Assignment #1 - perspective

Due Tuesday, January 26 (in class)

CS 99D - The Science of Art
Winter Quarter, 1999
Marc Levoy
Handout #5

Your first assignment is to write a 3-4 page double-spaced paper on one of the topics listed in the first section below. Alternatively, you may do one of the projects listed in the second section. However, if you do a project for this assignment, you must write a paper for the next one. (I will give you a similar set of choices for the next two assignments.) You may also choose another topic if you clear it with me in advance.

Papers must be typed or printed, not handwritten. They will be graded on effort, content, and style. In writing your paper, I encourage you to make use of the books listed in the course bibliography (handout #3). I have copies of each of these books, which I am willing to lend out. I also encourage you to make use of the Stanford Center library, which has an excellent collection of art history books. Finally, I am happy to meet with you, during office hours or by appointment, to discuss your paper and to offer suggestions for additional readings.

In addition to the written assignment, a few of you will be asked to briefly present your ideas in class on the due date. Your presentation is not intended to be a reading of your paper, but a proper talk. In other words, it should be lively and should engage the class in discussion.

Writing projects

• In the first chapter of The Science of Art, Kemp describes numerous instances of Renaissance artists who, knowing the rules of perspective, deviate from these rules. Examples include Masaccio's Trinity, Mantagna's ceiling in Mantua, and Mantegna's Dead Crist, which is also mentioned in Solso. What is your opinion on these deviations? Do you think they are errors or deliberate adjustments? In your opinion, do they enhance or detract from the work? Defend your position. Feel free to bring in other examples.
  
  
• Kemp analyzes Massacio's use of perspective in the Trinity fresco from both a technical standpoint and a programmatic standpoint - explaining how Massacio uses perspective to differentiate the mortal and immortal worlds. Apply Kemp's methods to analyze the use of perspective in a painting not covered in Kemp or in class. Gardner's book might be a good sourcebook from which to choose. Consider both technical and programmatic standpoints. I am not, however, expecting you to make a complete geometric analysis of the painting's perspectival construction as Kemp does; that would be more suitable for a final project.
  
  
• Helmholtz, in his brief but perceptive discussion of perspective on pp. 283-4, describes several cues that we did not consider in class and that are also not mentioned by Robert Solso. Confining yourself to perspectival cues, as opposed to light, shade, or color cues, make a list that combines the cues described by Helmholtz and by Solso. Arrange these into a multi-level taxonomy in the style of Solso's figure 7.4. What is the organizing principle of your taxonomy? Can you think of any additions?
  
  
• P. Steadman, in a paper reprinted in The Artful Eye, tries to prove that Vermeer used a camera obscura to generate the nearly perfect perspectives of his paintings, as many art historians have suspected. Part of his proof consists of building a physical replica of the room in which many of Vermeer's paintings are set. Read Steadman's account and make a critical evaluation of it. (I can lend you the book.) Do you think he is right? Why or why not?
  
  
• Write a "pamphlet", addressed to your fellow Renaissance artists, telling them why they should use the newly invented science of linear perspective in their paintings.
  
  
• Trace the historical development of projection systems, whether linear perspective or not, of a non-Western-European culture. This will require some additional research.

Some non-writing projects

• Make an accurate perspective drawing of a reasonably complicated three-dimensional scene. Use a "correct" linear perspective construction method such as the one presented in class. For this project, you will need to know key dimensions of your scene in both plan and elevation, so choose your scene carefully. A furnished but uncluttered bedroom has about the right amount of complexity.
  
  
• Build and demonstrate in class one of the perspective machines described in Chapter 4 of Kemp. Choose wisely. An artist's glass (as in figure 330) is too easy, and I already showed you one in class. Cigoli's machine (figure 351) might be too hard. I'd love to see a demonstration of the machines in figures 331 or 332. The pantograph in figure 355 also looks interesting.