Visual Perception

Optical illusions seem to be popular on science related sites. I don’t usually get into them but I found this one interesting. Take a look at the drawing below. Robert Laws was a Scottish missionary who worked in Malawi in the 1880s and put forward the theory that our visual perception is influenced by one’s culture and environment. What do you see below?Source link here.

Trompe-l'oeil -  |ˌtrômp ˈloi|    
French - deceive the eye, technique, boundary between reality and fiction
Realism - Greece, perfection

Escaping Criticism, Pere Borrell del Caso, 1874.

Camera Picta (Painted Chamber), 1465-1474, Andrea Mantegna, Mantua, Italy, ceiling fresco

San Zaccaria Altarpiece, Giovanni Bellini, oil on panel, 1505, executed in the church of San Zaccaria, Venice.
approx. 16 feet tall by 8 feet wide

Teatro Olimpico (Olympic Theatre), Northern Italy, constructed 1580-1585, Forced Perspective

Oil on canvas, Raphaelle Peale, 1822.  Link here to see more trompe-l'oeil painting at the National Gallery of Art.

Above two images by Jacques Poirier (1928-2002). Source is All My Eyes, link here.

Marilyn Levine (1935-2005), clay



Vanitas    |ˈvanəˌtäs| - Latin - emptiness, vanity, 15th century, life and earth
Attractive Objects
Symbols - skulls, rotten fruit, bubbles, watches and hourglasses, musical instruments, peeled lemon

Vanitas by Pieter Claesz, 1630, oil on panel, 22" x 15.6"

Memento mori - Latin - An object serving as a reminder of death, remember your mortality, remember you will die.

Medieval through Victorian, High death rate, Christianity, Divine Judgement, Ash Wednesday

1600-1650, oil on panel, about 14" x 11"

The Ambassadors by Hans Holbein, oil on oak, 1533, approx. 82" x 81"

Invention of photography.

Away From the Flock by Damien Hirst, 1994, a sheep suspended in formaldehyde in a vitrine. Link here to read about it at the Tate.

The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living by Damien Hirst, 1990's, shark in formaldehyde in a vitrine.