------------------------------------------------------------------------------- CS 99D - Illustration lecture #1 - January 30, 2001 Marc Levoy Stanford University (c) 2001 (with corrections, March 14, 2003) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- *** Introduction *** o the observed object: o lecture #1 - the question of accuracy to a particular object o lecture #2 - the question of abstraction o for lecture #1, two examples: o human anatomy o landscapes o other examples could be: o still life o portraits o mechanisms ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- *** Illustration through the Renaissance *** (from Baigrie, ch. 1 - The Didactic and the Elegant, by Bert Hall) The ancients: o choice #1: specific versus generic (i.e. typical) o Greek ideal of beauty -> suggested using the generic o choice #2: naturalistic versus diagrammatic (i.e. abstracted) o the mathematicians (e.g. Euclid) - used diagrams o but for naturalistic... The problem of naturalistic illustration: o nature is difficult to reproduce pictorially, and o successive copyists will introduce errors -> three drawings of Dracontea, Baigrie, p. 8, 6th, 7th, 10th century copies o therefore, rely on text descriptions o example of Pliny's Natural History (21- AD) Renaissance: o linear perspective - solves problem of naturalism o wood block prints - solves problem of copying o allowed naturalistic illustration ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- *** The revolution in anatomy *** (from Baigre, ch.1, and ch. 2 - Temples of the Body, by Martin Kemp, and O'Malley's Leonardo on the Human Body, p. 475) Galen (130-200 AD): o 131 medical treatises?, only 80 extant o no evidence that any were illustrated o many accomplishments: (Brian Ford's Images of Science) o stomach digests; it doesn't cook o kideys remove water from the blood o many mistakes: o prohibition on human dissection, so dissected animals o dissected animals that had been bled dry o heart is a unidirectional pump - from heart outwards o blood passes between ventricles through invisible pores o air reaches heart, to cool it Medieval: o Padua had first and best university of medicine -> thumbnail drawings of the anatomical theater o assistant would dissect while lecturer would read from Galen o diagrammatic -> bone-man, nerve-man, muscle-man, vein-man, Bavarian monastery (1247), Baigrie, p. 13 Artists and anatomy before Leonardo: (from introduction to O'Malley) (optional) o contact between artists and physicians at apothecary / dye shops o knowledge of superficial veins from bloodletting diagrams o dissections authorized in Florence in 1387 o artists begin to attend dissections o examination of flayed cadavers o early dissections by Donatello (1386-1466) and Pollaiuolo (1432-1498) Early Renaissance: o applied new art techniques - perspective, chiaroscuro o naturalistic but inaccurate -> Frohlich's woman (1544), Baigrie, p. 15 -> Carpi's muscle-man in landscape (1521), Baigrie, p. 50 o pioneered nobly tragic pose Leonardo (1452-1519): o usually correct when from dissection -> The Human Spinal Column (1489), O'Malley, p. 43 (or Robbins, p. 36-7) o often erroneous when from Galen -> Human fetus and womb, O'Malley, p. 475 (or Baigrie, p. 46) o placenta with interdigitating layers is ungulate, not human o many direct experiments o couldn't pump air into the heart, as Galen had claimed o studies of human proportion -> man in square/circle, after Vitruvius, Leonardo On Painting, p. 121 o my height is 70 inches and my armspan is 72 inches o most people are taller than their armspan by 14/13 o applicability to men of the Renaissance? o studies of bodies in motion o mechanical operation o balance -> Leonardo On Painting, p. 139 o changes in shape of muscles -> Leonardo On Painting, p. 136 o studies of expressions -> Kenneth Clark's Leonardo, p. 198 o studies of physiognomy -> belligerant man, Leonardo On Painting, p. 148, or --> grotesque heads, Kenneth Clark's Leonardo, p. 122 o Aristotle thought that facial features reflected personality o widely practiced throughout Europe until 1700s o outlawed by George II of England in 1743 (Robbins, p. 172) o closely related to caricature Michelangelo (1475-1564): o detailed knowledge of anatomy - Irving Stone depicts him dissecting o master at drawing musculature -> drawing for the Libyan Sibyl, Hibbard, p. 129 o used male models for female figures - he was probably homosexual -> the Libyan Sibyl, Sistine ceiling, Hibbard, p. 128 Vesalius (1514-1564): (from Robbins and Kemp in Baigrie) o lecturer on surgery and antomy at Padua o performed all dissections himself o De Humani Corporis Fabrica (1543), illust. by Stephen van Calcar -> musculature, Robbins, p. 40 (compare to Carpi above) -> skeleton on frontispiece of treatise, Baigrie, front cover -> digestion, Ford, p. 36 o careful to warn reader what is hatching and what is striated tissue -> musculature of arm, Baigrie, p. 58 o a real empiricist - a pioneer in the scientific revolution o revolutionized anatomy *and* illustration William Harvey (1578-1657): (from Butterfield) (optional) o heart pumps more blood / hour than the weight of a man, so it must circulate - it is not regenerated fresh o the valves are one-way devices, are arteries spurt, but veins do not, so pumping is circular, not unidirectional (as Galen said) o vasculature in lungs is too much to supply the lungs, so lungs refresh the blood (but he didn't understand oxygenation) o observing, reasoning, partitioning the problem -> mechanical model o final link - capillaries - not verified until Leeuwenhoek saw them Henry Gray (1827-1861): (from Ford) o illustrated by Vandyke Carter o his Anatomy (1860) is still in use today ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- *** Case study in anatomical illustration: hominid reconstructions *** (from Baigrie, ch. 6, Visual Representation in Archeology, Stephanie Moser) The problem: o fossil skeletal remains of early man (late 1800's - present) o problem #1: reconstructing fleshy features o problem #2: deducing intelligence and behavior o real problem: is it ape or is it human? - finding the "missing link" Background history: o prevailing view was that Homo Sapiens originated in Asia o Eugene Debois's Pithecanthropus (1891) - java man o Homo Erectus (1921) in Rhodesia considered modern 1925 Raymond Dart o uncovers fossil cranium in Taungs, South Africa (1925) o he labels it Australopithecine and calls it the missing link o revolutionary view - not accepted by most authorities 1925 Grafton Elliot Smith o Dart's professor at University College in London o illustration comparing Aust. (on left) to Erectus (on right) -> Baigrie, p. 191 o arm length o shape of feet o posture o musculature o hairiness o clothes o stones versus spear o all of these things must be conjectural! 1959 Dart responds o field work in 1930's and 1940's o uncovers campsites, bone tools o responds in kind, with two illustrations: -> Baigrie, p. 194-5 o tool making o social situation o group hunting o meat eating o catches public imagination - widely reproduced o inspires opening scene from Kubrick's 2001 1959 Louis Leakey o uncovers Zinjanthropus boisei, Olduvai Gorge, East Africa o supports Dart (African origin), but a more advanced species o stone tools found with Zinj. led Leakey to this theory o color illustration in National Geographic (1960) -> Baigrie, p. 203 o conjectural features: o beard o fine nose o thin lips o fine eyebrows o illustration techniques from human portraiture: o classic 3/4 view o closeup o looking at the camera! o dignified and assertive expression 1961 Louis Leakey recants o uncovers larger-brained Homo Habilus in same layer o tools found with Zinj. now thought to belong to Habilus o skull of Zinj. now thought to be the remains of a meal! o Leakey regrets the illustration in National Geographic Epilogue: o naturalistic reconstructions are seldom used in archeology any more ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- *** The development of European landscape painting *** Honour and Fleming's taxonomy of landscapes: (p. 561, plus my additions) o narratives: o religious narratives - Mythical / Biblical stories o civil narratives - battles, coronations o documentary: o public landmarks - cities, churches o personal possessions - villas o specific aspects of rural life - harvesting o fantasies: o of land, sea, and sky - mountains, gorges, clouds, storms o of time and place - classical arcadia A rapid succession of experiments in the Renaissance: -> Fra Filippo Lippi's Madonna and Child with Angels (1455), Gardner, p. 705 o generic and idealized o no integration of background and foreground - note the frame -> Bellini's The Madonna of the Meadow (1505), Honour, p. 423 o no longer idealized, but still generic o foreground and background are more continuous -> Giorgione's The Three Philosphers (1509), Honour, p. 457 o daring asymmetrical design o characters integrated into foreground scenery -> Altdorfer's Danube Landscape (1530), Honour, p. 439 o among first pure landscapes in European art o simplicity, driven by Protestantism (Luther was 1517) -> Peter Bruegel the Elder's The Harvesters (Flemish, 1565), Honour, p. 471 o pioneering depiction of rural (working class) life o moralizing, also driven by Protestantism 1600's and 1700's: o Realism - venetian landscapes: -> Canaletto's Venice (1735), Honour, p. 584 o "eye-witness style" - empirical realism o used camera obscura? o Romanticism - Dutch landscapes: -> van Goyen's View of Rhenen (1646), Honour, p. 562 o painted for the middle classes, not the aristocracy o nationalistic - flat, 2/3 of canvas is sky, simple buildings o emphasizes utilitarianism, progress o highly realistic and detailed, yet romantic in color and mood o combination of specific and "characteristic" (representative) o influences English landscapes, and from there, American... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- *** Case study in landscape illustration: The Rocky Mountain School *** Early American landscapes: o landscape culture: o paintings o travel guides o landscape tourism - traveling to see landscapes o thus, market for representations of American scenery o Protestant heritage favors prosaic landscapes -> William Guy Wall's View Near Hudson (1826), Thomas Cole, p. 31 (B&W) o nationalism versus inferiority complex: o Europe had culture o Europe had the Alps o What did we have? o Niagara Falls o led to more romantic visions of landscape... Thomas Cole (1801-1848): o Catskill Mountain House (1823) -> Hudson River School (Copley, Durand, Thompson, etc. - see American Masterpieces) o 1/3 documentary -> Crawford Notch (1839), Thomas Cole, p. 58 o 1/3 romantic landscape -> A Tornado in the Wilderness (1831), Thomas Cole, p. 70 o 1/3 allegory -> The Vogage of Life (1842), Thomas Cole, p. 96 o drew huge crowds when displayed in New York o has its own room in the National Gallery in Washington The Push Westward: o Fremont's wanderings (1820's) o emmigrant trail (1840's) o California gold rush (1849) o "Manifest destiny" (1860's) (Thomas Benton, statesman -> William Gilpin, Colo. terr. gov) o completion of transcontinental railroad (1869) The Rocky Mountain School: -> Egloffstein's Black Canyon (1857), Stegner, Beyond the Hundreth Meridian, p. 92+ o impossibly deep o drawn before Powell's first expedition! -> Life of John Wesley Powell o Exploration of the Grand Canyon (1869) o professor of geology o founded US Geological Survey: o 75-year project to map the U.S. o took 85 years o invented map symbols -> Alfred Bierstadt (1830 - 1902), The Rocky Mountains (1863), American Masterpieces, p. 90-93 o large canvas - 6' x 10' o roughly accurate, but exaggerated o drew huge crowds when displayed in New York o sold for $25K - most ever for an American painting o looks like the alps -> Thomas Moran's Grand Canyon (1874), National Park Service, Exploring the American West, p. 104 o accurate o new palette of colors o couldn't resist a romantic touch - a storm -> William Holme's Grand Canyon (~1882), National Park Service, Exploring the American West, p. 106 o new linear style - almost an illustration Thomas Moran and Yellowstone National Park: 1870 N.P. Langford writes "The Wonders of the Yellowstone" o Scribner's Monthly o illustrated by Thomas Moran o but from descriptions only - he had not been there o highly popular, frequently cited 1871 Moran joins Ferdinand Hayden's Survey at Yellowstone o woodcuts and watercolors -> Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone (1872, a later oil), National Park Service, Exploring the American West, p. 91 o his sketches and watercolors galvanized congress 1872 Yellowstone declared our first National Park (March 1) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------