The real and the ideal upload

The Real and the IdealReadingNigel Spivey, “More Human than Human.”

Terms/ConceptsResemblance Theory, Illusion Theory, trompe l’oeil, Habituation Theory, Information Theory, Facture, Canon of Proportions, Perspective, Golden Ratio, Phi, Contrapposto,

Key Monuments:Kritios Boy, Early Classical, c. 480 BCEMyron, Diskobolos (Discus Thrower), Roman copy of an Early Classical, 470-440 BCEWarrior, Found in the sea off Riace, Italy, Early Classical, 460-450 BCEPolykleitos, Doryphoros (Spear Bearer), Roman Copy from Greek Original, High Classical c. 5th Century CE

What is “Realism?”

1. Resemblance2. Illusion3. Habituation4. Information

What is “Realism?”

1. Resemblance2. Illusion3. Habituation4. Information

“Realism is based on how a picture reproduces the shapes, colors and form of its subject matter. The more realistic a picture is the more it captures the essence of the subject.”

Resemblance

Queen Elizabeth I (Dramatization) Unknown Artist, Posthumous Portrait of Queen Elizabeth I, 1604.

What is “realism”?

1.Resemblance2.Illusion3.Habituation4.Information

“Realism is based on how a picture “fools” the viewer into thinking that the picture is real.”

Juan Fernandez, Two Bunches of Grapes, Spanish, 17th Century.

“Zeuxis, who produced a picture of grapes so successfully represented that the birds flew up [and pecked at them].”

Adriaen van der Spelt, Flower Still-Life with Curtain, 1658.

“Parrhasius himself produced such a realistic picture of a curtain that Zeuxis, proud of the verdict of the birds, requested that the curtain should now be drawn and the picture displayed; and when he realized his mistake, with a modesty that did him honor he yielded up the prize, saying he had deceived the birds, Parrhasius had deceived him, an artist.”

Illusion

Cornelis Gijbrechts, Flemish, 1630-1675.

Trompe L’Oeil = “Trick the Eye”

Julian Beever, Illusionistic Street Art, Venice, c. 2010.

What is “realism”?

1.Resemblance2.Illusion3.Habituation4.Information

“The history of representation conditions our expectations of what is realistic and what is not.”

These properties are socially conditioned…“When I was a young boy I was asked by my father to guide a Japanese lawyer around the sights of my native Vienna. At that time nearly half a century ago, the media of mass communication, books, periodical, films, had not yet brought about the present diffusion of aesthetic sensibilities around the world. The Japanese gentleman, though highly educated, was quite unfamiliar with Western art. We soon became good friends, and I concluded that all traditional European art seemed highly stylized and decorative to him. I also showed him around a conventional show of contemporary post-Impressionistic art and this too impressed him as stylized. I was puzzled. It dawned on me that only Japanese art could be realistic to him, in spite—or rather because—of its conventional schema that distorts every single line. Apparently once the Japanese spectator has become attuned to the secret regularity ruling the linear flow of this persistent distortion, he can discount it.”

Which is more “realistic”?

Jan van Kessel the Elder, A scene with Sea Life, 17th century.

Unknown Artist, Japanese Print of Fish, c. 19th century

What is “realism”?

1.Resemblance2.Illusion3.Habituation4.Information

“Different depictions can be considered realistic or unrealistic based on the information conveyed to the viewer by the picture. More information yields a more realistic image.”

Information

Line Drawing, Chartres Cathedral Chartres Cathedral Photo

…but what makes a painting or sculpture appear “realistic” to us?

“A picture, X, is realistic with respect to property P if and only if X depicts its

subject matter as having P.”-Michael Newall

In other words… “realistic” pictures have properties we understand to be “realistic.”

Which is more realistic?

A B

Which is more realistic?

A B

Which is more “realistic”?

A B

Which is more “realistic”?

A B

Which is more “realistic”?

A B

What “properties” did you recognize as “realistic” from this exercise?

Masaccio, The Holy Trinity, 1428.

Cityscape, Cubiculum M, Boscoreale, 1st century BCE.

Perspective

Color

Michelangelo, Adam, from the Sistine Chapel, 1508-1512. Pablo Picasso, Portrait of

Madame Solor, 1905

Facture

Michelangelo, Adam, from the Sistine Chapel, 1508-1512.

Frans Hals, Malle Babbe, 1633-1635.

Canons of Proportion: Real or Ideal?

Kritios Boy, Early Classical, c. 480 BCE

Myron, Diskobolos (Discus Thrower), Roman copy of an Early Classical, 470-440 BCE

Eadweard Muybridge, Man Throwing Discus, Collotype from glass negative, 1883-1886

Warrior, Found in the sea off Riace, Italy, Early Classical, 460-450 BCE

Warrior (Detail), Found in the sea off Riace, Italy, Early Classical, 460-450 BCE

Warrior (Detail), Found in the sea off Riace, Italy, Early Classical, 460-450 BCE

The Proportions of Phidias

= (phi) = 1 = .6180

Phidian Proportions and the Human Form

Athena, Attributed to Phidias, High Classical, c. 5th century CE

Athena, Attributed to Phidias, High Classical, c. 5th century CE

Cult Statue of Athena (Reconstruction), Parthenon, Acropolis, Athens, c. 5th Century CE

a

b

Cult Statue of Athena (Reconstruction), Parthenon, Acropolis, Athens, c. 5th Century CE

The Canon of Polykleitos

Polykleitos, Doryphoros (Spear Bearer), Roman Copy from Greek Original, High Classical c. 5th Century CE

“but beauty, he thinks, does not reside in the proper proportion of the elements but in the proper proportion of the parts, such as for example that of finger to finger and all these to the palm and base of hand, of those to the forearm, of the forearm to the upper arm and of everything to everything else, just as described in the Canon of Polykleitos. For having taught us in that work all the proportions of the body, Polykleitos supported his treatise with a work of art, making a statue according to the tenets of the treatise and calling it, like the treatise itself, the Canon. So then, all philosophers and doctors accept that beauty resides in the due proportion of the parts of the body.”

Contrapposto

Pythagorean Table of Opposites

Finite InfiniteOdd EvenOne ManyRight LeftRest MotionStraight CrookedLight DarknessGood EvilSquare Oblong

The Canon of Lysippos

Lysippos, Apoxyomenos (The Scraper), Roman Copy of a Greek Original, Late Classical, 4th century CE

Doryphoros Apoxyomenos

“Big” Ideas

• “Realism” or “Naturalism” are constructs of both our visual faculties and expectations.

• When we refer to something as “realistic,” we mean that it agrees with our understanding of reality.

• What we consider “realistic” is culturally and historically defined. It is subject to change or shift.