Anamorphosis is a distorted projection that requires the viewer to occupy a specific vantage point, use special devices, or both to view a recognizable image. It is used in painting, photography, sculpture and installation, toys, and film special effects. The word is derived from the Greek prefixana-, meaning "back" or "again", and the wordmorphe, meaning "shape" or "form". Extreme anamorphosis has been used by artists to disguisecaricatures,erotic andscatological scenes, and other furtive images from a casual spectator, while revealing an undistorted image to the knowledgeable viewer.[1]
There are two main types of anamorphosis:perspective (oblique) andmirror (catoptric). More complex anamorphoses can be devised using distorted lenses, mirrors, or other optical transformations.
An oblique anamorphism forms anaffine transformation of the subject.[2] Early examples ofperspectival anamorphosis date to theRenaissance of the fifteenth century and largely relate to religious themes.[3]
With mirror anamorphosis, a conical or cylindricalmirror is placed on the distorted drawing or painting to reveal an undistorted image. The deformed picture relies on laws regarding angles of incidence of reflection. The length of the flat drawing's curves are reduced when viewed in a curved mirror, such that the distortions resolve into a recognizable picture. Unlike perspective anamorphosis, catoptric images can be viewed from many angles.[3]: 131 The technique was originally developed in China during theMing Dynasty, and the first European manual on mirror anamorphosis was published around 1630 by the mathematician Vaulezard.[3]: 147, 161
Channel anamorphosis ortabula scalata has a different image on each side of a corrugated carrier. A straight frontal view shows an unclear mix of the images, while each image can be viewed correctly from a certain angle.
The Stone Agecave paintings atLascaux may make use of anamorphic technique, because the oblique angles of the cave would otherwise result in distorted figures from a viewer's perspective.[citation needed]
The ancient historiansPliny andTzetzes both record a sculpture competition betweenAlcamenes andPhidias to create an image ofMinerva. Alcamenes' sculpture was beautiful, while Phidias' had grotesque proportions. Yet once both had been mounted on pillars, the decelerated perspective made Phidias' Minerva beautiful, and Alcamenes' ugly.[3]: 7-8
Artists' experimentation with optics and perspective during the Renaissance advanced anamorphic technique, at a time when science and religious thought were equally important to its growth in Europe.[3]: 70 Leonardo's Eye byLeonardo da Vinci, included in theCodex Atlanticus (1483-1518), is the earliest known example. He later completed several large-scale anamorphic commissions for the King of France.[citation needed]
Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola creditedTommaso Laureti as the originator of a perspectival anamorphic technique in one of the earliest written descriptions inThe Two Rules of Practical Perspective, compiled between 1530 and 1540 but not published until 1583. Many other descriptions and examples were created before 1583 without access to Vignola's work.[3]: 29-30,32-33
The Ambassadors (c. 1533) byHans Holbein the Younger is known for the prominent gray diagonal slash across the bottom of the frame which, when viewed from an acute angle, resolves into the image of ahuman skull. It has been hypothesized that the painting, regarded as avanitas – a meditation on the transience of life including the skull as amemento mori – was intended to be hung alongside stairs to startle viewers with the sudden appearance of a skull.[4] Four centuries later,psychoanalystJaques Lacan noted in 'Of the Gaze asObjet Petit a' (1973) that the use of anamorphism, particularly in this painting, is one of the few methods for making viewers aware of their gaze.[5]
By the 17th century, a revival of fantastical anamorphic imagery occurred. Magical and religious connotations were largely abandoned, and the images were understood as a scientific curiosity.[3]: 115 Two major works on perspective were published:Perspective (1612) bySalomon de Caus, andCurious Perspective (1638) byJean-Francois Niceron. Each contained extensive scientific and practical information on anamorphic imagery. In Niceron's work, three types of large-scale anamorphism are explained: 'optical' (looking horizontally); 'anoptric' (looking upwards); and 'catoptric' (looking down i.e. from a mezzanine). A conical perspective is also described.[3]: 26-28 Towards the end of the century,Charles Ozanam'sMathematical Recreations widely popularized the techniques for the creation of anamorphic images.[3]: 117
Between 1669 and 1685, both perspective and mirror anamorphosis were introduced in China by the Jesuits to theKangxi Emperor and monks at the Peking Mission.[3]: 157 However, Chinese production of anamorphic images were already occurring on a large scale during the lateMing Dynasty. The images were mostly created freehand, unlike the grid system used in the west. As Chinese anamorphoses primarily focused on erotic themes, Jesuit influence is unlikely.[3]: 160-161 It is considered likely that Chinese catoptric techniques, which are technically unrelated to geometric anamorphosis, influenced European mirror anamorphosis, and not the other way around.[3]: 164-165
Baroquetrompe-l'œil murals often used anamorphism to combine actual architectural elements with illusory painted elements to create a seamless effect when viewed from a specific location. The dome and vault of theChurch of St. Ignazio in Rome, painted byAndrea Pozzo, represented the pinnacle of illusion. Due to neighboring monks complaining about blocked light, Pozzo was commissioned to paint the ceiling to look like the inside of a dome, instead of building a real dome. As the ceiling is flat, there is only one spot where the illusion is perfect and a dome looks undistorted.[citation needed]
Anamorphosis could be used to conceal images for privacy or personal safety, and many secret portraits were created of deposed royalty. A well-known anamorphic portrait of the EnglishKing Edward VI was completed in 1546, only visible when viewed through a hole in the frame. It was later hung atWhitehall Palace, and may have influenced Shakespeare during the writing ofRichard II.[3]: 16-18 Many anamorphic portraits ofKing Charles I were created and shared following his 1649 execution.[3]: 28 A secret mirror anamorphosis portrait ofBonnie Prince Charlie, held at theWest Highland Museum, can only be recognized when a polished cylinder is placed in the correct position. To possess such an image would have been seen as treason in the aftermath of the 1746Battle of Culloden.[6]
Thememento mori theme continued into this period, such as in anAnamorphic Painting of Adam and Eve, on display at theWadsworth Atheneum inHartford, Connecticut. This painting by an unknown Italian artist of the 17th or early 18th century portrays the Biblical couple, along with a large unidentified male face at the top, and a large human skull at the bottom. The images are distorted when viewed straight on, and can only be seen by peeking through one of two holes at each end of the surrounding frame. The painting includes a Latin religious inscription adapted from John 14:6, ending with the wordsmemento mori.[7]
The eighteenth century saw anamorphism completely enter the realm of entertainment and diversion, as well as the widest dissemination of the technique.[3]: 119 [1]
By the 19th century, a revival of interest in anamorphism for architectural illusion occurred, as well as a fashion for classical themes. Reprints of Renaissance-era engravings became popular, as did political, obscene and popular subjects.Edgar Allan Poe's short story "Ligeia" describes a room filled with "simple monstrosities" that resolve in to "an endless succession of ... ghastly forms" as the narrator walks through the room. This mass popularization was to later have effect on theSurrealists.[3]: 120-130
By the twentieth century, some artists wanted to renew the technique of anamorphosis for aesthetic and conceptual effect. During the First World War,Arthur Mole, an American commercial photographer, used anamorphic techniques to create patriotic images from massive assembled groups of soldiers and reservists. When seen from a tower at their base, the gathered people resolved into recognizable pictures.[8]
Marcel Duchamp was interested in anamorphosis. His last workGiven: 1. The Waterfall, 2. The Illuminating Gas (1946–66) used mild anamorphosis to force viewers into the position of peep-hole voyeurs in order to see a nude, anonymous human body.[1]
Surrealist artistSalvador Dalí used extremeforeshortening and anamorphism in his paintings and works. Aglass floor installed in a room next to his studio enabled radical perspective studies from above and below.[9] TheDalí Theatre and Museum features a three-dimensional anamorphic living-room installation; theMae West Lips Sofa that looks like the face of the film star when seen from a certain viewpoint.[10]: 156 [11]: 28 Interestingly, Lacan also compared Holbein's 16th-century painting to Dali's imagery, rather than the other way around.[1]
In the twentieth century, artists began to play with perspective by drawing "impossible objects". These objects included stairs that always ascend, or cubes where the back meets the front. Such works were popularized by the artistM. C. Escher and the mathematicianRoger Penrose. Although referred to as "impossible objects", such objects as theNecker cube and thePenrose triangle can be sculpted in 3-D by using anamorphic illusion. When viewed at a certain angle, such sculptures appear as the so-called impossible objects.
TheAmes room was invented by American scientistAdelbert Ames Jr. in 1946.[12] When viewed through a peephole, the room appears to have normal perspective. However, all other viewpoints reveal that the room is constructed of irregular trapezoids. Similar effects had been achieved during the Renaissance through the use of "accelerated perspective" in stage design. These included productions by Scamozzi (1588-9), Furtenbach (1625), Sabbattini (1637) and Troili (1672).[3]
One of the most interesting effects of an Ames room is that the distorted perspective can make people and objects look much bigger or smaller than they really are.[13] For this reason, Ames rooms are widely used in cinema forpractical special effects. A well-known example is the homes in the Shire from theLord of the Rings andThe Hobbit films. Through the use offorced perspective, the character of Gandalf appeared much larger than the characters of Frodo and Bilbo, without the use of digital effects.[14]
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Cinemascope,Panavision,Technirama, and otherwidescreen formats use anamorphosis to project a wider image from a narrower film frame. TheIMAX company uses even more extreme anamorphic transformations to project moving images from a flat film frame onto the inside of ahemispheric dome, in its "Omnimax" or "IMAX Dome" process.
The technique of anamorphic projection can be seen quite commonly on text written at a very flat angle on roadways, such as "Bus Lane" or "Children Crossing", to make it easily read by drivers who otherwise would have difficulty reading obliquely as the vehicle approaches the text; when the vehicle is nearly above the text, its true abnormally elongated shape can be seen.[15] Similarly, in many sporting stadiums, especially inRugby football inAustralia, it is used to promote company brands which are painted onto the playing surface; from the television camera angle, the writing appear as signs standing vertically within the field of play.
Much writing on shop windows is in principle anamorphic, as it was written mirror-reversed on the inside of the window glass.
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While not as widespread in contemporary art, anamorphosis as a technique has been used by contemporary artists in painting, photography,printmaking, sculpture, film and video, digital art and games,holography,[1]street art andinstallation. The latter two art forms are largely practised in public areas such as parks, city centres and transit stations.[16]
In 1975 a major exhibition was held focusing exclusively on anamorphic imagery:Anamorphoses: Games of Perception and Illusion in Art. The artistJan Beutener createdThe Room, a major new installation specifically for the exhibit.[1]
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Since the mid-20th century, many artists have made use of anamorphosis in public artworks. Americanland art pioneerMichael Heizer'sComplex One (1972-1974), a massive earth and concrete structure in theNevada desert, creates a rectangular frame for amastaba when viewed from a specific location.[1] Inspired byLuxor and other ancient monumental sites, it is part of the larger workCity, an enormous sculpture running a mile and a half long. The entire work will not be completed until 2020.[17]
Shigeo Fukuda, a Japanese artist and designer globally renowned for his satirical posters on anti-war and environmental advocacy,[18] created posters and sculptures making use of both types of anamorphosis in the 1970s and 1980s.[19] He also wrote multiple books on the topic of optical illusions.
Felice Varini's 2014 workThree Ellipses for Three Locks inHasselt, Belgium is an image of three loops that are made up of segments painted on to over 100 buildings. It is only visible from a specific vantage point over the city.[13]
French artists that have created recent anamorphic installations includeFrançois Abélanet[20] andJean-Max Albert.[21]
Markus Raetz'sKopf is a large scale public installation that reveals the form of a person's head in profile when viewed from a specific vantage-point. It was installed in a public park inBasel,Switzerland.[1]
While anamorphic images were not his exclusive area of focus, the American artistJonathan Borofsky created installations in the 1980s using anamorphic techniques, exhibiting at institutions such as theMuseum of Modern Art.[1]
Jonty Hurwitz pioneered the use of a mathematical technique to createcatoptric sculptures that resolve in a cylinder.[22] In 2013 he produced a public work for theSavoy Hotel's River Room.[23]
The Swedish artist Hans Hamngren produced and exhibited many examples of mirror anamorphosis in the 1960s and 1970s.
Sara Willet's paintings focus on anamorphic images.[21]
Belgian artistIsabelle de Borchgrave also widely uses anamorphosis in her paintings, whereby her original drawings or paintings are stretched out and revert to a 'normal' dimension once the drawing or painting is pleated to its final form.[24]
Beginning in 1967, Dutch artistJan Dibbets based an entire series of photographic work titledPerspective Corrections on the distortion of reality through perspective anamorphosis. This involved the incorporation of land art into his work, where areas dug out of the Earth formed squares from specific perspectives.[1]
Anamorphic effects are popular in street art, sometimes called "Slant Art" when accomplished on sidewalks. Examples are thesidewalk chalk drawings ofKurt Wenner andJulian Beever,[16] where the chalked image, the pavement, and the architectural surroundings all become part of an illusion. Art of this style can be produced by taking a photograph of an object or setting at a sharp oblique angle, then putting a grid over the photograph. Another elongated grid is placed on the sidewalk based on a specific perspective, and visual elements of one are transcribed into the other, one grid square at a time.
In 2016, the street artistJR completed a massive temporary anamorphic illusion over theLouvre's pyramid, making the modern structure disappear and the original building appear as though it was still in the 17th century.[25]
Since the 18th century, anamorphosis has been a widespread art form in popular culture. It has been used for children's toys, album art, advertising, videogames and movies, among other things.
In the 1970s, albums for musiciansSteeleye Span andRick Wakeman featured anamorphic album art.[26]
The 2009video gameBatman: Arkham Asylum has a series of riddles posed by the classicBatman antagonistThe Riddler, the solution of which is based on perspective anamorphosis.[27]
In 2013,Honda released a commercial which incorporated a series of illusions based on anamorphosis.[28]
Tourists attractions employing large-scale illusory art allowing visitors to photograph themselves in fantastic scenes have opened in several Asian countries, such as theTrickeye Museum andHong Kong 3D Museum.[29][30]
OK Go makes repeated use of anamorphic illusions in the music video forThe Writing's On the Wall.[31]
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