The two dimensional rendering of copies of renaissance art taking out the three dimensional perspective provided by modeling - planimetricism - on the face of it sounds technically inferior. It occurs in places like the Spanish colonies and the Slavic world, where artists were unfamiliar with conventions of 3-d rendering, such as overlapping, linear perspective (distant objects as narrower), and atmospheric perspective (showing farther objects as hazier). But psychology research has shown only people familiar with the convention see these monocular cues (visible with just one eye) as indicating depth (Myers 249). The renaissance way of rendering 3-d objects, particularly people, on a 2-d canvas, is not intrinsically building on how the brain constructs 3-d reality from 2-d images on the retina, but is just a convention which, like language, when taught early enough and often enough acquires the trappings of a self-evident truth.
Works Cited
Myers, David G. Psychology. 8th ed. New York: Worth, 2009. Print.
Wow I didnt know that there was so much depth in planimetricism. That is very interesting and to think that it was being tampered with during the mexican colonial times is absolutely baffling. I also find it amazing how we have easily achieved the production of 3-d objects at least in the movies.
ReplyDeleteGreat post discussing planimetricism. It begs the discussion of how for so long many art historians (and perhaps still continue to do)viewed it as "inferior" to 3D drawing rather than as different ways of communicating visual depth.
ReplyDelete