S P A C E 101

Implied Space: Suggesting Depth in Two DimensionsArchitecture, sculpture, and other art forms that exist in three dimensionswork with actual space. When we view the work, we inhabit the same spaceit does, and we need to walk around it or through it to experience it com-pletely. With painting, drawing, and other two-dimensional art forms, theactual space is the flat surface of the work itself, which we tend to see all atonce. Yet on this literal surface, called the picture plane, other quantitiesand dimensions of space can be implied. For example, if you take an ordi-nary notebook page and draw a tiny dog in the center, the page has suddenlybecome a large space, a field for the dog to roam about in. If you draw adog that takes up the entire page, the page has become a much smaller space,just big enough for the dog.

Suppose now that you draw two dogs and perhaps a tree, and you wantto show where they are in relation to one another. One dog is behind thetree, say, and the other is running toward it from the distance. These rela-tionships take place in the third dimension, depth. There are many visualcues that we use to perceive spatial relationships in depth. One of the sim-plest is overlap: We understand that when two forms overlap, the one weperceive as complete is in front of the one we perceive as partial. A secondvisual cue is position: Seated at a desk, for example, we look down to seethe objects closest to us and raise our head up to see objects that are far-ther away.

4.41 Do Ho Suh. Reflection. 2004.Nylon and stainless steel tube,dimensions variable, each gatelife-size.Courtesy Lehmann Maupin Gallery,New York.

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Many artistic cultures have relied entirely on those two basic cues toimply depth in two dimensions (4.42). In this lively scene of acrobats andmusicians performing before an Indian prince, we understand that the per-formers toward the bottom of the page are nearer to us than ones higher up,and that the overlapping elephants and horses are standing next to eachother in a row that recedes away from us. The most important person in thescene is the prince, and the painting makes this clear. Framed by the archi-tectural setting, he sits amid his courtiers and attendants, all of whom arelooking at him. The prince, too, is depicted in profile and does not seem tobe watching the performance. Yet this seeming inattention is not to be takenliterally. The prince would certainly have watched such a wonderful event.Indian artists favored profile views, for they give the least information aboutdepth, and so lend themselves well to the overall flatness of Indian painting.

LINEAR PERSPECTIVE The sense of space in the Indian painting isconceptually convincing, but not optically convincing. For example, we under-stand perfectly well that the princes pavilion is on the distant side of theacrobats, but there is actually no evidence to tell our eyes that it is not hov-ering in the air directly over them. Similarly, we understand that the ele-phants and horses represent rounded forms even though they appear to oureyes as flat shapes fanned out like a deck of cards on the picture plane.Together, the flatness of Indian painting, the preference for profiles, the useof saturated colors, and the conceptual construction of space make up acoherent system for depicting the world. They work together to give Indianartists tremendous flexibility in assembling complex, vivid, and visuallydelightful scenes such as this one while preserving narrative clarity.

The chiaroscuro technique developed by Italian artists of the 15th cen-tury also forms part of a larger system for depicting the world. Just asRenaissance artists took note of the optical evidence of light and shadow tomodel rounded forms, they also developed a technique for constructing anoptically convincing space to set those forms in. This technique, called lin-ear perspective, is based in the systematic application of two observations:

4.42 Maharana Amar Singh II,Prince Sangram Singh, andCourtiers Watch the Performanceof an Acrobat and Musicians.Rajasthan, Mewar, c. 170508.Ink, opaque watercolor, and goldon paper; 2012 3534".The Metropolitan Museum of Art,New York.

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one-pointlinear perspective

one-pointlinear perspective

two-pointlinear perspective

horizon

vanishingpoint

receding square in linear perspective

4.43 Basic principles of linearperspective.

4.44 (below) Francesco diGiorgio Martini (attr.).Architectural Perspective. Late15th century. Furnituredecoration on poplar wood, 4'358" 7'758".Staatliche Museen zu Berlin,Preussischer Kulturbesitz,Gemldegalerie.

Forms seem to diminish in size as they recede from us. Parallel lines receding into the distance seem to converge, until they

meet at a point on the horizon line where they disappear. This point isknown as the vanishing point.

You can visualize this second idea if you remember gazing down a straighthighway. As the highway recedes farther from you, the two edges seem todraw closer together, until they disappear at the horizon line (4.43).

The development of linear perspective profoundly changed how artistsviewed the picture plane. For medieval European artists, as for Indian artists,a painting was primarily a flat surface covered with shapes and colors. ForRenaissance artists, it became a window onto a scene. The picture plane wasreconceived as a sort of windowpane, and the painted view was imagined asreceding from it into the distance.

Renaissance artists took up linear perspective with as much delight asa child takes up a new toy. Many paintings were created for no other reasonthan to show off the possibilities of this new technique (4.44). Here, the linesof the stone pavement lay bare the mechanics of linear perspective. We canactually observe the receding lines growing closer, and we can easily con-tinue them in our imagination until they converge at a central point on thehorizon, where the sea meets the sky. The rooflines of the various buildingsconverge at the same point, as do the lines that divide the ceiling of the cov-ered portico in the immediate foreground.

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Leonardo da Vinci used linear perspective to construct a very similarspace for his portrayal of The Last Supper (4.45). It was, above all, the mea-surable quality of the space created through linear perspective that intriguedRenaissance artists. Here, regular divisions of the ceiling measure out therecession just as the regular divisions of the pavement did in the precedingexample.

Painted on a monastery wall in Milan, The Last Supper depicts the finalgathering of Jesus Christ with his disciples, the Passover meal they sharedbefore Jesus was brought to trial and crucified. Leonardo captures a partic-ular moment in the story, as related in the Gospel book of Matthew in theBible. Jesus, shown at the center of the composition, has just said to hisfollowers: One of you shall betray me. The disciples, Matthew tells us,were exceeding sorrowful, and began every one of them to say unto him,Lord, is it I?

In Leonardos portrayal, each of the disciples reacts differently to theterrible prediction. Some are shocked, some dismayed, some puzzledbutonly one, only Judas, knows that, indeed, it is he. Falling back from Jesuswords, the traitor Judas, seated fourth from the left with his elbow on thetable, clutches a bag containing thirty pieces of silver, his price for handingover his leader to the authorities.

To show this fateful moment, Leonardo places the group in a large ban-quet hall, its architectural space constructed in careful perspective. Clothhangings on the side walls and panels in the ceiling are drawn so as to recedeinto space. Their lines converge at a vanishing point behind Jesus head, atthe exact center of the picture. Thus, our attention is directed forcefullytoward the most important part of the composition, the face of Jesus. Thecentral opening in the back wall, a rectangular window, also helps to focusour attention on Jesus and creates a halo effect around his head.

In the hands of the greatest artists, perspective became a vehicle formeaning, just as any other visual element. Here, for example, it is correct tosay that the space is constructed so that the lines converge at a vanishingpoint in the distance behind Christs head. But if we view the painting as aflat surface, we see that these lines can also be interpreted as radiating fromChrists head, as all of creation radiates from the mind of God. Leonardo haspurposefully minimized Christs shoulders so that his arms, too, take part inthe system of radiating lines. Spreading his hands, then, God opens space tothis moment, which He had foreseen since the beginning of time.

4.45 Leonardo da Vinci. The LastSupper (after restoration). c.149597. Fresco, 15'118" 28'1012".Refectory, Santa Maria delle Grazie,Milan.

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