Vitality, Perception, and Perfection

Vital energy in pieces of art creates a feeling of life and movement for the observer. In regards to mythology and literature depicted in images, elements and technique used by the artist in its creation heighten the sense of divinity or importance. Simple sketch works generally use gesture technique, as gestural drawings are “flexible, spontaneous, and continuously open to reevaluation, adjustment, and refinement” (Curtis 35.) Gestural lines are quick and in itself reflect the energy of the artist. Rembrandt famously utilizes intuitive gesture in his sketches. For instance his Peter at the Deathbed of Tabitha incorporates a variance in line weight between thin and thick lines, though there is little attention on exact detail as the focus is the relationship of the forms and the space they occupy. More complex images can revolve around a cultural tradition or belief; the Egyptians would leave hieroglyphic images unfinished to prevent the depicted object from escaping during the night from the tomb walls on which they were placed. The subjects of these images were thought to hold power of life, and were treated as though they did. Blessed figures were shown with an entire face which was thought to make a full spiritual connection with an observer. Dangerous figures were usually shown half profile to protect the viewer, or a line was drawn down its center to neutralize the harm they represented. Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray, portrays an aging portrait while the subject, Mr. Gray, stays young himself. The Greek myth of Pygmalion is of an artist rewarded for his appreciation of realistic, lifelike beauty by the goddess Venus, as she brings a statue of his to life. Unlike the Egyptian belief, “completeness has traditionally been understood to generate a unique visual power” (Curtis 43.) In regards to the rendition of life in artwork, the elements of line, depicted motion and realistic beauty are aspects that create a vital energy. 

Perception concerns an accurate depiction of depth and form, and throughout history different techniques and tools have been created to correctly measure space that is viewed. Gestalt principles depend on a subject’s response to an entire image instead of individual parts. However, general placement is not the same as perceived depth and the expansion into space. In the 15th century, Leon Battista Alberti created a tool to measure proportions of objects with the naked eye. Similar to what we know of the rule of thirds, his design is known as the Perceptual Grid, which consisted of weaving thread into parallel squares inside a frame. The artist would use the window and duplicate the objects behind onto a drawing surface having the same number of squares, creating an accurate scale of the picture plane. This technique makes it possible to copy the superimposed object onto an image that the observer experiences with illusionistic space. Likewise, Piet Mondrian had created a simplified perceptual grid tool. It consisted of a straight edge the artist held before their eyes that aligned to either the vertical or horizontal axis (x and y axes). This would help project objects from the field of vision onto the drawing surface. This sense of objects in space is actually` an illusion created by the artist. Famous illusionist M.C. Escher concentrated on spatial and depth relationships, though in abstract, distorted images based on realistic perceptions. He would reference a flat, stationary plane and created a curvilinear effect for his figures, giving the sense of a change in the line of sight to the observer.             

Artists, scientists, and philosophers alike delved into the study of the mathematic proportions of figures, searching for a perfect arrangement sequence. The proportion that connects scientific and mathematical characteristics with artistic balance is known as the Golden Mean. It utilized sacred geometric rules which ancient Greeks believed to perfectly create the ideals of visual beauty- proportion, symmetry, and harmony. Phidias, an Athenian sculptor from 5^th century B.C., was a famed architectural designer of monuments of the Greek Gods, whom were depicted in the ideal human form. The Greek letter for “phi” is named after him, as it is a perfectly symmetrical letter. In 6^th century B.C., Greek mathematician Pythagoras stated “that the essence of all things was accessible through simple mathematics” (Curtis 95.) His statement pertained to the use of geometry, which in Greek means “to measure the Earth.” Therefore using geometric measurement to create and duplicate perceived objects would be considered the most accurate in a proportional relationship. . A famed piece that strongly utilizes the Golden mean is Creation of Adam by Michelangelo. Common in Renaissance art, the figures are depicted in the nude, ideal form of male anatomy; use of the Golden Mean is shown with proportion and the arrangement of elements in the work. There is one point of focus where the two figures touch, and the image is split into sides on the opposite ends. Leonardo DaVinci’s Vitruvian Man studies the male anatomy split into sections using geometric shapes. Encircled, the body is split to show symmetry with centered lines from a focal point. The period after the Renaissance slightly strayed from the exactness of religious ideals, as shown in Claude Lorraine’s A Seaport. Proportion is still utilized with aspects of geometry to follow the hermetic tradition. His image depicts the rising sun over the horizon line on the edge of the sea, using the Golden Mean ratio to place the location of the horizon and the sun. In the middle ages, Fibonacci proposed a significant idea on the Greek’s golden mean. The Greeks had used straight edged lines and rectangles to create a perfect proportional relationship, but there was no numerical system to explain the measurements. His sequence consisted of a series of numbers where each following number is the sum of the previous two numbers.