12/31/2023 0 Comments Enter the vortex art of illusionAnalysis of early tool-making techniques suggests that creating 3D objects (sculptures and reliefs) involves their cognitive deconstruction into a series of surfaces, a principle that could have been applied to early sculpture. The creation of images from the imagination, or ‘the mind’s eye’, required a seminal evolutionary change in the neural structures underpinning perception this change would have had a survival advantage in both tool-making and hunting. 3D art may have begun with human likeness recognition in natural objects, which were modified to enhance that likeness some 2D art has also clearly been influenced by suggestive features of an uneven surface. Zig-zag and criss-cross patterns, nested curves and parallel lines are the earliest known patterns to have been created separately from the body their similarity to entopic phenomena (involuntary products of the visual system) suggests a physiological origin. The earliest known evidence of ‘artistic behaviour’ is of human body decoration, including skin colouring with ochre and the use of beads, although both may have had functional origins. The origins of art are therefore much more ancient and lie within Africa, before worldwide human dispersal. The 2D and 3D art forms that were created by Upper Palaeolithic Europeans at least 30 000 years ago are conceptually equivalent to those created in recent centuries, indicating that human cognition and symbolling activity, as well as anatomy, were fully modern by that time. The components of art include colour, pattern and the reproduction of visual likeness. His intended treatment of the scene is all of a piece with its subject and provides us with an opportunity to engage intimately in the mechanics of the story – to dwell on the letter and imagine its impact.Creating visual art is one of the defining characteristics of the human species, but the paucity of archaeological evidence means that we have limited information on the origin and evolution of this aspect of human culture. This would have almost certainly been interpreted as a reference to romance – a reference reinforced by the presence of the canopy-tented bed in the background of the painting – and a clear suggestion that the letter being drafted is not a military communiqué, but a billet doux.īy removing the playing card, Ter Borch rendered the meaning of the picture more subtle, more mysterious. Over time the pigment in this area of the canvas has become transparent and revealed that hidden clue, a playing card on the floor beside the bored-looking spaniel: the ace of hearts. The artist originally included in the picture a clue to its meaning, but ultimately he decided to paint it out. The National Gallery website suggests that the messenger's faintly amused expression and the way he catches our eye creates a conspiratorial air. In the earlier of the two paintings, a young officer dictates a letter to a subordinate while a blue-jerkined messenger stands off to the right. Gerard ter Borch the younger (1617–1681) The National Gallery, London It also led me to think about paintings depicting the writing, delivery and reading of letters: the whole art of correspondence. Other items include a quill pen, a penknife, a stick of sealing wax and a tortoiseshell comb, and everything is held in place by a series of horizontal leather straps against a raw pine board made up of two vertical planks.Ĭollier's enigmatic trompe l'oeil letter – stamped 'NO|29' but devoid of a name and address – started me thinking about personal or informal letters and their place in our lives today. In addition to the folded London newspaper and broadsheet in this painting, there is a letter sealed with three pieces of red wax, one of them impressed with a profile head, and a folded paper inscribed 'Memorye'. Many variations of it are known, with similar objects differently arranged, but always with different dates and printed texts. The entry on the painting in the Tate Gallery's Illustrated Catalogue of Acquisitions 1984–1986 tells us that the illusionistic letter rack was one of Collier's favourite subjects. A Trompe l'oeil of Newspapers, Letters and Writing Implements on a Wooden Board
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