Questions concerning perspective seem to be one of the most popular "diverse, linked texts" concerning representational painting, but they have been so over-worked by now, how could they possibly still enable us to "gain insight - think in a manner, or become conscious of relationships previously unconsidered"
They rest upon the assumption that there is some way the eye really sees -- so there's something wrong in "Supper at Emmaus" if things don't get smaller as they recede into the distance, and there is something right about "Follies Bergere" if there are multiple implicit vanishing points. I'm more inclined to ask "why is it important to see this painting" -- coinciding with "what did the artist most likely try to present" --- and let my viewing experience provide me answers (if it can find any). And what I bring to that experience is my own experience of looking, as well as an on-going historical narrative. When I look at "Supper at Emmaus", I feel like I'm at -- indeed, within -- a momentous, profound event that is both real and magic. (Most religious painting doesn't do that for me, so I regard this painting as exceptional - and it currently diminishes everything else in gallery 112 except for El Greco's Assumption of the Virgin) When I look at "Follies Bergere" (or, at least a jpg of it) I feel a bit tipsy and uncomfortable. There is something so sad -- but also so riotous -- about it. Something very important seemsto be happening -- but it's not particularly good. With her blank stare, a fine, handsome, healthy young woman seems lost -- contrasted with sharp, purposeful stare of the man facing her in the mirror. And what about all those people in the background - in variant degrees of attractive to repulsive? (one of whom is hanging from the ceiling) And those glaring lights and swirling crowds that make me a bit nauseous, even if there are some beautiful people around. It all makes me feel completely ambivalent about the place. (and reminds me why I don't like to visit bars) The phrase "demi-monde" seems appropriate -- something like the Japanese "floating world" that was its contemporary. The Bijin-ga genre that presented it could be just as sympathetic with the women but was never ambivalent about the entire situation. In the Japanese Buddhist world, everyone is born to her own destiny. That's the kind of text that I assemble, and If found, it also seems more interestinf and likely intended than displays of some kind of technical innovation or virtuosity. I can understand why an historian or artist might be more interested in technical issues -- but I do question why an art theorist, like Thierry de Duve would investigate "How Manet's "A Bar at the Folies-Bergere" Is Constructed" (the title of the 1998 article in Critical Inquiry which mentioned some of William's ideas) As well as I wonder why De Duve would be considered qualified to speak on this subject. Isn't method of construction something that only the artist -- or a student of the artist -- can authoritatively discuss? (beyond just the identification of tools, materials, and historical references) It's as if ideas about the construction of a painting were more important than whatever effects they have -- and I would propose that the effects -- at least, the most important ones,are too complex to be accounted for by such ideas - which often -- as with the "implicit vanishing points" mentioned by William - are rather subjective. (did anyone else really see "Another vanishing point .. the left corner of Suzon's mouth... the apex of a pyramid that aligns with some bottles on the left and with the receding plane of the right side of the compote (bowl of fruit)." I can't even see that point as some kind of vanishing point even after William pointed it out. So much is involved in making something feel profound, sad, riotous etc. As well as in making something feel real --as a scene more like the Follies Bergere than a whale, a camel, or any other as-if. All the relationships of color and line are involved, as well as the postures and the expressions of the figures which can only be described by the painting itself. If the search for implicit vanishing points deserves three pages of text -- the entire inquiry concerning construction would require many volumes. ____________________________________________________________ Diet Help Cheap Diet Help Tips. Click here. http://thirdpartyoffers.netzero.net/TGL2231/c?cp=ECBjBngS1reGrpi9OW13rQAAJz6c l_zTaptgNR5c8Mer1v9kAAYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAADNAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYQAAAAAA=
