Goldring Ol7

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OL WEEK 7

NANCY

GOLDRING

ON

PERSPECTIVE


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THE LONG VIEW by Nancy Goldring

INSCRIPTION FROM A STATUE OF KING DJOSER, THIRD

DYNASTY OF EGYPT BY MASSIMO SCOLARI.

Oblique Drawing:

A History of Anti-Perspective

While the study of artificial and natural perspective has

yielded a huge literature, its inverse has received only

sporadic attention. Massimo Scolari"s Oblique Perspective: A

History of Anti-Perspective intends to shift the balance by

redirecting our attention to non-(or anti)-perspective. As

architect, scholar, and artist, Scolari is eminently qualified for

the job.

Its wealth of historical material notwithstanding, Scolari"s

volume doesn"t qualify as a true history, nor does it offer an


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alternative to traditional methodologies in the field, despite its

avoidance of the standard chronological structure. In fact the fragile

framework imposed by chapter divisions proves unable to contain the

flow of text that meanders through time and place, turning back upon

itself as it wanders through Assyria, Egypt, China, etc. Scolari

dawdles in tangential discussions, leaping in what seems random

order from one example to the next. While each episode is engaging,

one finds no overarching principle or cohesive structure with which to

connect the tales. As a result, his story overwhelms when it should

instruct, perplexes when it should illuminate. The book is an

extravaganza of digression.


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In fact, this is not an entirely new topic. Yves-Alain Bois opened

the conversation with his excellent article, "Metamorphosis of

Axonometry," some 30 years ago. Unlike Scolari he restricted his

discussion to the rebirth of axonometry in the 20th century in the work

and writings of such avant-garde artists as Van Doesberg, Malevich,

and Lissitzky. He found the origins of axonometry in perspectival

treatises and scientific, cartographic, machine, and military


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illustrations. He then proceeded to suggest the relevance of these

early applications to 20th-century architectural practice. He spotted

the difficulty Scolari himself faces in attempting a comprehensive

survey, arguing that: There are several different $ideologies"of

axonometry. It has been used in many different, often contradictory

ways: Jesuit strategists of the 18th century used it quite differently

than Lissitzky, Albers, and painters of the Japanese Renaissance, or

Russian constructivist architects. Scolari may have seen the problem

but doesn"t resolve it.

Other troubling issues plague Scolari"s book. Oblique Drawing

promises to be a scholarly work with its encyclopedic text and

copious notes. But the reader has to wade through two dense

chapters before chancing on Scolari"s definition of his subject tucked

away in Footnote 88 in Chapter 3. This essential information surely

belongs in the main body of text, and his lengthy excursions into

different cultures would be better slipped into footnotes or even a

separate appendix. His many remarkable insights disappear in the

proliferation of information and the book fails to be user-friendly for

those accustomed to the ease of internet research.

Understanding images in their own time frame remains a

complicated task. Scolari struggles to tease the original meaning out

of the drawings by providing a wealth of apposite documents to guide

our interpretation of the fascinating little black and white illustrations

that pepper the text and notes. As an artist and scholar he is


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remarkably well suited to a purely visual analysis informed by his

wide knowledge. While we do learn much from his careful looking

when it is offered, he frequently falls back on the treatise as the sole

reliable source for deciphering meaning. As the late art critic and

philosopher Leo Steinberg explains in his essay The Mute Image

and the Meddling Text, such dependence solely on textual

interpretation may prove misleading and often produce disturbing

inaccuracies. Artists and architects tend to break rules or reinvent

them as they work.

Further along in the book Scolari examines some non-Western

proto-axonometic images. Though he dedicates some notable

pages to a discussion of Egyptian visual culture, he doesn"t indicate

how his exploration diverges from or expands upon the definitive

earlier work by the distinguished scholar Heinrich Schafer whom he

does cite. More significantly, he neglects Emma Brunner-Traut"s

epilogue that explains Schafer"s notion of aspective (her term), or

what Schafer believed to be the guiding principle in Egyptian

representation. Similarly, Scolari revisits much of the same material

that first appeared in Samuel Edgerton"s chapter on Jesuits in the

East in The Heritage of Giotto!s Geometrywithout contributing new

insights into the way misreading may alter our interpretation of

illusionism.

Scolari initiates a gripping exploration of some syncretic

manifestations of oblique perspective. Most studies on the subject


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occur in monographs on specific monuments such as the relief

spandrels that once decorated the facade on the temple of Amavarati

in India or the Theodosian Obelisk base in Istanbul. These works

reveal the complex way remnants of Greco-Roman perspective

systems combine with local forms to generate a new visual language

in which traces of older systems meld with newer ones for the

expressive needs of an evolving visual culture. Scolari"s brief

discussion of syncretism serves to identify the need for a more

profound investigation of this complex subjectone that might

include such literary sources as Orhan Pamuk"s historical murder

mystery My Name is Red. (The novel hinges on the exposure of the

betrayal of Turkish painters who secretly learned the perspective

technique of the infidel Frankish masters. The tale reveals the allure

of Western perspective for the miniaturists despite its static,

monocular system.) Scolari might have touched on the deeper issues

behind the way Western perspective challenges Eastern beliefs that

impel their mode of representing space.

Yet, despite its weaknesses this enormous compendium, a

result of his wide-ranging teaching and the conclusion of a long

personal involvement, does provide an excellent resource for artists,

architects, and historians. And, finally, what Oblique Perspectivedoes

achieve is to underscore the need for a more comprehensive study,

or perhaps even many studies.


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But the book"s greatest contribution is the way it enhances our

understanding and appreciation of Scolari"s exquisite drawings,

recently shown at Yale University School of Architecture. Here,

Scolari provides a full-page reproduction of Joseph Futenbach the

Elder"s Mannhafter Kunstspiegel done in 1642. One quickly detects

how this obscure work shares a powerful affinity with the way

Scolari"s magical buildings inhabit space. As we follow his choice of

illustrations we begin to grasp the relevance or even urgency of this

subject for his own work. We are indeed grateful for the chance to

enrich our comprehension of the way his unique vision has evolved

and the importance of its place in the history of representation.


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BELLINI AND GANDAHARA by Nancy Goldring

One often experiences a peculiar sense of disorientation when

museums shift their collection around. After a summer in Italy, I was

disconcerted that Bronzino"s Young failed to greet me as I entered

the Frick Museum, and was relieved to stumble upon him later in the

large viewing room. But such reordering doesn"t always inspire

discomfiture. My encounter with Giovanni Bellini"s St. Francis in the

Desert,which had been transferred to a sky-lit space, proved a

delight and revelation. I was stunned by its size, for the panel

painting appeared to have grown to large scale. And in its new

location, the Bellini had become the protagonist in the luminous oval

room free from Titian"s distraction.

There was good reason for the move, for the St.Franciswas

being featured as part of a project is coordinated by the Frick"s

Andrew W. Mellon Curatorial Fellow Susannah Rutherglen in

conjunction with curators and conservators at the Frick and the

Metropolitan Museum. The panel had been sent to the Sherman

Fairchild Paintings Conservation Center of The Metropolitan Museum

of Art in the spring of 2010 for technical examination by Paintings

Conservator Charlotte Hale. Her findingscombined with the input of

art historians, conservators, scientists, and educators consulted

during this studyresulted in a better understanding of this work and

of Bellini"s oeuvre in general. The results - a more advanced, digital,

and higher resolution form of infrared reflectography, as well as X-


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on which the painted bird stands feels oddly empty an abandoned

pedestal - that deprives the painting of an essential clue to its

meaning. The digital presentation also discloses the artist"s

encyclopedic proclivities, meticulously identifying flora -from

spleenwort to toadflax- and the fauna from rabbits to kingfishers.

Because of the high resolution we can observe (without alarming the

guard by our proximity) how the shepherd in the far landscape seems

to peer directly at the viewer instead of attending to the mysterious

event in the foreground. Bellini opts to show the saint"s sandy retreat

merely as an entrance to a cave skirted by a small herbal garden

typical of monasteries rather than depicting a full-fledged desert. And

the saint"s withdrawal from the world is demonstrated by the illusion

of distance from the adjacent fields and the tiny far-off townscape.

But what about that townscape? Is it an imaginary place, an

emblem a contrivance based on many such towns perched high in

the Italian hills and the way they bend to the landscape? Or is Bellini

referring to a specific place shown in an accurate architectural

rendering. I decided to ask - and was pleased to received a response

from the curators. It seems likely that the townscape in the

background of the Frick picture is a composite of various observed

views of walled towns in the vicinity of Venice. The closest Bellini

comes to a specific allusion to a monument in St. Francis is the little

castle at the top of the hill. This recalls the hilltop castle at Asolo in

the Veneto, but it is not an exact reference. In light of the (invaluable)

identification of flora, fauna, the careful scrutiny of the dramatic lapis


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lazuli sky cut by electric bolt clouds, and the brilliant light generated

by the white lead under-painting, I have to assume that the curators

didn"t feel impelled to address the subject of the townscape

specifically or to include a discussion of it in their digital presentation

for good reason. They were facing a challenging task to convey

their findings about this complex painting to a busy public in a

compact, succinct format and needed to make drastic cuts to the

dense material culled from the recent studies. Beyond these practical

concerns, one wonders if the exclusion of references to the town

might reflect a contemporary lack of interest in the questions of place

and city. Background townscapes have long been used to set the

scene for religious events, and were often featured in a starring role

by 15thcentury artists in the renditions of the Ideal City and the

intarsie of the studioli and sacristies. Perhaps our contemporary

interest in biography and narrative relegate the setting to a position of

lesser importance and function like the make-believe settings in video

games. Or perhaps the curators hoped that their presentation would

elicit a closer exploration of the painting resulting in new, unimagined

questions.

***

The Asia Society has finally opened The Buddhist Heretage of

Pakistan:Art of the Gandara, the first exhibition to bring works of

Gandhara art from Parkistan since their groundbreaking show in 1960

of that region"s sculpture. For several months it seemed the political

turmoil would foil the museum"s plans for the show. Indeed, it is an


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extraordinary achievement that they were able to bring such

important pieces from the National Museum in Karachi and the

Lahore Museum to the United States at a moment that the American

presence in Pakistan and Afghanistan grows ever more problematic.

The scope of the show was augmented by useful comparative pieces

on loan from the Metropolitan collection- eastern and western

sculptures that illuminate the Greco-Roman and Scytho-Parthian

influences. This richly diverse exhibition eloquently demonstrates of

the complex nature of Gandharan art and the conjectural nature of

historical studies of the period.

The curators have contrived a helpful organization for the show

dividing the material into 3 sections: Classical Connections that

examines the influence of Greco-Roan culture from the conquests of

Alexander the Great and the ensuing Hellenistic influence;

Narratives and Architectural Contexts examines the combination of

local characteristics with elements derived from Indian and western

precedents; and Buddhas and Bodhisattvas that explores the wide-

ranging visual imagery and how this relates to the multifaceted nature

of Buddhism in the region.

Finding the appropriate approach for a show of this nature is a

difficult task; and the subtle, restraint with which the curators handled

the work in this exhibition is impressive. The beauty of the installation

might have inspired explanatory wall texts of rapturous prose,


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body to one leg allowing the other to bend forward. The sculpture

demonstrates what happens when the impulse to communicate in

rigid symmetry struggles against the desire to render form

naturalistically in the Greco-roman manner.

The catalog, consisting of some 8 short essays, reiterates the

multi-dimensional character of the exhibition; for it provides a general

introduction, a study of the cultural geography, a brief survey of the

archeological research, and focuses on several major themes

occurring in the work. Most useful was the study by Anna Maria

Quagliotti who has examined the ways western deities were

integrated into the Buddhist culture. From her essay one can begin to

understand how a Dionysian frieze was borrowed to represent the

world outsideof the sacred realm and could begin to imagine a

moment in which several iconographic systems coexisted. One can

see how new beliefs relied on the known language, while asserting

the need to retain local modes and, simultaneously, to invent fresh

forms of expression.

The most provocative essay Juhhyung Rhi"s Complex Steles:

Great Miracle, Paradise, or Theophany? deals with the issues

plaguing art historical writing in general how to deploy text to better

understand image, and how to approach material for which there are

few authoritative or verifiable sources. He focuses on the elaborate

Mohammed Nari stele from the Lahore Museum and reviews the

several of studies that have attempted to decipher the derivation of

the iconography in the segments of the stele. Some writers have


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walled city,2nd-3rdcent. CE we see the citydesignated by a set of

vertical towers - which bear an odd resemblance to the forelegs of an

enormous lion- situated against a roughly articulated wall. On the

right, a figure stands awkwardly within a double- tiered gate. His

position in intended to imply egress and we read the image as a

man(for many men?) exiting the city. Today this Gandaran relief only

whispers its story to the public. The exhibition instructs how to listen

carefully to the expressions of cultures remote from our own. And

surely the Asia Society exhibition underscores urgency of securing

and preserving this work in a parlous moment.

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