It’s all a matter of perspective. In Alice Chase’s book “Looking at Art”, she analyzes how artists of different time periods viewed their art. Specifically, in this essay discussion will center on two chapters, “The Artist Look at the View” and “The Artist Looks at People and Space. Chase uses many examples to illustrate her point, with the book being full of pictures of artwork. In this way the reader can more accurately see what the artist sees, and thus, the art.

In the third chapter of “Looking at Art”, entitled “The Artist Looks at the View”, Chase analyzes how different artists in different time periods tried to accurately illustrate and use landscapes. She starts by briefly outlining the challenges of drawing scenery, before delving into ancient Egyptian and Assyrian paintings. These peoples drew things in profile, with Chase stating that the scenes were “a kind of map”. Skipping past the Greeks, the Romans used fanciful, imagined landscapes to further whatever point they were trying to get across. Jumping to the East, the Chinese believed landscapes held great importance because they “suggested both the moods of man and the infinity of God”. The Chinese would use different types of brushstrokes to illustrate elements of the landscape in order to differentiate between them. The medieval period is not discussed in any detail, and as the Italian painters of the early Renaissance used landscape mainly as a setting for the main figures and story of the painting, the Dutch are the next culture illuminated. The Dutch and Flemish artists often put their stories off to the sides of their paintings, as in Pieter Bruegel’s “Death of Saul at the Battle of Gilboa”, where Saul and his son’s suicides are placed in the bottom-left of the page as the battle rages through the middle. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, drawing landscapes became more popular, and the Dutch once again were the main proponents. A certain style evolved, using “modification of tones” to draw what were often “brownish landscapes”. In the nineteenth century, it became vogue in Britain for “gentlemen to order paintings of their country estates”, and here more interesting and brighter colors began to be used. This translated across the ocean to America, where landscapes were often painting not only factually, but in a manner that would convey “bigness, distance, fertility”. As time wore on and painting grew more and more realistic, some artists such as van Gogh came to view art as a representation of the artists’ “thoughts and feelings”.

In the following chapter, entitled “The Artist Looks at People and Space”, Chase analyzes how artists throughout history have attempted to draw people and things in a more realistic perspective. Once again starting with the ancient Egyptians, Chase states that they “made the human figure into a sort of map”. This allowed the Egyptians to show what was happening, but not with any sort of realism. The Assyrians also drew people in profile, as did the Greeks, although “by the fifth century B.C. bodies had started being drawn to indicate the third dimension”. Italian paintings form the last centuries B.C. show a use of shadows for the first time, although there is evidence this was derived from earlier Greek works. Once again moving ahead to the Renaissance, the issues of perspective and foreshortening became important, as artists desired to draw in a more realistic manner. Through the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, artists rapidly improved their abilities, with “the ceiling of the Church of St. Ignazio” being an example of “superb technical skill”. Meanwhile, in the Far East, the Chinese and Japanese used an isometric perspective. This method has no vanishing point, and is used by “the Western world to show the structure of a building”. Chase concludes by stating that there is no right or wrong way to use perspectives, as different types are useful for different things.

Arts in NYC – Steven Graff

Luis Feliciano

9/17/14

Looking at Art

Art is the expression of human ideas and imagination. The visual arts come in many different forms, such as sculptures or paintings. Looking for Art by Alice Elizabeth Chase tackles different situations that artists have faced since the origins of art. Over time they have crafted special techniques and forms to vividly recreate landscapes and people.

Chapter 3 is all about scenery – how artists illustrate backgrounds, foregrounds, and how they differ from one another. When one artist sees a view, they remember and paint it differently than other artists would do so. Different artists emphasize different parts of their world such as prioritizing which objects get brighter colors and their positions within the frame. This shows how everybody sees things differently. Ten people can look at the same scene, but remember it and depict in ten, very different ways.

For example, Egyptians first started off by painting literally what they saw. They focused on accurately drawing shapes of objects, almost seemingly drawing things in the form of maps. This method lacks the beauty found in nature. Things are essentially drawn as geometrical figures, but in nature things aren’t really found like that. Objects come in different shapes and sizes, with a wide assortment of colors. By the middle of the nineteenth century, artists began to use their eyes as photographers used cameras – merely to see. Artists realized that what they drew didn’t just have to be a representation of what they saw, but more of an expression of their own thoughts and feelings.

On the other hand, chapter 4 is all about portraying the human body and perspective. At first, artists did not take into account perspective. For this reason, many of their paintings represented humans in two dimensions. The Egyptians for example, wanted to create a method of drawing human bodies, which represented the face with a profile view, the shoulders with a front view, and the legs with a side view. Paintings in Italy from the second or first century B.C. were the first works of art to incorporate shadow. This gave the people in the paintings depth and added a sense of realism to the entire work.

With respect to perspective, artists had trouble painting what they saw, while also maintaining accuracy in their work. As a building vanishes into the distance, it appears smaller although in reality it is not smaller. Creativity was often sacrificed for accuracy. Soon people started to look for scientific reasoning. Here came the different forms of perspective. The two main forms of perspective are one-point and two-point perspective. One-point perspective involves putting a point, generally in the middle of the painting, and having everything in the painting fade away towards that one point. Two-point perspective is the same as one point perspective, but just using two different points. This added more realism, but even then people realized that this “vanishing” perspective method could sometimes appear unrealistic. The human eye does not look towards one, or even two points. It is constantly moving around looking at various things from all sorts of angles. Take a step forward, or backward, and things look even more different. This is what makes art so unique. There are no right or wrong ways to depict a scene; there are no right or wrong answers.

“Looking at Art” by Anne Elizabeth Chase

Artistic perspective all over the world differs, and thus the styles used to portray the same subject are most likely going to be as different as their respective principles. Simply put, a cat drawn by an American will be different than the very same cat drawn by a German. For the chapters assigned, Chase compares and contrasts certain techniques and types of art globally.

Chapter 3:

In this particular chapter, Chase focuses on the cultural purposes of a landscape, throughout the world, and through the ages.

Some countries, such as the Greeks did not find much use for landscapes other than a setting for the subject; a landscape in Greek art was seldom a subject itself, if at all. Other cultures seemed to give landscapes a more important role. Conquering Romans and English heirs used landscapes as a way to show off their wealth. Meanwhile, the Chinese and the medieval folk saw landscapes as a connection from man to the divine.

Chase explores the methods used for the intents of the artist that will, for the most part, conform to the societal expectations at the time and place.

According to Chase, Pieter Bruegel’s view on landscape is that, “Man with his myriad activities was merely an incident in a great and beautiful world where his daily routine, his joys and griefs, were relatively unimportant.” (Chase 23, 25). Chase maintains, “Nowhere does Bruegel make one feel this more than in his “Death of Saul” (Figure 22). The armies of Israel are losing the battle to dense hordes of Philistines. Saul and his son and armor-bearer have fled to a cliff-top where, seeing defeat and capture inevitable, father and son have killed themselves. The tragedy is told by tiny figures in the foreground, not centered as one would expect, but far to the left. Beyond the struggle spreads a serene green valley through which a river winds towards a distant city.” (Chase 25).

This kind indepth analysis of Bruegel’s “Death of Saul” is something Chase makes consistently with other pieces of art referenced in this chapter, and as we would find it, in the following chapter.

Chapter 4:

In this chapter, Chase goes into the technique of perspective itself. Here, Chase makes the artist out to be an amateur photographer, in terms of having the right poses or the right angle or the right lighting all at once.

For a long time, artists have had a difficult time trying to replicate the real life perspective that they have, since they aren’t afforded the luxury of having the perfect subject. Some artists, especially those in the ancient times, did not really care much for accuracy of depth because they would rather paint as they know the object to be, not as it seems. But as time passed, more and more artists began to seek the scientific accuracy of perspective and depth.

Attaining the three dimensions we are accustomed to today was not an easy road. At first, the Greeks did foreshortening of some limbs correctly, but the final result was a bit awkward. Next, the Romans used shadows, with shading, to indicate depth.

Finally, we reach vanishing points. All lines must lead to the vanishing point. If there are multiple vanishing points, then only some lines lead to a single point, not necessarily all the points.

There have been some tricks with distortion that would also indicate depth.

Eastern art uses parallel lines instead of vanishing points, with a method called the Oriental isometric scheme. In the Western world, this is mainly used for architectural purposes, because it is easier to see the interior and exterior of buildings.

“Looking At Art” is an illustrated book by Alice Elizabeth Chase. Beginning in Chapter 3, the author speaks of how we view scenary. From a height, we are able to see that surrounding objects are “big and clear”, but those objects that are distanced greatly from us appear smaller and more dull. Even the color we perceive mountains to be is due to the distance we see them from and dust particles which make them seem blue or lavender. It makes me think of the Blue Ridge Mountains, which now I believe are not blue at all.

She goes on to say that while a camera simply takes a picture of the exact way things are at a moment, artists are faced with the difficult task of confinement when painting a landscape, whether due to the dimensions of a canvas or a wall. He also has to make a landscape have a greater significance, which he can do however he pleases. I would be nervous that the things I find significant would not be significant to others.

While ancient Egyptians sometimes used landscape paintings as a map, other ancients used them for different things. Though they both use the technique of profile to express things, the Assyrians featured victorious events in their pictures, such a King killing a lion. The Greeks used landscape paintings to accompany their poems or stories, but sometimes they just enjoyed bringing the aesthetics of the outdoors indoors. The Chinese too used landscapes to accompany their poems. The use of a proper brush stroke and coloring technique helps to allow for a better scenery.

Originally in early medieval times, Western religious paintings featured Saints in front of a gold background but later, by the fifteenth century, people became much more aware of secular affairs and the gold background was replaced by settings off fields, mountains, and sky. In certain areas, the landscape in the background was simply a setting for the characters of a painting, but in other places the landscape was just as important as the subjects in it.

Flemish artist Pieter Bruegel in the 16^th century was more concerned with men and their multiple activities were “merely an incident in a great and beautiful world”. In his painting, “Death of Saul”, the meat, if you will, of the horrific story in told by the figures in the foreground instead of the centered ones. The Dutch, in comparison, just enjoyed painting their countryside for their own pleasure. Whatever their motive was, they produced fine art. They were fascinated by the sky.

Artists began to develop formulas to paint landscapes, such as varying colors of different trees to make one’s eye jump from place to place to the horizon. In America, however, artists were very much disinterested in landscapes unless they were being used as backgrounds for portraits.

Chapter 4 goes on to speak of how “The Artist looks at People and Space”. While photographs can be cramped and crowded, artists have tried to develop techniques to avoid this crowded feeling. Some Ancient Civilizations such as those in Egypt and Mesopotamia used overlapping methods. They were painted in two dimensions as flat bodies, but in later Greek pottery dating about 4 B.C. we can see three dimensional etching occur.

Our perspective, or the way we view different aspects of our world both on a physical and subconscious level, helps us to comprehend the size, color, shape, and texture of everything around us. The representation of people’s expressions through art defines our culture because we can analyze how people feel and how people respond to certain facets of life. A general belief about all art is that it is comprised of three individual parts: the person viewing the art, the actual piece, and the artist himself. It is important to consider every single part when looking at art because each viewer can perceive an artist’s portrayal of an image differently. In Looking at Art, Alice Chase portrays the difference in the way artists have interpreted and expressed how they feel about different sceneries over time.
Throughout her work, Chase focuses on how artist from different points in history interpret what they see in order to convey their feelings through art. She begins with the Ancient Egyptians claiming that to an ancient Egyptian artist, the most salient aspects of his piece would be the shape of the garden pool and “its creatures swimming in it.” Ancient artist would see this photo as a kind of map. The pools would be rectangular because they were actually shaped like rectangles in reality. Zigzag lines represented ripples. Birds and fish would be depicted as profiles. These two-dimensional maps that ancient Egyptians created were literal representations of what Egyptian artists saw in their time period. In contrast to the Egyptians, the ancient Romans would depict cities that they conquered and gorgeous outdoor imagery. Chase writes, “The Empress Livia, wife of Augustus, had a “garden room” in which she could enjoy the illusion of being surrounded by a shady wood…The landscapes were never real but rather the fanciful imaginings of city dwellers who think of the county as a bright and happy world remote from turmoil.” She then goes on to compare these European and African artistic views to that of the Chinese. The Chinese created paintings that captured nature in its entirety. Nature played an essential role in Chinese religion so depicting nature with beauty and with such a massive persona was appropriate for illustrating the power of God. The Chinese used techniques such as varying brush strokes, shading, and multicolored objects. As art progressed into the 1800s, we began to see a more realistic interpretation of scenery. Painter began making pictures of their homes. They began traveling to undiscovered areas and illustrating what they saw. They paid more attention to light, color scheme, and shade in order to capture a sense of realism in all their paintings. The next era of art moved away from this replication of nature. Artists like Vincent van Gogh began making abstract images. The evolution of art and the way artists expressed what they saw helps us to analyze the change in culture over the course of history.
In the next chapter, Chases illustrates the evolution of art and understanding on the artists level and the viewer’s level. With regard to the Egyptians, we see only two-dimensional art with no regard to shadow. This helps the viewer to understand that this civilization was not advanced enough to develop the mental capacity to make shadows in their artwork. With Roman art, we began to see realism and accurate depictions of shadow and color shades. This evidence indicates that this civilization tried to produce what they had felt was a close replication of what they saw. Chase goes on to critique this artistry because she states that the viewer would realize that these realistic paintings lacked true perspective. They failed to represent the true meaning of art, which is how the artist feels about the piece rather than how it looks in reality.
The evolution of art throughout history should be looked at, at 3 different perspectives: the artist’, the viewers’, and the piece of art itself. From the two dimensional representations created by the ancient Egyptians to the abstract art created by artists such as Van Gogh, each piece is indicative of how the artist was feeling. Through the analysis of the evolution of art and perspective, we can develop an understanding of the cultures that existed before us today.

“The Artist Looks at the View”

As times have passed, so have the aspects that artists chose to incorporate into their work. Early civilization paintings, such as those of Egypt, were portrayed in a birds-eye view. There was no real mood or feeling present in the paintings. It was rather just a map, demonstrating to the people what objects were located in what places. However, as early as the 1500s, many cultures, such as the Chinese, started placing a lot of emphasis on the landscape of a painting. “…considered landscape the most important of subjects because it suggested the moods of man and the infinity of God.” (page 21). The background and nature in a painting is what sets the mood. Not only that, but it provides details to its viewers, as to where and what is taking place at a certain time period.

Most paintings displayed important events. Religious paintings were really famous especially in difficult times where people didn’t have anyone to turn to for help besides God. War paintings were also common. As cities started to establish themselves, paintings were starting to become much more realistic and patriotic. These works of art focused on the natural beauties of their countries, whether it was mountains, rivers, or hills. In America, paintings of The Rocky Mountains and the Delaware River were displayed. Artists started expressing more thoughts and ideas into their works. People started getting a deeper and richer sense of the nature around them. Many works of art were purposely made to teach a moral or story. As societies advanced, so did the paintings of many artists.

“The Artist Looks at People and Space”

Chapter 4 explains the problems that artists have faced overtime as they try adding more details to their art. Whether it is the position of a person, the placement of a shadow, or even the correct angle of a house, all have brought issues to artists. Similarly to Chapter 3, the author again starts by giving an example from the Egyptian civilization. The Egyptian artist tried demonstrating position on the photo by overlapping the people in it. (Figure 30) Based on the painting, it could be seen that the method Is somewhat effective, but more advancements were made to it in the upcoming centuries (1500s-1600s).

Foreshortening is one aspect that gives viewers a different perspective on a painting. The Greeks receive much credit for being the first people to incorporate this idea into paintings. “Not only are their feet, hands, and arms correctly foreshortened, but they stand on ground having visible depth, and they cast shadows on it and on the wall behind.” (page 41) Works of art became more in depth with the addition of foreshortening, which included light and shade. However, another problem that artists came upon is that of perspective. Objects seemed smaller in the background, and the colors were much brighter in the foreground. Unlike the Egyptians, the Greeks and Romans wanted “their art to show things as they looked.” Many architects from Italy in the 1600s started drawing diagrams to make the paintings clearer to understand to the naked eye. The drawing of diagrams later led onto isometric and many 3 dimensional paintings. The hardships faced by these artists were overcome and made art more enjoyable to the viewers.

Nicole Schneider

Through the study of art, it has become a common notion that a work of art is comprised of three individual parts responsible for its very existence: the artist, the viewer, and the art itself. Time and time again, we constantly mistake art as a fixed process in which an artist projects what he sees onto a surface, and the viewer holds all the “power” of interpretation. However, to really understand art, we must realize that the “process” is completely determined by the way the artist perceives and interprets the image he is attempting to convey.

In Looking at Art, by Alice Elizabeth Chase, Chase gives rise to a major challenge artists are faced with. She recognizes that each artist is tasked with the difficulty of trying to portray an image before him onto the confined surface of his canvas. Through careful analysis of various pieces of art from different cultures and time periods, Chase gives us some insight on the different methods artists have used throughout history in response to this challenge. She does this, specifically, by presenting the different ways artists throughout history have conveyed the vastness of landscapes and sceneries within the limits of exponentially smaller surfaces.

For example, she explains that ancient Egyptian artists tended not to focus on the details of a landscape. Rather their depictions can be compared to a map: a mere outline of a scene that lies before them. These artists emphasized the shapes of images and clear indications of how exactly the landscape appears. In addition, many Greek artists would convey landscapes as simply a “setting for human figures” (page 20), while ancient Roman artists would use landscapes to emphasize the greatness of heroes and the grandeur of the land they conquered. These landscapes were never true depictions of real-life images, rather depictions of how the city dwellers viewed their country as a “bright and happy world remote from turmoil” (page 20).

The Chinese were the first to view landscapes as a fundamental piece in art, because they believed it portrayed the emotions of a human being intertwined with the infinity of God. In addition, these Chinese artists tended to paint landscapes from an above view, so that the picture illustrated a sense of distance and vastness. On another note, Chase contrasts the landscape-painting of Italy, with that of the North. In Italy, landscapes showed nothing more than backgrounds for figures and stories. However, art from the North presented an equal significance in the painting’s setting and the figures within.

As Chase moves on to discuss landscape painting of medieval artists, she notes that the scenery begins to serve as an indication of the appraisal of God. Art from this time, as shown through many Flemish paintings, focuses on the beauty of every aspect of nature, demonstrating an appreciation of God’s creations and the recognition of God’s world. In addition, Chase includes a comparison of how artists of the 18^th and 19^th centuries went about landscape-painting – representing a contrast in the people’s interests and enthusiasm (or lack thereof) in exploring the countryside.

Eventually, great artists began to realize that art is not just an illustration of what one sees. Art is not meant to present to the viewer an image of a scene. Artists began to understand that art portrays much more: it allows the viewer to peak inside the artist’s soul, allowing him to view the artist’s emotions and perceptions. This resulted in a revolution where artists would use their paintings as a way of expressing ideas. For example, Chase uses the works of artists like Van Gogh and Cezanne to further prove this point.

By distinguishing the different ways artists of different eras and cultures painted and perceived landscape, Chase allows us to understand how important the role of an artist’s perception is in creating his art. To further this argument, Chase poses another problem artists are faced with: how to accurately depict figures in motion. Again, Chase uses an extensive analysis of how different artists attempted to achieve this.

The ancient Egyptians, just like in the case of landscape-painting, depicted figures in actions similarly to a map – by simply creating two dimensional profiles that lacked depth. However, to compensate for this, these artists would overlap the different figures of a given painting to suggest, at best, a slight sense of depth and movement. The Greek, on the other hand, used shadowing to indicate a third dimension. In addition, Chase saw that the 1^st and 2^nd century Italians drew figures using shading and light (page 40), in order to portray a more visible sense of depth. For example, these artists would shade certain areas of the figures so that one side was darker than the other, and then shadows near the darker areas.

Chase then identifies a third problem that artists, to this day, continue to struggle with: the problem of perspective. We already know that what we view from a distance appears smaller and less clear than what we see close up. Not only is it extremely difficult to depict that onto the minacity of a mere canvas, it is even more difficult to do so with accuracy. Throughout history, Chase points out, many artists used a “vanishing point” system, in which different part of the image would meet at a point in the “horizon,” in order to convey a certain sense of distance and dimension. While this system appears to be effective, much of the art of the ancient Romans and Greeks prove that this system of perspective is not always successful. Although it does “satisfy the casual glace” (page 42), it does not promise accuracy. The artists of the 15^th and 16^th centuries then attempted to formulate a fixed scientific scheme to solve this issue. However, this goal was later proven to be somewhat impossible, as there is no exact ay to illustrate a figure without compromising other aspects of the image (like distance and perspective). Chase then brings her argument to relate these attempts to that of today. Today, Chinese and Japanese artists use an oriental system called “isometric perspective,” where nothing comes together in a vanishing point, and the use of shadows is deemed unnecessary. Although this method in turn strips the viewer of a sense of accuracy, it has become an accepted style of portraying perspective by even West architects in drawings of buildings.

In summation, Chase’s argument gives the reader a taste of the complexity of the evolution of art. By presenting a few examples of some various methods artists throughout history have used to represent images in space, we are able to develop a greater understanding of the effect different cultures have on how an artist perceives a vision and portrays it.