THE GREEK PERSPECTIVE
By all accounts, the Greeks were the first civilization to draw and paint their pictures according to the basic rules of liner perspective. Although we are typically taught that Representational Spacetime started in Florence, this is not exactly the case. Although the Greeks may not have fully understood the perspective in the same manner that Bruneleschi did, (see Hey Bruneleschi!), they were using its essential concepts as ways to evoke spatial representation.
“…it may need a good deal of historical imagination to recapture the thrill and the shock which the first illusionist images must have caused when shown on the stage or on the walls of Greek houses.” Gombrich. P127.
This Greek revolution involved developing the technical means by which forms, shadows, general foreshortening, a rough idea of linear perspective, and the use of colors to suggest depth of field. These developments occurred near the end of the Hellenistic period,.
Gobrich asks how the Greeks, operating in the middle of the 6th century BC, managed to achieve this level of innovation which evaded previous civilizations, including the Egyptians and Mesopotamians? The answer must lie in the holistic innovation of all the Greek arts at that time. Put simply, if they could execute such realism with their sculpture, then surely their two dimensional art would evolve along side.
With the ravages of historical uphevals coupled with the more fragile nature of painting, hardly any example survive of this Greek illusionism. Yet historians are able to infer this capability by the examination of very late examples that did survive and mapping that upon their development of sculpture, architecture, and pottery decoration.
It is amazing to stop and think that Representational Spacetime was essentially established 2400 years ago. And it is more amazing to realize that Representational Spacetime has pervaded and continues to pervade our accepted cultural understanding. I mean, I don’t want to rush anything, but maybe it is time to move past this? I’m just sayin’.
- Gombrich, E. H. Art and Illusion: A Study in the Psychology of Pictorial Representation. Princeton University Press: Princeton. 1984.
- Image in the public domain. Fresco of Macedonian soldiers from the tomb of Agios Athanasios, Thessaloniki, Greece.
Today it’s sad that we have so few surviving examples of ancient Greek paintings, and not a single surviving copy of any of the books on Perspective illustration (cited by later authors, such as Vitruvius). It is noteworthy that (according to Vitruvius) Perspective appeared before Geometry is fully settled, (before the ultimate logical systemization of Geometry by Euclid, for what we typically believe to be the correct chronological age of the Euclidean “Elements” and “Optics”). Looking at later Roman murals, and the relatively slower spread of Geometry, I find it easy to believe that Roman artists were headed in a different direction than the development path taken by the artists of the Italian Renaissance — adopting a looser role for the Station Point in their Perspective format (what Erwin Panofsky called “the roving eye” of the Roman artist). * * * * * * * * * * * * Two pages of my further thoughts about Greco-Roman perspective are posted at: http://7ladders.com/Essays.htm