Rosanne
No one would deny that the painter has nothing to do with things that are not visible. The painter is concerned solely with representing what can be seen.
—Leon Battista Alberti, 1435
The interesting thing is that if you make a shoebox peephole viewer in the correct measurements to hold the Visconti hand painting cards with the correct oblong peephole, the flat surface becomes
3D without the usual layering you create with a diorama. For example the Strength card, when viewed
through the peephole, has the Lion as if closer to the eye, and the figure of the man with baton further back, standing forward of the hills and scenery. It is an optical illusion of perspective.
Interestingly it does not appear to happen with a TdM or modern 20th century cards which appear 2D.
The cards when viewed this way, become an intimate diorama to the viewer. The interesting thing to me, was the realization that four cards (perhaps 5) 2,3,4,and 5 become those which one has a dialogue with and you the viewer become interlocutors(persons who take part in a dialogue or conversation), just as in Leon Battista Alberti's writings speak of, perhaps in 'the family' and other pieces. (Alberti apparently used a peephole box to illustrate ideas). I call these the 'throne' cards. In the last of the On Family books Alberti, calls Visconti a Good friend, The Emperor an excellent friend and the Pope The Superior friend.
I imagine Visconti was flattered. All things that I am personally interested in via Tarot come together in Leon Battista Alberti- The Timing, Florence, The Council of Florence, The manuscripts circulating, Astronomy and astrology are but just a few.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leon_Battista_Alberti
There have been discussions here about this Renaissance man, but maybe a deeper one is required.
~Rosanne
—Leon Battista Alberti, 1435
Spencer 1970In 1435, Leon Battista Alberti (1404-1472), provided the first theory of what we now call linear perspective in his book, On Painting. The impact of this new system of measurement in paintings was enormous and most artists painting in Europe after 1435 were aware of the principles Alberti outlined in his book. First, an artist created a "floor" (a ground or stage on which figures and objects would be placed) in a painting and drew a receding grid to act as a guide to the relative scale of all other elements within the picture. Alberti suggests relating the size of the floor squares to a viewer's height. This suggestion is important because it reveals an underlying principal of the Renaissance. The act of painting would no longer be to glorify God, as it had been in Medieval Europe. Painting in the Renaissance related instead, to those people looking at the painting.
The interesting thing is that if you make a shoebox peephole viewer in the correct measurements to hold the Visconti hand painting cards with the correct oblong peephole, the flat surface becomes
3D without the usual layering you create with a diorama. For example the Strength card, when viewed
through the peephole, has the Lion as if closer to the eye, and the figure of the man with baton further back, standing forward of the hills and scenery. It is an optical illusion of perspective.
Interestingly it does not appear to happen with a TdM or modern 20th century cards which appear 2D.
The cards when viewed this way, become an intimate diorama to the viewer. The interesting thing to me, was the realization that four cards (perhaps 5) 2,3,4,and 5 become those which one has a dialogue with and you the viewer become interlocutors(persons who take part in a dialogue or conversation), just as in Leon Battista Alberti's writings speak of, perhaps in 'the family' and other pieces. (Alberti apparently used a peephole box to illustrate ideas). I call these the 'throne' cards. In the last of the On Family books Alberti, calls Visconti a Good friend, The Emperor an excellent friend and the Pope The Superior friend.
I imagine Visconti was flattered. All things that I am personally interested in via Tarot come together in Leon Battista Alberti- The Timing, Florence, The Council of Florence, The manuscripts circulating, Astronomy and astrology are but just a few.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leon_Battista_Alberti
There have been discussions here about this Renaissance man, but maybe a deeper one is required.
~Rosanne