Art Exhibitions - The Illusion of Space

Painters work with two dimensions- height and width. If they want to show depth in their painting an artist must create the illusion of space.

This week 7th and 8th grade visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art to observe and compare art from the medieval galleries and the modern art galleries. This is in preparation for their first exhibition of the year, an oral presentation and essay comparing two art works.

The earliest paintings and drawings typically size many objects and characters according to their spiritual or thematic importance, not their distance from the viewer.

Medieval artists in fourteenth century Europe, used non-linear perspective to show depth: position on the picture plane, overlapping, size variation and a change in color intensity and value to replicate atmospheric change. 

Hunting with a Hawk, tapestry

Perspective Drawing for Church of Santo Spirito, Florence
Filippo Brunelleschi

In about 1413, Filippo Brunelleschia, a leading architect of the Italian Renaissance, demonstrated the geometrical method of perspective by painting the outlines of various Florentine buildings onto a mirror. When the building's outline was continued, he noticed that all of the lines converged on the horizon line. This is called linear perspective. 

In our visit to the Modern Galleries we are considering whether modern artists of the early 20th Century continued to embrace, or began to reject, linear perspective in their paintings.  

East River from the Shelton Hotel
Georgia O'Keeffe

While seventh and eighth grade prepare for their exhibition, this term all middle school students will practice the technique of one-point perspective to create a 3D drawing of the interior of a room.