PERSPECTIVE OPTICS. VISUAL REPRESENTATION TRANSFORMATION THROUGH THE ARTS

Abstract

Art and architecture, at their finest, serve as social expressions of beauty. Artistic language as a form of human communication in the visual arts is an anticipatory tool of societal changes daring to position art as a reflective mirror of the future. Art functions as an avant-garde communication to architecture, conveying the imagine of humanity in the social dimension. In their coexistence, art has the role of the social language tool while architecture acts as a shelter of cultural complexity. With these premises and considering the evolution of art in the last half of century, from Renaissance to present day, the perspective on the role of visual representation has changed from true representation and realism to interpreting symbols in the illusion of graphics. The authors explore the shifts from the humanism of Renaissance to the contemporary rebirth of humanism through science looking at the evolution of representational language of perspective of naturalism, realism, surrealism and the optical illusions in context of the art and science relationship. The study explores representation techniques such as Leonardo da Vinci’s atmospheric perspective, Albrecht Dürer’s painting in perspective, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s Colour and Light Theory, René Magritte’s surrealism, anamorphisms, Salvador Dali’s melting landscapes, Maurits Cornelis Escher’s graphical optical illusion. The investigation of these techniques contributes to understanding the role of perspective in representation and to reflecting on the importance of the scientific language in the visual arts.

Keywords

• atmospheric perspective
• painting in perspective
• light and colour theory
• anamorphism
• optical illusion