Research: Foreshortening

Foreshortening refers to the illusion in a painting that an object, or part of an object, is closer to the viewer than other elements of the painting.

Perspective and relative size of objects in a painting obviously aid foreshortening but they don't alone capture the essential feature of foreshortening when an object or part of an object emerges out of illusionistic space towards the viewer, emphasising depth and distance within the painting. Some examples are:

Lamentation over the Dead Christ (c. 1470 – 1480)

Foreshortening was first studied during the 15th-century by Italian painters, and a famous early attempt at foreshortening was this one by Andrea Mantegna.

This is a wonderful painting, showing the death body of Jesus Christ lying on a marble slab after the crucifixion, with half his body covered by a thin sheet and the nail holes showing on his hands and feet. On the left are two mourners, the Virgin Mary with a handkerchief in her hand and St John at her side. Done in Gouache, this is a really very striking painting - the energy is very cold and you can feel the coldness of the place, as in a morgue, the effect achieved by a limited colour palette of light salmon, grey and white.

I hesitate to criticise such a great painting, but I don’t think the illusion of foreshortening is entirely successful. The compositional position of the viewer facing the feet is very interesting, giving a dramatic close-up of the body and some suggestion of foreshortening, but the relative sizes of the feet and the head are troubling. For the feet to appear much closer than the head to the viewer they need to be much larger than the head, whereas they are of such a size as to be equally far from (or close to) the viewer.

There are also issues with perspective which undermine the illusion of foreshortening, as the lines of the sides of the slab show perspective but the relative width of the body at various points does not. It has been suggested that Mantegna deliberately made the parts of the body this size to give the viewer a better view of the body, as a more accurate depiction would have had the head very much smaller and feet much bigger, blocking our view of the torso. That may be so, but it sacrifices the illusion of foreshortening.

The painting was found in the artist’s studio after his death, having been painted around 30 years before, and it is suggested that Mantegna may have painted it for his own tomb, though it was displayed next to his coffin at the funeral and later sold to pay his creditors.

Supper at Emmaus (1601-2)

Caravaggio imbued his religious paintings with a sense of powerful drama by his handling of light and shadow (chiaroscuro). Supper at Emmaus, oil on canvas 141 cm x 196 cm is in addition a wonderful example of foreshortening. Depicting a biblical passage where, after the crucifixion two apostles invite an stranger whom they have just met to share their meal, it is only when he blesses and breaks the bread they realise that their guest is in fact the Resurrected Christ.

There are four people in the picture the two apostles, Luke on the right, and Cleopas on the left, with Christ in the middle and a servant standing at the back.

The very skilful foreshortening shows in several places -

1. The elbow and torn clothes of Cleopas on the left, with his gesture of surprise as if holding himself in disbelief

2. The extended right arm of Christ, giving a sense of depth to the table

3. And most of all the extended arms of Luke on the left, particularly his left hand which gives the viewer the impression the hand is coming right out of the picture, as if Caravaggio wanted the viewer to feel within the space of the picture

This painting, commissioned and paid for by Ciriaco Mattei, a brother of Cardinal Girolamo Mattei, is currently at the National Gallery in London, and one of my favourites because the details in the composition are fabulous.

I recently watched The Way of Seeing, a documentary by John Berger, in which he explained this painting a number of times with different types of music playing in the background and he gave differing interpretations as each piece played. A very interesting exercise, it opened my mind to how interpretation of a work of art can be affected by mood, situation, prior knowledge and preconception.

The message an artist may want to convey may therefore be debatable, and views can be affected by several factors, but Caravaggio’s technical intention in Supper at Emmaus Caravaggio is clear, he wanted to get his painting closer to the viewer using foreshortening technique and a magnificent composition.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supper_at_Emmaus_(Caravaggio, London)

http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/

Repose of emotion, 2009

By contemporary Portuguese artist DUARTE VITÓRIA, 1973,

The painting depicts a woman lying on a bed on what appears to be a white duvet cover, and the composition employs an exaggerated foreshortened technique with the woman looking at the viewer past her huge toes and feet, as if the viewer is at the bottom of the bed. It is a very interesting composition, with her body almost unseen, and the viewer’s eye is drawn to her gaze and her feet.

It has great energy, and though the colours are mainly soft colours, the red of her toenails, the shadows under her toes, the grey-blues of her body and the foreshortening combine to make the painting quite dramatic. I also find it a little disturbing, and I think this is because even though her head is small in comparison to the feet, her gaze is hard and sad yet inquisitive

My Sketches of foreshoretening