problem of perspective was side-stepped by using a neutral or architectural background as a foil for a frieze of figures.
2

1Cambridge,Mass., 1954.
New York, 1958. 215

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The classical spatial system is also operative in Greco-Roman architecture, for example. The colonnaded portico overlays the cella wall in much the same way that a frieze of figures appears before a neutral backdrop, while Roman architecture is only comparatively rather than actually baroque, since it does not give the sensation of continuously flowing space, but rather of increasing complexity in terms of discrete units, some units curving space in domes and niches. Problems of foreshortening could be solved by classically-oriented painters and sculptors without departing from the system, since they could connect parallel contours of the limbs as they recede into depth, (in the method described by Kimon Nicolaides, The Natural Way to Draw3). The classical system for organizing and depicting space had striking parallels in the scientific interpretation of space by the ancient world. A peculiar notion, developed from Pythagorean theory by Plato's Timaeus and Aristotle's Categories and Physics, seems to have prevented the Greeks from developing the concept of spatial coordinates, and to have limited Euclidean geometry to the measurement of solids and planes.4 Essentially, this notion was that space had qualitative rather than quantitative, or homogeneous characteristics, for according to these classical authors the limits of space were defined by the geometric surfaces of the solids that contained or confined it.5 Since in the natural world there is variation in the location and forms of the solids that so define space, the only logical assumption could be that space was not homogeneous and undifferentiated, and therefore it must vary according to direction or axis. It follows then, that space could only be understood through a physical description or measurement of the vicissitudes it suffered as it receded from us in depth, breadth, and height. Paradoxically, the logical clarity and precision of Classical art seem to be due in part to this inhibitive fallacy concerning space. The inability to grasp space as a continuum led to a concentration on parts, so that, although in totality Classical art stands for harmonic articulation and organization to us, in actuality it seems to have been conceived in terms of highly developed segments of the whole. That these segments work so well together attests to the complete development of the system. Renaissance spatial concepts, as they slowly displaced medieval traditions based upon other than sensate meaning, were organized in accordance with the rediscovered classical system, which, however, was drastically changed through the incorporation of a system of unified linear perspective. The persistence of medieval tradition in Renaissance spatial organization is worthy of deeper study than we can give it here; however, suffice it to note the frequent representation of supernatural events in conjunction with worldly ones, and the iconological importance given to space even in later compositions like Raphael's School of Athens.
4Jammer, op. cit., pp. 7 ff. and pp. 23-24.

Boston, 1941,pp. 20 ff.

5Plato, Timaeus, 55 ff.; Aristotle, Physics, 203a, 209b.

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In general, however, in fully-developedRenaissance painting we are made acutely aware of a consistentlyperfect system for showingperspectivediminution, where the size of each figure or object can be precisely defined through spatial coordinates.Above all, this is a finite system, precisely defininga finite world. The precision goes to the point that the strongly defined edges of the figures clearly separate them from their backgrounds,and to maintainingthe integrity of each parallel spatial plane. The precisionof edges even counteracts the optical effects of foreshortening, making it impossiblefor the Renaissance artist to unite one plane to the other except through the convention,we cannot call it visual effect, of linear perspective.The sfumato treatment of depth and the edges of figureswas an attempt to give some continuity to space, but in maintaininga distinct planar arrangement artist made us aware of the the constructedand piecemeal conquest of depth. Baroquespatial organizationattempts to give the illusion of continuousand homogeneousspace. In painting and sculpture,solidly modelled figures move freely into depth, losing the precise outlines that in Renaissanceart meant a step by step or plane by plane projection.In architecturethe structurealternated convexities and concavities in shaping and being shaped by space in a continuous sense. The iconologicalsignificanceof space which continuedto be importantin the earlierBaroqueemphasison vis-a-vis with the saints, gradually succumbedto the importanceof space itself, as in Callot's engravedMartyrdomof Saint Sebastian,wherethe Saint faded into insignificanceas a distant target. The Baroque concept of space in art was foreshadowed the undermining by of Aristotelean influence on science in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries (Jammer,pp. 51 if.), which culminatedin the writings of BernardinoTelesio,6 GiordanoBruno,7and Tommaso Campanella.8Essentially, they rejected the qualitative spatial concepts of the classical writers for the new concept of a incorporeal homogeneous, space, which, Campanellanoted9could be penetrated corporeallywhile it penetratedwithout corporeality. To expressthe idea that spacewas a vast and infinitecontinuum, painters, the sculptors,and architectsmadeuse of an interestingdevice,that of bringingpart of their work close to the spectatorso that he could have somethingwith which to measure the immense totality of the scheme. With this in mind, Bernini placed the great curvingcolonnadein the piazza beforeSt. Peter's, and Rubens almost put the daughtersof Leucippusin our laps. To counteractthe sensation that the background merely a backdropto the figuresin the foreground, is the painters diffusedthe edges of the figures, approximatingthe optical effect of aerial perspective. The primitivesystem of organizingspace has almost a continuous"tradition,"
6De natura rerum juxta propria principia libri novem (Naples, 1586). 7On the Infinite Universe and Worlds, trans. Dorothea Waley Singer in Giordano Bruno (New York, 1950). 8Physiologia (Paris, 1637). 9Physiologia, I, 2.

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since it may be found exemplified in the art of children and primitive artists of all cultural epochs. It is also to be found in the earliest styles of various peoples, and in ancient Egypt, for example. Although Egyptian art was representative of an otherwise highly developed culture, it showed a persistence of primitive spatial concepts through many centuries of development. A primitive concept of space suggests, through its methods of representing the visual world, an inability to comprehend or express spatial extension of solid objects. Its basis is anthropocentric, dependent entirely upon concrete personal orientations, which develop through piecemeal accretion of isolated experiences into a more or less organized complex of local directions.10 Since there is no question of systematic unification of these isolated impressions according to, say, a unified optical point of view, what emerges is a composite of the most salient factors in the separate experiences. Working within the limitations of a primitive concept of space, a sculptor would exhibit a tactile approach, confining himself to the surfaces of his material. Perhaps he could not conceive of a figure that twists or turns in space, or if he did imagine such a figure, he would not have the technical means to execute more than a rudimentary schematization, since he was not conditioned to express extension from the stone block into space. Unable to create a mobile figure because the sculptor lacked the knowledge of foreshortening and articulating limbs, he would have to itemize each part as a slightly rounded but essentially flat profile that clings to the original volume of the stone. At the highest stage in primitive development, the sculptor would be capable of achieving powerful, well-defined planes for the individual parts of his figures, and reinforced by repeated observations of nature, he would be able to give at least a surface impression of completeness and harmonious organization. The primitive painter or sculptor of reliefs makes figures that are flat and frontal, or he assembles flat profiles of parts of the figure to symbolize action or movement through space, as in the paratactile striding figures in Egyptian art. These reflect isolated experiences which have not been organized according to an optical system of representation. Unable to create an illusion of depth, either as a continuous extension or in layers, the primitive pictorial artist shows distant figures higher and on the same plane as those in the foreground. Further, the primitive architect develops his structures in seeming inability to free space from the material with which he builds, impressing us more with the massiveness of his forest of columns or the compression of space in his corbelled domes, igloos, and huts. Illusionism and physical function are of secondary importance in conceptual organization of space, even where they are present. Here the primary interest lies in the expression of ideas or emotional content. For example, in the medieval artistic tradition, position and scale of the figures were related to a hierarchy of importance and meaning. The Madonna or saint occupied the center of the composition, whereas secondary personages were relegated to flanking positions and sometimes shown in smaller scale, contrary to visual experience.
10See Jammer, op. cit., pp. 5 if.

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Spatial organizationwas also modified on the basis of subjective and dogmatic reasons,and contraryto observablephenomena,by both the Mannerists of the sixteenthand the Expressionists the twentiethcentury.11 arbitrary of The use of color and distortion of natural forms are accompaniedby an equally arbitraryhandlingof space. In Manneristpainting, for example,no real space seems to exist between the figures seen in groups,where parts of background seek the surfaceplane, intrudinginto the residual figuresand the backgrounds spaces aroundthe foregroundfigures.In the work of the Expressionists,space is either distorted to suggest tension and oppressionas in Beckmann's 1920 Family Picture, or to suggest explosive force as in Munch's The Shriek, where is again the background given as much expressiveimportanceas the figures. The spiritual kinship betweenMannerism,Expressionism, and Medieval art is revealedin their conceptualuse of space. Here, where so much importanceis given to distortionas an emphasisof gestureand emotionalcontent, they have the closest rapprochement. the figures surrendertheir natural proportions As to the requirement gesture and emphasis,their lack of visual realism warps of the reality of the surrounding space. Empiricalspatial organizationis the result of the coordinationof the artist's hand and eye to recreate what is actually observed,presumablywithout the inhibiting factor of theory or precept.The goal is the exact recordingof perceived visual data and, throughthe astute observationsof the artist universal principlesof form,color, and light are sometimesdiscovered.It is an art somewhat in the spirit of Newton, who considered that relative space, or that known throughthe senses, is importantonly insofar as it gives informationabout absolute space, in which universallaws are revealed.12 Empiricalobservationsupplantingconceptualknowledgeof pattern revealed to Velasquezthat patternwas lost in glare or shadowthat fell on the Infanta's gown as it was moldedby the volumesof her form.The factor of reflectedcolor as a cue to volume and space relationshipshas also been made part of the realistic painter'stechnical "vocabulary," throughthe work of artists like Vermeer,Velasquez,and Rembrandt;while Cezanne,in direct study of landscape, observedthe effect of distancein "cooling"color. Relativistic handling of space is primarily a conceptual exposition of the thesis that absolute reality does not exist. In his attack on Newton's assertion of absolute space, Kant took the position that our concept of space is purely intuitive and subjective,'3 while Berkeley, that exemplar of the subjective idealist, asserted that absolute space was a false concept since its existence could not be attested to by the senses.14 Thus, empiricismtended to doubt the
' For an interpretation of Mannerist aims, see I. L. Zupnick, "The 'Aesthetics' of the Early Mannerists,"Art Bulletin, XXXV (Dec. 1953), 4, 302 ff. ' F. Cajori, ed., Sir Isaac Newton's Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy and his System of the World. A Revision of Mott's Translation (U. of California P., 1934), p. 6. 'Immanuel Kant, Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics (New York, 1950), pp. 32 ff. 14 George Berkeley, Principles of Human Knowledge, from The Works of George Berke-

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conclusions postulated by other empiricists, and it remained for the developments of experimental physics in the mid-nineteenth century to deal the final blow to the concept of absolute space and prepare the way for the theory of
relativity.15

The concept of relativity in space and time tends to undermine the validity of absolute dogmas in many fields. As Maeterlinck expressed it:
Le probleme de la quatrieme dimension n'est pas seulement un probleme mathematique, c'est un probleme qui se mele a la vie reelle, tout au moins a la vie superieure de tous les jours; et comme beaucoup de problemes de ce genre, par exemple en theologie, en metaphysique, en strategie, sous le prestigieux appareil scientifique qui a premiere vue les rend inabordables, se cache une simple question de bon sens qui sait tirer parti de faits et d'observations souvent presque inconnus, mais que n'importe qui, une fois qu'il les a sous les yeux, peut etudier, et comprendre avec fruit.l6

That is, the theory of relativity was a new key to our comprehension of the world, creating at the same time both a personal space, which was valid only for the individual observer, and an "impersonal space," to use Maeterlinck's term,17 which was constantly in flux. In the light of what relativism has taught us, the sensory observations of a constant and motionless observer cannot be considered as an important interpretation of the world. Even the Impressionists, in a way, gave evidence of a faltering belief in absolute reality in their studies of subjects painted under different lighting conditions.18 A relativistic treatment of space tries to compensate for what is considered to be the limitations of the individual, by adding the factors of time and multiple views in the belief that compounded momentary impressions are closer to truth than a static image of the academic type. Calder's mobiles and Thomas Wilfred's "Color Organ" are the ultimate in literal interpretations of this idea. Impressionism, while essentially related to the empirical approach in seeking optical reality, ended in creating a pictorial and sculptural space in which forms were only relatively delineated in particles of light and color. Cubism, in rearranging the spatial world to include multiple views in a compound image, created an all-over surface movement of advancing and receding planes. Thus, relativistic space is a theoretical rather than observable quotidian space; varying according to individual or group philosophy. To the degree that relativistic space departs from external reality it places increasing emphasis on the texture and color effects of the media. Contemporary art, as it is analogous to relativity, relies upon individual intuition as a means of discovering or illuminating absolute truths. In creating a new visual world that is with some difficulty associated with empirical visual experience, which is considered to be limited in point of view, the artist hopes
ley, Bishop of Cloyne, ed. A. A. Luce and T. E. Jessop, Vol. I (Edinburgh, 1949), pp. 89, no. 110; 90, no. 111; 94, no. 117. 15 Jammer, op. cit., pp. 145 ff. "6 Maurice Maeterlinck, La Vie de l'Espace (Paris, 1928), pp. 8-9. 17 Ibid., p. 22. "8Seealso, R. Goldwater and M. Treves, Artists on Art, (New York, 1945), p. 322, for Renoir's complaint that the light changed no matter how rapidly he worked.

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to come closer to universal values like "impersonal space." Since older forms of space are suspect and the perceived object is no longer consistent with absolute truth, artists now seek to represent philosophical ideas and emotional impressions in terms of the media rather than through commonly accepted symbols. Although depiction of space is usually of secondary importance in Abstract Expressionism and Action Painting, the sensation of space given by works of these schools is purely arbitrary and personal, and as such is in the relativistic tendency.