STEFAN ARTENI

Perspective as Form and Medium

and
the Interplay of Proportion Systems
and Perspective

IV

SolInvictus Press 2006

Module, Geometry, Human Proportion
The Development of the Egyptian Grid System [John Legon]
Doryphoros, 450 BC.
Polykleitos created this statue in order to support
his published theoretical work "Canon" = "Rule",
in which he was stating in mathematical terms the
relationship of parts of the body with the whole,
e.g. the proportion of finger with the palm, palm
with wrist, wrist with elbow, elbow with arm. The
proportion of the head with the body is one
seventh (1/7).
[Ellen Papakyriakou-Anagnostou]
 This athletic weight shift
pose is called a
Contrapposto, and in the art
world scholars have noted
what they call the chiastic
principle in the composition
of the figures such as the
Doryphoros [by Polykleitos].
The term is derived from the
Greek letter chi X which is
formed by two lines crossing
obliquely, but the stroke
descending right to left is
straight while the other is,
like a reversed S, curved at
both ends. Thus the upper
curve on the left corresponds
to a mirror-image curve on
the lower right and two
straight halves face each
other across the sinuous
divide. The illustration
imposes the letter chi onto
the figure of the Doryphoros.
. [Dave Lightbody]
 Doryphoros and the Golden Ratio
Dr. Ruben Stelzner, Der goldene Schnitt – Das Mysterium der Schönheit,
in Zusammenarbeit mit Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Schad, Karl-Schweisfurth-Institut,
Universität Witten/Hedecke und dem Studium Fundamentale der Universität
Witten/Herdecke
Doryphoros [diagram by Gyorgy Doczi]
The Byzantine canon expressed
in face units:
on the left, a figure of 9;
on the right, the Paleologan canon
of 9⅔ units

Hjalmar Torp,
The Integrating System of Proportion
in Byzantine Art, Acta Ad
Archeaologiam
Et Artium Historiam Pertinentia,
Volume 4,
Giorgio Bretschneider 1984
[Diagram by Hjalmar Torp]
Hjalmar Torp,
The Integrating System of Proportion
in Byzantine Art, Acta Ad Archeaologiam
Et Artium Historiam Pertinentia, Volume 4,
Giorgio Bretschneider 1984
[Diagram by Hjalmar Torp]
Hjalmar Torp,
The Integrating System of Proportion in
Byzantine Art, Acta Ad Archeaologiam
Et Artium Historiam Pertinentia, Volume 4,
Giorgio Bretschneider 1984
[Diagram by Hjalmar Torp]
Hjalmar Torp,
The Integrating System of Proportion
in Byzantine Art, Acta Ad Archeaologiam
Et Artium Historiam Pertinentia, Volume 4,
Giorgio Bretschneider 1984
[Diagrams by Hjalmar Torp]
Hjalmar Torp,
The Integrating System of Proportion in Byzantine
Art, Acta Ad Archeaologiam Et Artium Historiam
Pertinentia, Volume 4, Giorgio Bretschneider 1984
[Diagram by Hjalmar Torp]
El Greco (Domenikos Theotokopoulos) and the hypothetical use of the Paleologan canon
[diagram by Stefan Arteni]
 St.Prokulus, Naturns
about 800?

St.Prokulus, Naturns
oldest paint layer; about 800 ?
Hjalmar Torp,
The Integrating System of Proportion in Byzantine Art, Acta
Ad Archeaologiam Et Artium Historiam Pertinentia, Volume 4,
Giorgio Bretschneider 1984
[Diagrams by Hjalmar Torp]

Salzburg, Nonnberg Convent,

detail of wall painting, about 1150
Early Romanesque wall painting,
Johanneskapelle, Pürgg, about 1160
St.Paul, about 1260
St.Helena am Wieserberg,
about 1250
Cividale, Tempietto Longobardo,
Hjalmar Torp,
The Integrating System of Proportion
in Byzantine Art, Acta Ad Archeaologiam
Et Artium Historiam Pertinentia, Volume 4,
Giorgio Bretschneider 1984
[Diagram by Hjalmar Torp]
 Giovanni Rusconi.
Ideal Proportions
Based on the
Human Body, from
"Della Architettura",
Published 1590

Willem Goeree,
Natuurlyk en
Schilderkonstig
Ontwerp der
menschkunde
Leerende niet allen de
kennis van de
gestalte, proportie...
[Konsten att återge
människans gestalt
Woodcut by Peter Flotner from 'Vitruvius och dess
Teutsch', the first German translation of 'De proportioner].
architectura' (Of architecture) by the Roman Amsterdam 1682. The
architect and engineer Vitruvius Pollio (1st head is one-eighth of
century BC), published in Nuremberg the body height.
in 1548.
 El Greco
(Domenikos Theotokopoulos),
Epimetheus and Pandora

Sandro Botticelli’s Hans Baldung Grien

workshop
Lyssipus, Athanasius The Lyssipian proportion
Hercules. Kircher, of the head with the body
Roman copy 17th century is one eighth (1/8).

Hypothetical use of the Lyssipian canon:

El Greco (Domenikos Theotokopoulos)
Saint John the Baptist 1597-160. Oil on
canvas.105 x 64 cm. Private collection.
Pontormo
(Jacopo Carucci)
Grids [I]
Leonardo da Vinci,
proportion grid and other
studies
Image transformations: image (a) is distorted by making the four
corners (blue dots) move to the new positions marked by the four
red circles.
[www.xiberpix.com/index.html]
 curve envelope distortion:
In perspective, first a drawing is made on an ordinary rectangular grid
anamorphosis perspective and then the artist transfers the drawing point by point
is used for distortion to the distorted grid.

Dr. Michael Brook

[www.math.udel.edu/~mbrook/brookart/brook.html]
Albrecht Dürer

[from John Sharp, www.mathsyear2000.org]

Hieronymus
Bosch
Greek vase painting,
orthogonal projection
Greek vase painting
Horizontal oblique projection Computer generated head in strict
horizontal oblique projection
[from Fred Dubery and John
[from Fred Dubery and John Willats,
Willats, Perspective and Other
Perspective and Other Drawing
Drawing Systems,1983]
Systems,1983]
Greek vase painting, horizontal oblique projection
 Greek vase painting

An attempt to show side and front

views of the body at once
Roman mosaics,
head extended in an attempt to show side and front views at once
Greek vase painting

Roman mosaics
Byzantine Icon Byzantine Icon, 11th century, gold cloisonne
Villard de Honnecourt,
head extended in an attempt to show side and front views at once
Villard de
Honnecourt
Villard de Honnecourt
Lucas Cranach,
head extended in an
attempt to show side
and front views at
once
Lucas Cranach,
head extended in an attempt to show side and front views at once
 The Modern Era
Gino Severini an attempt to show side
and front views at once

Georges Braque

Georges Braque
Grids[II]
Tiziano Vecellio,
squared up drawing
Pontormo
(Jacopo Carucci),
squared up drawing
Pontormo
(Jacopo Carucci)
 Jacques Villon

Squared up drawing,
charcoal on tracing
paper

Top right: study

attempting to show
different views
at once.
Bottom right: one of the
final versions
(Composition jaune et
bleu or Galop.)
Jacques Villon
Jacques Villon
 Distance point D

The ‘perspective cube’:

the grid can be warped by moving the vanishing point (the method of
grid-warp serves to manipulate the image by adjusting the grid)

[John Sharp, www.mathsyear2000.org/explorer/gridwarping/perspective-grids]

Planimetric reconstruction of Piero Della Francesca’s Flagellation
A.Dabusti - M.Lagomarsini
www.istitutomaserati.it/prospettiva/Immagini/francesca1.jpg
Piero Della Francesca
Tintoretto (Jacopo Robusti)
Tintoretto (Jacopo Robusti),
diagram by Stefan Arteni
Tintoretto (Jacopo Robusti)
Tintoretto (Jacopo Robusti), diagram by Stefan Arteni
Tintoretto (Jacopo Robusti)
Tintoretto (Jacopo Robusti), diagram by Stefan Arteni
Tintoretto (Jacopo Robusti)
Tintoretto (Jacopo Robusti), diagram by Stefan Arteni
Pieter Hendricksz
de Hooch
Pieter Hendricksz
de Hooch,
diagram by
Stefan Arteni
Pieter Hendricksz de Hooch
Pieter Hendricksz de Hooch,
diagram by Stefan Arteni
Color Systems
 THE MUSICAL INTERVALS AND
HARMONIES OF THE SPHERES.

Pythagoras ~550BC

[from www.colorsystem.com]
Roman mosaic
Byzantine mosaic
Byzantine mosaics
Byzantine mosaic
Byzantine mosaic
Byzantine mosaic
Byzantine mosaic
Byzantine mosaic
Byzantine mosaic
Byzantine mosaic
Robert Grosseteste,
De colore

“Color est lux.”

[from www.colorsystem.com]
Westminster Abbey,
wall painting
 Leon Battista Alberti

[from www.colorsystem.com]
Leonardo da Vinci included black and
white next to yellow, red, blue and green
as primary colors.
[from www.colorsystem.com]
Tiziano Vecellio
Tiziano Vecellio
Tiziano Vecellio
Tiziano Vecellio
Tiziano Vecellio
(restored)
 Il Guercino (restored)

Perino del Vaga

(Pietro Buonaccorsi)
Aron Sigfrid Forsius,1611
[from www.colorsystem.com]
 OPTICORUM LIBRI SEX BY FRANCISCUS AGUILONIUS (1567-1617)
Aguilonius's system was the first
attempt at defining all colors and
was based on his observations of
the changing color of the sky from
dawn to dusk
Secondo Aguilonius la scala cromatica è formata
da cinque colori semplici (bianco, giallo, rosso,
azzurro, nero) e da tre colori composti (arancio,
verde, porpora). Il giallo è il colore più vicino al
bianco, perchè è il più luminoso, per la ragione
opposta l'azzurro è il più vicino al nero. L'arancio,
il verde e il porpora sono colori composti perchè
vengono formati dalla mescolanza di due colori:
Arancio = Giallo + Rosso
Verde = Giallo + Azzurro
Porpora = Rosso + Azzurro
[According to Aguilonius, the chromatic scale is
formed by five simple colors (white, yellow, red,
blue, black) and three composite colors (orange,
green, purple). Yelow is the color closest to white,
because the most luminous, blue is the closest to
black for the opposite reason. Orange, green and
purple are composite colors because formed by
mixing two colors:
Orange = Yellow + Red
Green = Yellow + Blue
Purple = Red + Blue]
http://pctidifi.mi.infn.it/lucevisione/pittura/copernico.htm
1613 - Aguilonius

The color system described

in the book of optics by
Franciscus Aguilonius (1613)
and illustrated by Peter Paul
Rubens may be translated
into a three dimensional
system by means of
topological transformation.

http://www.uni-mainz.de/FB/Biologie/Zoologie/abt3/html/body_aguilonius.html
 The use of color dots to form images
Rubens and color on television or computer screens is
referred to as partitive mixing.
Partitive mixing relies on the eye’s
inability to resolve closely spaced
objects.

Paint…particles are suspended in a

clear medium (e.g. linseed oil). As light
passes through that clear medium, it is
transmitted selectively by the colour
particles. The wavelengths that are
reflected back to the eye (i.e., not
absorbed) determine the colour seen.
Thus, mixing paints of different colour
is completely analogous to placing
françois d'aguilon's [Aguilonius]
several filters of different colour in a
color mixing theory (1613)
sequence.

Bruce MacEvoy
Brian Thomas Wagner
http://www.handprint.com/HP/WCL/color6.html and Donald Kline
University of Calgary

P.P. Rubens depicts Hera-Juno at the
moment when she already applied some
of Argus' eyes on the tail of her birds.
Argus lies decapitated at her feet. The
woman left of her, holding Argus' head,
might be Athena-Minerva.
http://www.ubique.org/Webfans/pfau/Juno.htm
http://www.faculty.fairfield.edu/jmac/sj/scientists/aguilon.htm
P.P. Rubens chose the Juno-
Argus mythology for a frontispice
to an optical tractate by jesuit
François de Aguilon, 1613: In the
center Juno, behind her the
peacocks, left Hermes-Merkur with
Argus' head, right Athena-Minerva
with the head of Medusa on her
shield. Unfortunately, Rubens’
own treatise on color has been
lost.
Peter Paul Rubens (restored)
Peter Paul Rubens
Athanasius Kircher (1602-1680)
Astrological
[from www.colorsystem.com]
connections
 Cubicle-type camera obscura illustrated by
Athanasius Kircher in Ars Magna Lucis et Umbrae,
Rome, 1646

Athanasius Kircher,
Ars magna lucis et umbrae,
Amsterdam, Janossius,
1671: Laterna magica
Athanasius Kircher developed a system of
correspondences between musical intervals and colors
[home.comcast.net/~sean.day/art-history.htm]:
octave green
Kircher also developed a set of
correspondences between voice
types and colors
[home.comcast.net/~sean.day/
art-history.htm]:

seventh blue-violet

major sixth fire red

high, soft and
minor sixth red-violet white
broken
augmented fifth dark brown soft and quiet yellow
deep and
fifth gold fire-red
unclear
diminished fifth blue high and tense scarlet
first deep, then
fourth brown-yellow blue
high
major third bright red strong and deep black

minor third gold

major wholetone black

minor second white

minor wholetone Grey

 Gino Severini,
correspondence between music
and color

Gino Severini,
a golden rectangle
composed of 16 golden
rectangles whose colors
are associated to musical
notes
(after Georges
Vantongerloo) -1919
Gino Severini,
correspondence between
music and color (after
Georges Vantongerloo) -
1919