Anamorphosis

Abstract: In "Picturing Space, Displacing Bodies", Lyle Massey argues that we can only learn how and why certain kinds of spatial representation prevailed over others by carefully considering how Renaissance artists and theorists interpreted perspective. Combining detailed historical studies with broad theoretical and philosophical investigations, this book challenges basic assumptions about the way early modern artists and theorists represented their relationship to the visible world and how they understood these representations. By analyzing technical feats such as anamorphosis (the perspectival distortion of an object to make it viewable only from a certain angle), drawing machines, and printed diagrams, each chapter highlights the moments when perspective theorists failed to unite a singular, ideal viewpoint with the artist's or viewer's viewpoint or were unsuccessful at conjoining fictive and lived space. Showing how these "failures" were subsequently incorporated rather than rejected by perspective theorists, the book presents an important reassessment of the standard view of Renaissance perspective. While many scholars have maintained that perspective rationalized the relationships among optics, space, and painting, "Picturing Space, Displacing Bodies" asserts instead that Renaissance and early modern theorists often revealed a disjunction between geometrical ideals and practical applications. In some cases, they not only identified but also exploited these discrepancies. This discussion of perspective shows that the painter's geometry did not always conform to the explicitly rational, Cartesian formula that so many have assumed, nor did it historically unfold according to a standard account of scientific development.

Abstract: The process known in art as anamorphosis or anamorphic projection is at once a confirmation of and a challenge to the rules of linear perspective and the conventions of representation. In this first part of a two-part series of articles, the author discusses art-historical and psychoanalytic literature in regard to a role for anamorphosis beyond that of perspective theory. In this discussion, particular emphasis is placed upon the viewer actively observing the anamorphosis, introducing what the author describes as the ‘eccentric observer’. The second part of this article, to follow in the next regular issue of Leonardo, will detail modern uses of anamorphosis, with emphasis on contemporary artworks.

Abstract: Recently there has been a revival of anamorphic imagery, notably in its use as a metaphor by postmodern theorists. But often, discussions of anamorphosis are confused, and even wrong. In this article, the author not only focuses upon correcting these errors, but also analyzes our perception of anamorphic images, since there is a dearth of such in the literature. The resulting discussion points out aspects of how we see anamorphs that have never been pointed out before.

Abstract: Picturing space, displacing bodies: Anamorphosis in early modern theories of perspective by Lyle Massay University Park, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2007, 192 pages ISBN: 978...