Pictorial Space throughout Art History: Cézanne and ... - ARAS
Pictorial Space throughout Art History: Cézanne and ... - ARAS
Pictorial Space throughout Art History: Cézanne and ... - ARAS
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<strong>ARAS</strong> Connections Issue 2, 2012<br />
The overall effect is of dignity <strong>and</strong> order. The Queen's head is located<br />
majestically at the focal point of an ordered universe.<br />
In Degas' portrait pictorial space is confused. The strong diagonal from the<br />
lower left foreground to the upper right background is not contained: it creates a<br />
hole in the background of the canvas. The composition would work better if the<br />
footstool were removed. The figure seems cramped <strong>and</strong> compressed by the forms<br />
around it.<br />
Plate 5: Canaletto <strong>and</strong> The Alunno di Benozzo<br />
These two paintings are compared to show the limitations of realism <strong>and</strong><br />
perspective. One painting is from before the Renaissance <strong>and</strong> the other from after<br />
it. On its own terms, as a realistic picture of a river scene, Canaletto's painting is<br />
Plate 5-1 Canaletto. Venetian. Dolo on the Brenta.<br />
1697-1768, Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart.<br />
vivid <strong>and</strong> beautiful. But the<br />
canvas surface functions as<br />
though it were a pane of<br />
glass. My eye is drawn<br />
back to the distant<br />
buildings <strong>and</strong> then to the<br />
sky beyond: these form a<br />
deep hole in the canvas<br />
from which there is no way<br />
back.<br />
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