Pictorial Space throughout Art History: Cézanne and ... - ARAS

ARAS Connections Issue 2, 2012
Pictorial Space
In a self portrait by Rembrandt (plate 8) pictorial space is apparent around
the head and shoulders. In the portrait by the Master of Moulins (plate 11) there
is a pronounced sense of air circulating around the form.
When a painting is not plastic the forms are cramped and fused to each
other. There is no pictorial space and the picture does not breathe. I see such
fusion in the center of Juan Gris' still life (plate 6). Braque's still life is shown for
contrast on the same page. There I see air circulating between the planes.
Fry said of a still-life by Cézanne:
Braque said:
One suspects a strange complicity between these objects, as though they
insinuated mysterious meanings by the way they are extended on the
plane of the table and occupy the imagined picture space. Each form
seems to have a surprising amplitude, to permit our apprehending it with
an ease that surprises us, and yet they admit a free circulation in the
surrounding space |38|.
What particularly attracted me - and this was the main bearing of
Cubism - was the materialization of this new space that I felt to be in the
offing ... for this was the first concern of Cubism, the investigation of
space |39|.
Creating pictorial space
We know the technique of painters such as Cézanne, Matisse, Picasso,
Braque, Hofmann, and Casper. They all worked slowly, making repeated changes.
Cézanne did not overlay as much as the others but he built up his pictures very
slowly with tiny additions.
The images in this paper are strictly for educational use and are protected by United States copyright laws. 29
Unauthorized use will result in criminal and civil penalties.