extended essay - final repaired)

8/2/2019 Extended Essay - Final Repaired)

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Abstract -

This essay will attempt to prove to you that despite the revolutionary changes in artistic taste and the many art

movements that exist, that perspective is as relevant as it has ever has been. Throughout this essay, there will be

analyse whether or not Perspective is still in use and will be referring to different artists, different movements and

different periods.

From research that has been collected from primary sources, i.e. from galleries and from interviews with the artists

themselves, and from secondary data, i.e. from articles, papers and books, this essay hopes to prove to you in an

artistic and articulate manner, with the use of images and figures, that the underlying rules and laws of Perspective

art can still be found in modern art. This essay will tell a story from Art before Perspective, to its discovery and then

art thereafter. This essay will also seamlessly tie in other areas of knowledge to further strengthen the conclusion.

Perspective was a revolutionary discovery in Art; it sparked a whole new type of technique and with it controversy.

Something that was so important to our understanding of how things were realistically portrayed on paper would

not be forgotten easily.

Perspective is still out there in everything thing; we just need to look for it.


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Is the use of Perspective still relevant in contemporary art today?

Is perspective important? Of course it is. It is something that has been around for so long and has influenced

everything we perceive as Art.

Art was completely different pre-perspective. There was no concept of depth or feeling in art work, everything was

out of proportion and nothing seemed quite right, even the subject matter was set at a certain topic, for instance

religious art. But what and who changed it? All of a sudden, things began to change and, in my opinion, for the

better.

I have always been interested in art; it is something that I enjoy doing, practising and learning about it. In the

previous years of my education, we briefly looked at the history of perceptive and how it changed the way many

artists worked in the 21st

century. Art is all about pushing the boundaries, and the use of perspective did just that.

When I saw the fundamental change that took place thanks to the works of a few revolutionaries such as Filippo

Brunelleschi, I could see how art then progressed the centuries to the magnificent works that can be seen standing

tall in the halls of the worlds most famous galleries, such as The Lady of Shallot by the English Pre- Raphaelite

painter John William Waterhouse.. And even today there are artists pushing perspective to its limits, creating new

ideas and concepts to challenge historical methods.

I will even incorporate the works of some of my favourite contemporary artists, such as the works of Patrick Hughesand through a brief interview with him, find out his own artistic opinion on how relevant Perspective is to him in

modern art. Has it been forgotten? Is it just an abandoned historical technique that was put aside for more

favourable and innovative techniques, such as cubism? Or is it just harder to find in contemporary art and do we

need to look deeper?

By the end of this essay I will have proved the latter. Quite simply, my thesis is that Perspective is still as relevant as

it ever was in the works of art that we see today, however it might be less thought about and more difficult to see

but the basic concepts of it are still influential.

And so through the next few pages I will take you through a short, clear timeline of the history of art, starting in pre-

perspective, though the centuries of discoveries and finally into post-perspective until the modern era. I will clearlypresent both sides of the argument, for and against my statement, but I will leave no doubt in your mind that

perspective is still as important as it ever was.


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It is an obvious conclusion to say that Perspective hasnt been around forever, it was

something that had to be learnt. So what exactly was pre-perspective like?

Its safe to say that art pre 14th

century is very different to what we would perceive art

to be like today. Almost all art served a religious purpose, there would have been

large and extravigant murals painted onto the old church walls, most would be

depitcing the Virgin Mary and her son Jesus Chirst (usually surrounded by a throng of

angles).The first thing that may strike you about these images that I have included is that they

lack of proper proportion and it almost seems none-existant. But this is not because

the artist lacks the knoweadge, it is mainly because this was the style of the period. The

most important individuals of medievil and gothic art were the largest portrayed in

thepainting. This was so show their importance and overwhelming power

and makes themalmost Godlike. In the painting depicting the Virgin Mary and Jesus

Christ, they are the exagerated in size, the angels surrounding them are

disproportionate to Mary and even Christ himself is disproportioned. Apart from the

obvious lack of proportion, the characters themselves are very flat and lack any

intermate amount of detailing.

The Virgin of Mercy (Figure Two) towers over the subjects that she is protecting, it is

her size that would have given worshippers the feeling that she able to proctect them

from their demons. there is not really any form of perspective in use and this is very

apparent as the halo is flat and non-elliptical.Alot of the art is mainly religious based

because the church was the richest organisation in early history; they had the money

to pay artists to do commissions.

In this timeline of perspective it is easy to see step by step the

improvements that have been made. In Figure one you can see theadvancements that have been made in creating the buildings to look

geometric with perspective and there is also a sense of foreground

and background as the buildings in the front are more to scale

(shows use of zero-point perspective). However there is still this

sense of flatness, shadow is being explored but the colours are still

rather flat and dull. The most striking thing about this painting is

probably the size of the workers in comparison to the rich, wealthy

and important guests, this sense of "Hierarchy" is a strong theme for

this particular painting.

In Old St Pauls Cathedral (Figure Two), you can see how the building has become

more intricate in its design and that the scale is now right although it is still very

unrealistic, it has almost a warped sense of perspective as you are seeing sides and

angels of the Church that realistically should not be there. There is no sense of

true depth.

Figure One - 15th century illustration from the Old

French translation of William of Tyre's Histoire

d'Outremer.

Figure Two -

1614, Painting ofOld St Paul's Cathedral.

Figure one -

Constructed from wood,

encaustic, tempera, silver,

gold. 60 x 48 cm. Art

Museum of Georgia, Tbilisi

Figure Two -

The Virgin of Mercy

Unknown Artist; Church of

St George. Switzerland

14th Centur .
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/de/Reconstruction_of_the_temple_of_Jerusalem.jpghttp://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/de/Reconstruction_of_the_temple_of_Jerusalem.jpghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:StPaul'sCross.jpghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_St_Paul%27s_Cathedralhttp://03varvara.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/unknown-artist-the-virgin-of-mercy-church-of-st-george-rhazuns-grisons-graubunden-sz-14th-century.jpghttp://03varvara.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/unknown-artist-the-virgin-of-mercy-church-of-st-george-rhazuns-grisons-graubunden-sz-14th-century.jpghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virgin_of_Mercyhttp://03varvara.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/unknown-artist-the-virgin-of-mercy-church-of-st-george-rhazuns-grisons-graubunden-sz-14th-century.jpghttp://03varvara.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/unknown-artist-the-virgin-of-mercy-church-of-st-george-rhazuns-grisons-graubunden-sz-14th-century.jpghttp://maps.google.com/maps?ll=46.8333333333,8.33333333333&spn=10.0,10.0&q=46.8333333333,8.33333333333%20(Switzerland)&t=hhttp://03varvara.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/unknown-artist-the-virgin-of-mercy-church-of-st-george-rhazuns-grisons-graubunden-sz-14th-century.jpghttp://maps.google.com/maps?ll=46.8333333333,8.33333333333&spn=10.0,10.0&q=46.8333333333,8.33333333333%20(Switzerland)&t=hhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virgin_of_Mercyhttp://03varvara.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/unknown-artist-the-virgin-of-mercy-church-of-st-george-rhazuns-grisons-graubunden-sz-14th-century.jpghttp://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/de/Reconstruction_of_the_temple_of_Jerusalem.jpghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:StPaul'sCross.jpghttp://03varvara.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/unknown-artist-the-virgin-of-mercy-church-of-st-george-rhazuns-grisons-graubunden-sz-14th-century.jpghttp://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/de/Reconstruction_of_the_temple_of_Jerusalem.jpghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:StPaul'sCross.jpghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_St_Paul%27s_Cathedralhttp://03varvara.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/unknown-artist-the-virgin-of-mercy-church-of-st-george-rhazuns-grisons-graubunden-sz-14th-century.jpghttp://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/de/Reconstruction_of_the_temple_of_Jerusalem.jpghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:StPaul'sCross.jpghttp://03varvara.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/unknown-artist-the-virgin-of-mercy-church-of-st-george-rhazuns-grisons-graubunden-sz-14th-century.jpghttp://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/de/Reconstruction_of_the_temple_of_Jerusalem.jpghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:StPaul'sCross.jpg


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Here you can see just how much more realistic and effective

example Figure Three is. There is this real sense of realism as

shadow, perspective and colour have all been used successfully.

There are no exaggerated figure sizes (the

figures in the foreground are larger than

those in the background) and there is a real

feeling of depth and space within the

painting.

In this section of my essay, I shall prove how Brunelleschi had a profound impact on 15th

century art with his unique creation of linear perspective. As you saw from the earlier

examples of pre-14th

century art, both colour and the individuals in a painting or mural

were flat, when comparing them to Brunelleschi, hopefully you can see just how

revolutionary his inventions and techniques were. I believe that all art is an Illusion and

that everyone will see or feel different things when observing a painting (or any other

form of art). Its like the saying Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. But I believe that

the art work that Brunelleschis formula of perspective have influenced, are illusions in

their own right.

Brunelleschis work falls under the phrase:trompe loeil, which is French for deceives

the eye as some of his artwork is so realistic and uses perspective to such a high

degree that some individuals, such as Giorgio Vasari (an Italian painter) have said

thatThere seems to be a hole in the wall.

Much of the art before perspective was created were frescos of religious stories

and teachings from the bible and were mainly commissioned by the church. As

you can see from the examples, Pre-Early Renaissance artists had no sense of

perspective, proportion or scale. It was also widely accepted that the main

function of art was not a naturalistic representation of something, but rather an

expression of spiritual power. It was very common when depicting God or Jesus tomake them a lot larger then everything else in the picture, sometimes it was done

on purpose to portray the might and power they had in an artistic.

On my visit to the Tate Britain, I went in search for

painting that either should how perspective was

developing or how perspective had been used

effectively. I think that painting seems to ignore all the

progress that perspective had been making up to that

point. The image is flat. There is no sense of feeling ordepth in it. The women themselves seem to be cold

and hard, almost statuesque.

Figure Three -

Pietro Perugino's use of perspective in this fresco at the Sistine

Chapel (148182) helped bring the Renaissance to Rome.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Perugino_Keys.jpghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pietro_Peruginohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Perugino_Keys.jpghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frescohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Perugino_Keys.jpghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sistine_Chapelhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sistine_Chapelhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1481http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1482http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1482http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Perugino_Keys.jpghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renaissancehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Perugino_Keys.jpghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renaissancehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1482http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1481http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sistine_Chapelhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sistine_Chapelhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frescohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pietro_Peruginohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Perugino_Keys.jpghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Perugino_Keys.jpghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Perugino_Keys.jpghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Perugino_Keys.jpghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Perugino_Keys.jpg


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All the perspective paintings are descended from a

mathematical formula that was actually created by accident

by Filippo Brunelleschi. Brunelleschis most important

achievement in the areas of architecture and mathematics

came at around 1415 when he discovered the principles of

linear perspective using mirrors. He already knew that there

should be a vanishing point which all parallel lines should

converge at.

Perspective could be described as the lines that break up a drawing into its fundamental sections. With

mathematical perspective these lines are clearer to see as they literally breaks up the image. These lines will meet

at a certain point on a Horizon.

The Holy Trinity Masaccio

The Holy Trinity was painted approximately from 1425-1428 and is

from the early Italian Renaissance Period. It is located in the church

of Santa Maria Novella, in Florence.

The biblical frescos were there to overwhelm you, and even

sometimes to scare you and keep you in your place, people would

have been overwhelmed at the sheer beauty and power that the

paintings had over them. There is a dark (yet spiritual) nature that

the fresco presents, in subject matter and even the way that it has

been painted.

I chose this fresco because it's really amazing example of how

Masaccio's used space, perspective and proportion in unison,(something that many artists have been struggling with for hundreds

of years).

This particular painting consists of three sections; the first is that

which surrounds Jesus Christ, His Father, The Holy Spirit, The Virgin

Mary and St John. They appear to be encased in their own natural

frame made up of the two parallel columns. The second section is

that which encloses the two donors, (husband and wife) and the third

section shows the Memento Mori with the words

I once was what you are and what I am you also will be.

There are many focal points that the eye is drawn to in this painting

and its vanishing point is at the centre of the altar, because this is

said to be as the eye level of the spectator, who looks up at the

Trinity and down at the tomb (this may be a representation of

heaven and the afterlife).The vanishing point, five feet above the

floor level, pulls both views together. By doing this, an illusion of an

actual structure is created. The interior volume of this 'structure' is

an ex tension of the space that the person looking at the work is

standing in. Illusionistic painting fascinated many artists of the

Renaissance and Baroque periods.


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In his painting, Masaccio has placed all the forms

symmetrically in the composition and they all

appear to be centred about Christ. The fresco

itself is calm, and creates a sad and morbid

mood. The mood is further enhanced by the

darkness of the colours in main section of thefresco (and the vault underneath) and also by

the heavy shadows cast and I have clearly shown

what I believe to be the perspective lines.

There are many triangular forms hidden in the

paining (as you can see from figures two and

three) that seem to draw the eye to look

(unknowingly) at the Memento Mori and

Golgotha (is the biblical name for the place

where Jesus was crucified). These lines also give

the feeling of depth and give the painting a

frame.

In Figure one I have outlined the columns and

steps as I think that they give the painting and

natural frame. This is of great importance as it

draws the eye into whats happening at the

centre of the paintings. In Figure two, I have

drawn the perspective lines and mainly focused

them around the figure of The Father, The son

and The Holy Spirit (the small dove that can be

seen above Christs head. I like the way that the

body of Charts has been angled and shaped to fit

on the cross. In Figure three I have tried to show

some of the triangles that have been, in a way,

hidden in this work. I think that these triangles

may have a very religious meaning as it might

refer to (In The Name Of) The Father, The Son

and The Holy Spirit. I have also drawn a line

between the two donors and the Virgin Mary and

St John and the reason for this is because theyare almost at the exact same height (or level)

with each other.

In figure four I have shown the lines that make

this painting so amazing for its time. These are

the perspective lines that give the painting so

much depth and feeling and also gives the effect

that theres a whole in the wall as was

mentioned earlier.

Figure 1 Figure 2

Figure 3 Figure 4


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This is The Lamentation over the Dead Christ c. 1490, around 50

years after Masaccio. I have chosen this picture as a clear

representation of how far along perspective has come. The painting

is extremely beautiful, it is filled with sorrow, pain, anguish and

other such emotions, the painting also has a lot of depth and feeling

in it.I am amazed at how the artist has painted it so that in the

painting, it appears that the body of Christ is actually

foreshortened so that it makes it seem that he is actually going

back into the canvas. It is extremely realistic, however, there is

still some more work to be done, for example, the legs almost

seem too short for the large torso.


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The journey of perspective has not been an easy one,

even after the technique was learnt, used and practised

by artists all over the world, there were still obstacles. The

art movements post-1700s threatened everything that perspective had worked for,

movements like expressionism and modernism and even abstract art.In these movements, especially Abstract Art it is hard to imagine that there is any

such form, let alone perspective. However there are those who believe differently.

It has been said that modern art is a movement in which forms are abstracted and

disillusioned by using multiple perspective points and an analytical approach to the

object - painting the basic geometric solid of the subject.

It is clear to see that Cubism was the Art movement to rival the impressionists; it

was this backlash to the impressionist period that we see this greater emphasis of

light and colour and the abstract. It was the view of Paul Cezanne's that nature was

not all about the intricate detail and beauty and his statement that really challenged

that: "Everything in nature takes its form from the sphere, the cone, and the cylinder." As cubism was developed

further and further by many different artists, a key point was discovered that would be revolutionary for themovement and this was to use different perspectives for a single object.

The techniques used in painting these images are all roughly the same;

there is also use of realistic yet exaggerated colour schemes in work

with increased almost photographic detail. The Pre-Raphaelites took a

very bold new step away from the conventional compositions of the

time, even the subject matter of the paintings were drastically

different. In Henry Wallis's(18301916) painting 'The Death of

Chatterton the subject himself has this air of mystery about him, the

colour scheme is exaggerated. In this example, the man's

(Chattertons) face and neck appear extraordinarily pale and haunted

when it is contrasted against (and situated against) his vivid and deep

red hair, even the surrounding doom and gloom of his room intensifies

the colour of his delicate, ivory, angelic skin. The effect of such deep

and conflicting colours dramatizes the theme of death in this work.John William Waterhouse (1849-1917) was also an English Pre-

Raphaelite painter and was renowned for his representations of

characters from mythology and literature (it could be said that his forte

was the female characters). He painted three versions of Tennyson's

Lady of Shalott, in 1888, 1896, and 1916.

Kurt Schwitters, Das Undbild,

1919, Staatsgalerie Stuttgart

While researching and collecting sources to assist me

in writing my EE, I went to a lot of galleries. In the Tate

Britain there are a lot of pieces from post 15th

century.

My two favourite pieces from the Tate Britain

collection are Ophelia (on the left) and The Lady of

Shalott (below). Not only has art excelled to the point

that paintings are now able to look realistic and

effective, but also the use of proportion and

perspective has been efficiently used. I love the story

behind this painting and also all the intricate detailing

that you can see. It seems the more you look at it, the

more there is there is to see.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:DasUndbild.jpghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:DasUndbild.jpghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:DasUndbild.jpghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:DasUndbild.jpghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:DasUndbild.jpghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:DasUndbild.jpghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:DasUndbild.jpghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:DasUndbild.jpghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:DasUndbild.jpg


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Contemporary Art is the newest

movement that we are currently

experiencing. But what is it? Who is it? When is it? Contemporary art can be defined as art produced as this present

point in time or art produced since World War II, even though a lot of people would go with the first definition as

being correct, it is not always correct, (museums of contemporary Art commonly define their collections as

consisting of art produced sinceWorld War II.

So this would include the works of Tracey Emin,

Gilbert and George, Patrick Hughes and basically any

other artist that can be found in contemporary art

galleries and who has emerged in the last 56 years.

For my research for this Essay I researched into the

artists that still use this idea of perspective in their

work to give the feeling of movement and depth.

But, personally, I believe Patrick Hughes has taken

this to the next level by creating Reverspective.Reverspective is a three-dimensional paintings that when someone

is looking at it from head on, it gives the impression of viewing a

painted flat surface that shows a perspective view. However, as soon

as you move your head, even slightly the three dimensional surface

that supports the perspective view accentuates the depth of the

image and accelerates the shifting perspective far more than the

brain normally allows. His work takes this very simple concept and

makes it something more and his art is an illusion in its simplest

form. As you look at his painting, everything that appears close is in

fact further away, and vice versa.

Using Picassos weeping woman as an example of "multi-

linear Perspective" and I will explore the use of perspective.

If you allow gaze wander over the painting, you are struck

by the sharp lines and edges and Let your eyes wander over

the sharp surface and you are led to the monochrome

centre by the jagged juxtaposing black lines (her nose, her

chine and even her lips). The colour is being stripped from

her face by these acidic tears to expose her cold, hard,

white colour underneath. The handkerchief that she is in

the process of stuffing in her mouth only exaggerated the

feeling of sorrow and despair of the painting. It is this Multi

perspective that appears to make this painting so affective,

the Weeping Womans distorted appearance makes her

pain more real to use, in some ways it is almost hard to look

at her, as she seems so disfigured (but in some ways its

almost hard to turn way.


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This image shows an example of one point perspective because it

has one vanishing point that is shown in red , (it could be said that

it converges at the Horizon).

Later on, two-point perspective was created, and as you can see

the main difference is that there are now two vanishing points

that the buildings gradually seem to fade into.

Zero Point Perspective is a technique used to give the illusion ofdepth in a two dimensional piece of art. Here the artist makes

objects that are closer to the viewer larger and more detailed than

objects that are farther away and this form of perspective a lot

more relevant in art we see today (contemporary). In the example

the seals that are closer (or in the foreground) are a lot larger and

have more detail (you can see the detail in their face, eyes, nose,

skin, etc).However the seals that are farther away (in the

background), the detailing is lost, even though the seals are meant

to be relatively the same size.

So, is perspective still relevant in the Art that we see hung

up onto the walls of the World's greatest Galleries today?

Together we have seen how perspective has developed; its

technique has been practised and re-practised to the

sophisticated standard that we see today.

In conclusion, it is clear to me that perspective is still

extremely relevant in Contemporary art. We have seen its

historic journey, through the major movements and wehave also seen how artists such as Patrick Hughes and

even David Hockey (as we can see from his landscape

drawing that can be seen on the left) have explored this

historic technique while adding something modern in too.

In some pieces the artists are undoubtedly trying to fool

and trick you, deceiving your eye, but I guarantee you that

it is still there, just masterfully hidden. I can guarantee that

most artworks (excluding the imaginative world of the

Abstract) will include one or more forms of Perspective,

most notably would have to be Zero-Point Perspective.

It is impossible to think that after all the progress that we

have made in making the portrayal of one's self realistic,

that we would suddenly discard and disuse this revolutionary technique. Realism is something that we are taught

very early one, in every art class all over the world, but it is only when you have skilfully mastered this realistic

portrayal that you then begin to experiment (be it with colour or abstract drawing). But I urge you, next time you

come across an painting in the halls of a gallery, try and find the tell tell signs of the use of perspective, you just have

to look hard enough.

extended essay - final repaired)

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