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Historical
Anamorphoses
Anamorphic art is the
process of greatly distorting an image only to have it revealed
either from a single vantage point or from its reflection on a
mirrored surface. A cylindrical mirror is the most common form,
but reflective cones and pyramids have also been used. The
surprising appearance of the undistorted reflection or image is
almost always met with wonder and delight.
It was Leonardo Da Vinci
who first experimented with anamorphic perspective, and the first
known example of an anamorphic drawing is an eye that he made
in 1485. During the Renaissance, artists who experimented with
perspective made great advances and perfected the techniques of
stretching and distorting images in various ways using the
geometry of perspective (see
Leonardo's Eye).
In the 16th,
17th, and 18th centuries anamorphic images became extremely
popular, and supplied an ideal means of camouflaging dangerous
political statements, heretical ideas, and even erotic images. Anamorphic images were widely reproduces in prints, and in a
more permanent form adorned the walls of monasteries. Hans Holbein
(1497 –1543), the great court painter to Henry VIII created perhaps
the most famous and striking example of a hidden anamorphosis (see
Holbein). It was in the 17th century that
the first reflective cone and reflective cylinder anamorphoses
were created. The technique also became popular in the Orient
during the 17th and 18th centuries. In the 19th century, when color printing became inexpensive,
the technique flourished again as a popular parlor game, alongside
other optical tricks.
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Movies Related to this
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Leonardo's
Eye
This anamorphic drawing by Leonardo da Vinci, ca 1485 is the earliest
known example of an anamorphosis. Although there are no notes accompanying
this drawing by Leonardo, he does refer to the mechanics of anamorphic
drawing in his treatise on painting, “And if you were to paint this on a
wall in front of which you can move freely, the effect would appear out of
proportion to you because of the great difference OR and RQ [the
intervals]. This happens because the eye is so close to the wall that the
painting appears foreshortened. And if you wished to paint that, however,
your perspective would have to be viewed through a single hole.”
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Schon
Play the movie to see how this early 16th century landscape
concealed various hidden political messages, which were only revealed from
a certain angle.
This masterpiece of hidden and
anamorphic imagery was created between 1531 and 1534 by Erhard Schon, a
Nuremberg engraver and pupil of Albrecht Durer. It contains the hidden
portraits of Ferdinand I (top left), Charles V (top right), Francis I
(bottom left), and Pope Paul III (bottom right). The human figures are
identifiable, because the German and Latin inscriptions, which are only
revealed from the same critical angle, present the names of each
personage.
While preserving a thematic unity,
the design combines two different pictures in one. The background which
unfolds behind the hidden sovereigns recalls events connected with them
and provides a key for deciphering their puzzle.
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Edward
VI
Play the movie to see this distorted image transform into a portrait of
Edward VI, son of Henry VIII. This portrait by William Scrots was painted
in 1546, the year before Edward VI’s accession to the throne. There is a
hollow hole in the frame which one can view the work from the correct angle.
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Holbein
Look at the strange shape near the bottom center of
“The Ambassadors" by Hans Holbein, a portrait of the two French
ambassadors Jean de Dinteville and George de Selve.
What can it possibly be? Play the movie
to see this shape transform into a recognizable image when you go to
another viewing angle. The correct image of a skull can be seen by
positioning yourself at an oblique angle relative to the right side of the
picture plane.
The painting was originally hung
on a staircase in Jean de Dinteville’s chateau, so that the skull may have
appeared from below left or down the stairs. Although numerous
explanations have been offered about the symbolic presence of the skull,
including that it is a play on the artist’s name – Holbein, which means
“hollow bone” in German, the reason for its inclusion is still unclear. |
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