For next week’s discussion, we will be reading the second chapter[*] from Svetlana Alpers’ book, ‘The art of Describing: Dutch Art in the Seventeenth Century’.

Alpers compares the ‘descriptive’ Dutch art and its vision of the world to the ‘narrative’ art of Italy, making solid distinctions between the modes of seeing and of reconstructing the world in paintings.

[*] ‘“Ut picture, ita visio”: Kepler’s Model of the Eye and the Nature of Picturing in the North’ extends the discussions in comparing the art of Italy and Dutch art via drawing the attention from the ‘picture’ [observed] to the mechanical ‘maker of the picture’, the human eye itself [observer].

The ‘perspectival’ versus the ‘optical’ perception of the world are contrasted in reference to Alberti’s framed window, in which the observer always stands outside, and distant to the observed; and to Kepler’s model of retinal image, in which the observer stands in the middle of an ever-extending landscape. [exciting, isn’t it!]

It is a very strong and appealing text for me, with great references and insight. I am also attaching the introduction, in which Alpers talks about the content of the book, why and how Art of the North differs from the ‘Western Art’; which is influenced heavily from Italian Renaissance… and why it deserves much more attention…

Hoping to see you and hear your comments about us, our eyes, light painted landscapes [and faces]…