The Ever-Present Origin - Michael Goodnight - Editor

tot, "dead," is readily apparent. But let us forget the totality with itsnefarious character; it is not the whole. Andalthoughthe whole can nolonger even be approached from the perspectival position, thewhole, aswe shall see further on, is again being approached in novel ways from theaperspectival attitude.Perspectivation, let us remember, also includes a reduction; and thisreductive nature is evident, for instance, in perspectival man'spredominantly visual or sight orientation in contrast to unperspectivalman's audial or hearing orientation. The basis of the perspectival worldview is the visual pyramid; the two lines extend fromthe eyes and meet atthe object viewed. The image formed by the isolated sector includes thesubject, the object, and the space in between. Pierodella Francesca clearlyexpresses this in his remark: "The first is the eye that sees; the second,the object seen; the third, the distance between the one and the other."On thisPanofsky comments: "It [perspective] furnished a place for thehuman form to unfold in a life-like manner and move mimically[which isequivalent to the discovery of space]; but it also enabled light to spreadand diffuse in space [the illumination of space is the emergence of spatialawareness] and permitted considerable freedom in the treatment of thehuman body. Perspective provides a distance between man and objects."Such detachment is always a sign of an emergent objectifyingconsciousness and of the liberation of previously innate potentialities thatare subsequently rediscovered and realized in the outer world.This example again suggests to what extent perspective is the mosttangible expression of an entire epoch. The basic concern of perspective,which it achieves, is to "look through" space and thereby to perceive andgrasp space rationally. The very word "perspective" conveys this intent, asDürer suggests: "Besides,perspectiva is a Latin term meaning `seeingthrough." It is a "seeing through" of space and thus a coming to awarenessof space. It is irrelevant here whether we accept Dürers interpretation andtranslate perspicere(from which perspectiva derives) in his sense as"seeing through," or render it, with Panofsky, as "seeing clearly." Bothinterpretations point to the same thing. The emergent awareness ofdistantiating space presupposes a clear vision; and this heightening ofawareness is accompanied by an increase of personal or egoconsciousness.This brings us back to our thesis about the antithetical nature ofperspective; it locates the observer as well as the observed. Panofsky toounderscores this dualistic, antithetical character: "The history ofperspective [may be] considered equally as a triumph of the Sense ofreality with its detachment and objectivation, and as a triumph of humanstriving for power with its negation of distances, just as it can be Seen as aprocess of establishing and systematization of the external world and anexpansion of the ego sphere." Let us for now postpone a discussion of hiscritical term "power expansion," although he has here noted an essentialaspect of perspectival man, and turn back to Leonardo da Vinci on whomDürer (as Heinrich Wölfflin points out) indirectly based his understanding.21