Pictorial Space throughout Art History: Cézanne and ... - ARAS

ARAS Connections Issue 2, 2012
individual taste and historical period. In this way it resembles simpler visual
effects like proportion, or contrasts of cold and warm colors, or contrasts of
complementary colors. Pictorial space can be analyzed with visual logic but it is
not achieved by a logical or mechanical process. Its construction draws upon an
artist's deepest resources. When it is achieved, I argue, pictorial space expresses
an artist's creative vision more profoundly than does any other dimension of his
or her work.
Comparisons of works in pairs
Plate 4: Velásquez and Degas
Velásquez's portrait is composed around a diagonal which recedes back
from the lower-left corner to the upper-right corner. This is contained by a
second diagonal which thrusts forward from the left edge of the canvas to the
right, crossing both the Queen's hands.
The dark plane behind the drapery pulls up and back against the dark
plane of the dress which pulls down and forward. I feel the space sliding
horizontally behind the Queen's upper body and, even further back, behind the
drapery.
The sides of the Queen's head, her headdress, and the drapery make
proportionate divisions in the width of the rectangle. The lower edge of the
drapery, the lower edge of her hair, the red platform, and the upper edge of her
hem divide the height of the rectangle. The relative positions in depth of the
drapery, her headdress, and her skirt create a powerful sense of pictorial space.
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