The cinema as a graphic art : on a theory of representation in the cinema (1959)

THE CINEMA AS A GRAPHIC ART Raphael also similarly abandoned the logic of construction (the boat in the pictur " The Miraculous Draught of Fishes " is small out of all proportion to the figures' The same can be said of Leonardo da Vinci (" Secret of the Evening ") and all th other great masters. In his picture " Secret of the Evening " Leonardo da Vinci did not subject certai: details to the general law of perspective composition. For instance, the distribution of th crimson carpets on the walls and the foreshortening of the plate standing on the table By these means the artist was able to conceal the lack of correspondence between the seal of the figures and the architecture. Leonardo da Vinci put too many carpets on the walls so creating the impression of depth. As for the plate on the table, in relation to the con struction as a whole it is not given the foreshortening it should have if the laws of linea perspective were to be strictly observed. But because of this seeming geometrical error the image of the plate most substantially transmits the easily recognised and most customar form of the object, for we most easily recognise the content of that pictorial representatioi of objects to which we are visually accustomed. There are further examples of this abandonment of the rules of linear perspective ii Raphael's picture " The School of Athens ", in which the columns of the portico seen unusually high in relation to the figures, yet in reality do not exceed twice the height o a man. Farther on, in a comment on the German art historian Schreiber,1 Wolfi makes the following remarks concerning Albrecht Diirer's picture " Saint Jerome in his Study ". However, if Jerome were to stand up, we should be greatly surprised. For he would prove to be a disproportionate figure with short legs and an exaggeratedly long torso. The saint would almost reach the ceiling, and his hat, hanging above him on the wall, would be incredibly large for his head. Such discrepancies between the foreshortenings, the scale of the figures and the surroundings, in works of which the artistic quality and compositional unity are unviolated, are a frequent phenomenon in the history of art. Wolff's book provides a detailed analysis of them. We are interested not so much in determining the actual fact of departure from the laws of true geometrical perspective in any one pictorial production as in the reasons which led the artist to ignore those laws. We shall consider the example already referred to : Diirer's work " St. Jerome in his Study ". If Diirer had exactly retained a true geometrical perspective, the figure sitting at the table would either have been completely lost in the room, or, if it had been brought nearer, only part of the wall with fortuitous bits of furniture and utensils would have been visible behind the large figure of St. Jerome. But the content of the work demanded the expressive isolation of the figure of Jerome against the surroundings presented in detail, and emphasising by their character the specific atmosphere of philosophic contemplation and profound peace. Obviously the psychological effect would have been lost if the artist had not ignored certain laws of linear perspective. So that in pictorial art the problem of the expressive organisation of space is not infrequently resolved at the expense of a certain deviation from the laws of linear perspective. Is such an arbitrary modification of perspective relationships possible in photography also ? The photographic lens in its normal application will always give us a representation defined and limited by the laws of optics, in the sense of transmitting a geometrical perspective. The task is also complicated by the fact that the angle of vision of the present-day cinematic lens also has its limits. For these reasons, as a means of effecting arbitrary changes in the perspective inter-relationships 1 Schreiber, Malerische Perspektiv. — N. 52