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

ARAS Connections Issue 2, 2012
The overall effect is of dignity and order. The Queen's head is located
majestically at the focal point of an ordered universe.
In Degas' portrait pictorial space is confused. The strong diagonal from the
lower left foreground to the upper right background is not contained: it creates a
hole in the background of the canvas. The composition would work better if the
footstool were removed. The figure seems cramped and compressed by the forms
around it.
Plate 5: Canaletto and The Alunno di Benozzo
These two paintings are compared to show the limitations of realism and
perspective. One painting is from before the Renaissance and the other from after
it. On its own terms, as a realistic picture of a river scene, Canaletto's painting is
Plate 5-1 Canaletto. Venetian. Dolo on the Brenta.
1697-1768, Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart.
vivid and beautiful. But the
canvas surface functions as
though it were a pane of
glass. My eye is drawn
back to the distant
buildings and then to the
sky beyond: these form a
deep hole in the canvas
from which there is no way
back.
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