René Magritte, The Treachery of Images (“This is not a pipe”)
Uses value and perspective to imply depth
Painted in varying values
The top of the pipe bowl is composed of two concentric ellipses
Magritte understands our habits of visual perception
Magritte wants us to recognize that what appears to be a pipe is not really a pipe
Nothing more than paint on a flat surface
Buckminster Fuller, Geodesic Dome (Art Dome) Demonstrates the effect of light on planes in varying locations
Many triangular flat planes make up this surface
Each of these planes has a different relative degree of lightness or darkness
Value changes occur gradually
The relative dark values increase as the planes get further away and face away from the light
There is a value range of black, white, and eight values of gray
Formerly used as a sculpture studio at Reed College in Portland, Oregon
Pierre Paul Prud’hon, Study for La Source
Uses chiaroscuro in the drawing of a female figure
There is an area of highlight on the knee, leading into the lighted thigh
Under the knee and thigh there is a strong core shadow
Reflected light can be seen on the calf and the underside of the thigh
The reflected light is accented by the dark cast shadow behind the calf
Use of black and white chalk on a gray paper allows the artist to accentuate the lightest and darkest areas
Caravaggio, The Calling of St. Matthew
Dramatic effects can be achieved through the use of chiaroscuro
Uses strongly contrasting values to convert a quiet gathering into a pivotal and powerful event
The intense difference between lights and darks places extra emphasis on Christ’s hand
The light also frames Matthew
Michelangelo, Head of a Satyr
Cross-hatched pen-and-ink drawing
By building up layers of brown ink, Michelangelo overcomes the restrictions created by the thin line of the pen
The bright white highlight uses no lines; the surrounding hatch lines define the transition from bright light to a darker value
As the hatching lines cross over and over, the value appears to get darker
“The Great Wave off Shore at Kanagawa” The Artist’s Methods for Implying Depth
The artist makes one boat shape smaller than the others
The shape of the wave overlaps the two largest boat shapes
By placing the wave shape at the lowest point on the page, the artist suggests that it is closest to the viewer
The placing of Mt. Fuji lower than the top of the waves deliberately confuses the composition
Adds to our sense of the size of the wave
Fan Kuan, Travelers among Mountains and Streams
Each area of light and dark occupies different amounts of space, making the design more interesting
Note the change in visual texture from bottom to top
These visual layers create a sense of depth
Thomas Hart Benton, The Wreck of the Ole ’97
Used brightness and color to create a sense of distance in his painting
We see the bright, pure greens come forward as the darker, less intense greens fall away
We perceive color that is more intense as being closer
Asher Brown Durand, Kindred Spirits
The trees in the foreground are detailed and bright green, but as the trees recede into the landscape behind the two figures they become a lighter gray and increasingly out of focus
By using atmospheric perspective, Durand conveys an impression of the vastness of the American landscape
Xu Yang, The Qianlong Emperor’s Southern Inspection Tour
Parallel diagonal lines define the small L-shaped building in the center of the work
This method of implying depth is not “realistic”
The artist makes use of other spatial devices-for example, the diminishing size of the trees as they recede into the distance-to help us understand how the space is structured
The Sims
Isometric perspective is common in contemporary computer graphics
The designers have created the architecture of the game using parallel diagonal lines to make “tiles”
Allows players to manipulate the architecture without distortion
Edith Hayllar, A Summer Shower
The artist, British painter Edith Hayllar, uses linear perspective to create an orderly composition that reflects the well-regulated life of Victorian aristocracy in England
The converging lines represent planes that are parallel to each other in reality
Parallel lines appear to converge on one single point in front of the male tennis player on the left
Edith Hayllar exhibited many works at the Royal Academy in London-a rare honor for a woman artist at the time
Masaccio, Trinity
Places the horizon line, an imaginary line that mimics the horizon, at the viewer’s eye level
The horizon line represents our eye level
The orthogonals (lines of convergence) create an illusion that the background is an architectural setting
Raphael, The School of Athens Perspective and the Illusion of Depth
Raphael introduces two additional vanishing points into a one-point perspective composition
One vanishing point is positioned to the left of the central vanishing point
The right vanishing point is outside of the picture
Since the block in the center of the picture is turned at an angle, Raphael had to integrate another level of perspective into the work
M. C. Escher, Ascending and Descending
Three distinct vanishing points
Two of the vanishing points are placed on the horizon line
One point is well below horizon line
Albrecht Dürer, Draftsman Drawing a Recumbent Woman
At this oblique angle the usual proportions of different parts of the body do not apply
The artist has a fixed lens or aperture in front of him to make sure he always views from the same point
He looks through the gridded window to view the figure
Then he aligns his drawing to a similar grid marked on the piece of paper in front of him
Andrea Mantegna, The Lamentation over the Dead Christ
The figure of Christ is oriented so that the wounded feet are placed in the extreme foreground
Rest of the body receding away from the viewer back into space
Mantegna only slightly enlarges the feet
Depicts the body in shortened sections