The Remains of the world trade center in the city of london
The Remains of the world trade center in the city of london
The pictorial space is the optical perception that gives a flat image the perception of depth. In all cases the observer is simultaneously aware of the image as a physical object & as a 3 dimensional space.
The glorification & use of special effects was a popular approach of detaching the events & reality of the 30 years war. It heavily relied on special effects & in particular their power to convert the terror of the counter reformation into 'friendly rides'. (Normal Klein)
Then as now special effects acted as a form of distraction from reality. A tool for glorification, polarisation, & the implication of the sublime.
Thus the Great Miseries of War saw the transformation from the harsh realities of war as etched drawings to the dramatic & realistic Fall of the Damned by Rubens. The fascination of the sublime stretches into the Romantic period & becomes the theme of Casper David Friedrich's paintings, whether that may be the sublime ruination of time or the natural forces that sculpt the landscapes.
The Sublime bears a hostile relationship to the human, insofar as it being so vast & powerful that it threatens to overwhelm the individual. Furthermore we take aesthetic pleasure in such fearsome & overwhelming scenes. (Arthur Schopenhauer)
We learn of tragedy through images on a screen that somewhat blurs the boundaries between the real, the fictional & the actual, finding a certain aesthetic that we may well appreciate until the images become to vivid & mathematically sublime.
We experience the Baroque cover ups, mediated by the internalised camera lens that distances the self from the horror & tragedy.
The pictorial space is an integral interface of the baroque architecture. Framing the sublime in a way that the eye can contain & wonder the chaos & raw power of the picture. The image captures the audience between the real & the fictional, turning the flat one point perspective into an infinite space. Which comes crashing down once the defined position towards the picture plane is ignored.
The Remains of the world trade center in the city of london
911 and rubens' fall of the damned LDN