Expressive You: [FunOnTheNet] Anamorphosis Art

 Anamorphosis Art    
Anamorphosis  is a distorted projection or perspective requiring the viewer to use  special devices or occupy a specific vantage point to reconstitute the  image. "Ana - morphosis" comes from the Greek words meaning "formed  again." More Images after the break...

Histroy Of  Anamorphosis Leonardo's  Eye (Leonardo da Vinci, c. 1485) is the earliest known example of  perspective anamorphosis. Hans Holbein the Younger is well known for  incorporating this type of anamorphic trick. His painting The  Ambassadors is the most famous example for anamorphosis, in which a  distorted shape lies diagonally across the bottom of the frame. Viewing  this from an acute angle transforms it into the plastic image of a  skull. During the 17th century, Baroque trompe l'oeil murals often used  this technique to combine actual architectural elements with an  illusion. When standing in front of the art work in a specific spot, the  architecture blends with the decorative painting. The dome and vault of  the Church of St. Ignazio in Rome, painted by Andrea Pozzo, represented  the pinnacle of illusion. Due to complaints of blocked light by  neighbouring monks, Pozzo was commissioned to paint the ceiling to look  like the inside of a dome, instead of actually constructing one.  However, the ceiling is flat, and there is only one spot where the  illusion is perfect and a dome looks real.
 
 In 18th and in 19th century, anamorphic images had come to be used more  as children's games than fine art. In the 20th century some artists  wanted to renew the technique of anamorphosis. Important to mention  Marcel Duchamp's interest in anamorphosis, some of his installations are  paraphrases of anamorphoses (See The Bride Stripped Bare by Her  Bachelors, Even/The Large Glass). Salvador Dalí also utilized the effect  in a number of his paintings. Jan Dibbets conceptual works, the  so-called "perspective corrections" are examples of "linear"  anamorphoses.