How Do We See Figures?

  3200 years ago ancient Egyptians conveyed the idea of a human form by presenting it as a complex pictograph ( my example shows you the jackal faced deity, Anubis weighing the heart of a man at his death). The body was seen in  full frontal view while the head and feet were seen in side view because, we conceptually think of a body in the full frontal view not, in profile but, we think of a head or hands in both a side view and front view. We conceptually think of a foot from  the side view which explains  why it is so difficult to render a 3/4 view or direct foreshortened view of a foot( or a hand). Those points of view are contrary to our model or paradigm image of a foot or hand.  The ancient Greeks wanted to show a figure from a particular point of view thus making that figure a unique individual and the vantage point of the viewer  unique as well.  Such a presentation required a new visual language of perspective, a new form.  This was a true paradigm shift. There aren’t many. But, we don’t shed our habits so easily.  We all still visually think like those ancient Egyptians even Albrecht Durer in 1500 whose perspective example is here.  Durer shows we still rely on our old schema for presenting figures even inside the new form of perspective. We still think like ancient Egyptians. Durer shows a standing figure with the standard Egyptian head in profile and the body in full front view and, the arms and legs  in some degree of extension to  legibly reveal their parts and identity.   Only a foot is presented in 3/4 view; Durer has clothed an Egyptian with German  Renaissance garb.   His other seated figure is more complex requiring skills of linear perspective with the leg and foot seen in a foreshortened view and the face in a 3/4 view but, still the body faces forward.  Just like the Egyptians’ demand for clarity, Durer also clearly outlined his figures. In my final example I illustrate our evolution toward the acceptance of  ambiguity in the presentation of figures. My painting shows our human predisposition to see or project figures ( human bodies) in areas of a uncertainty or ambiguity . If we look into a stew or a collection of clouds or, a cluster of leaves we will see faces and figures.  My figures are a vague amalgam of forms blended together but, offering a few references to salient human parts like legs and heads.  The remainder of the human form is projected by you, the viewer.