Complete the account of pictorial space.
Alberti described the picture as an open ______ through which the subject is seen, in De pictura of 1435. The line on which perpendiculars converge sits at the height of the viewer's ______. The cue by which distance lowers contrast and chroma and cools the hue is called ______ perspective. Maurice Denis insisted in 1890 that a picture is essentially a ______ surface covered with colours assembled in a certain order.
Word bank: window · eye · aerial · flat · door · horizon
Hints
- The first and last blanks are the two opposed accounts of what a picture is.
- The third blank is the cue Leonardo described in the notebooks.
Show the answer
Alberti described the picture as an open window through which the subject is seen, in De pictura of 1435. The line on which perpendiculars converge sits at the height of the viewer's eye. The cue by which distance lowers contrast and chroma and cools the hue is called aerial perspective. Maurice Denis insisted in 1890 that a picture is essentially a flat surface covered with colours assembled in a certain order.
The first and last blanks are five centuries apart and contradict each other. Alberti asks the viewer to look through the surface; Denis asks them to look at it. Every painting since has had to decide which of the two it is doing, and most interesting ones do both at once.
Practise Pictorial Space and the Picture Plane
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