Inviting The Viewer Through an Arch

From Caves to Curving Trees to Greco-Roman architecture arches have served as a frame to invite the viewer into the picture, a portal for the imagination. Examples reach from antiquity to contemporary paintings.  Simon Schama wrote of  this history in his “Landscape And Memory”.  Art historians since Vasari  have commented  the role of the arch and, employed it as a design device.  Here are examples of artists using the arch form as a unifying design device and a mechanism to invite the viewer into another world. Observe in these examples how other design tools like linear perspective, or complementary color contrast or value contrasts or a wending serpentine path  all coordinate with the arch in building a successful image.  In example 1,  the 18th century Venetian artist Francesco Guardi  used linear perspective in aligning his buildings toward a focal arch. Notice the space within the arch is light and the walls and street are dark.  The light in the arch beckons to us.  In example 2, a watercolor sketch made  75 years later by J.M.W. Turner uses a simplified ( almost abstract) darkened surround to the arch which  is  filled with light. Both Turner’s image and Guardi’s were paintings of Venice.  Or, a generation later in example 3 observe how Corot guides our attention to the light by following the linear perspective of a country lane through an archway of trees.  Again, the archway frames a luminous patch. In example 4, John Singer Sargent has two pathways and two archways in his painting. Along the left side we follow a serpentine path to a lustrous opening and, in the center-right section we move between two framing trees to a patch of  reflected violet light on the river.

example 1.

example 2.

example 3.

example 4.

I used this principle of a dark framing arch when composing these recent photographs in Yosemite last week.  The arch was remade into a rectilinear opening is some examples.  In example 5, I use a dark arching surround of trees to frame a luminous meadow beyond.  In examples 6 and 7, I use the curving shapes of trailside walls  to give more movement to the image. Notice that I preserve the idea of  moving toward the light.  In example 8, a photo taken along the Oregon Coast  near Coos Bay, I again curve the path to the light and emphasize the transition from dark foreground to luminous distance as if they were two different worlds.  In example 9 I have abstracted the arch  by shaking the camera as I snapped the shutter. The blurred effect offers  a greater sense of movement.  I also inverted the idea of a darkened arch framing a luminous distance. This image has part of the framing arch ( more triangle than arch) offer the greatest luminosity in the image but, I still retain the sensation of moving toward the light by crossing a shadowing threshold.

example 5. 

example 6.

example 7.

example 8.

example 9.

In this last example, a painting of mine (oil on aluminum), I placed the light in the arch in the upper area of the painting and, placed a reciprocal pool of light at the bottom to reflect the blurred light from above.

example 10.