Tuesday 3 February 2015

AS Edexcel Art Relationships - Anamorphic Projection

Anamorphic Projection

Anamorphosis is a distorted projection or perspective requiring the viewer to occupy a specific vantage point to view the image properly


Hans Holbein's The Ambassadors (National Gallery London)

If you view this painting from the bottom left hand corner (it was originally painted to be displayed over a staircase...so as if you were walking up the stairs from left to right)


Then this is how you would see the skull ( mistakes are due to it being restored by painters less skilled than Holbein in the 19th Century, still they also painted out the huge cod pieces so they got some things right)


Any painting that uses one or two point perspective uses anamorphic projection, because you have to stand in a particular position - have a particular relationship in the way you are placed - for the painting to work