Jan van Eyck's Perspectival System Elucidated Through Computer Vision
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Published:2021-07-30
Issue:2
Volume:4
Page:1-8
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ISSN:2577-6193
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Container-title:Proceedings of the ACM on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques
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language:en
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Short-container-title:Proc. ACM Comput. Graph. Interact. Tech.
Affiliation:
1. Université de Lorraine, CNRS, Inria, LORIA, Nancy, France
Abstract
It is generally accepted that Jan van Eyck was unaware of perspective. However, an a-contrario analysis of the vanishing points in five of his paintings, realized between 1432 and 1439, unveils a recurring fishbone-like pattern that could only emerge from the use of a polyscopic perspective machine with two degrees of freedom. A 3D reconstruction of Arnolfini Portrait compliant with this pattern suggests that van Eyck's device answered a both aesthetic and scientific questioning on how to represent space as closely as possible to human vision. This discovery makes van Eyck the father of today's immersive and nomadic creative media such as augmented reality and synthetic holography.
Publisher
Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)
Subject
General Arts and Humanities
Reference13 articles.
1. Rachel Billinge and Lorne Campbell. 1995. The infra-red reflectograms of Jan van Eyck's portrait of Giovanni(?) Arnolfini and his wife Giovanna Cenami(?). National Gallery Technical Bulletin 16. Rachel Billinge and Lorne Campbell. 1995. The infra-red reflectograms of Jan van Eyck's portrait of Giovanni(?) Arnolfini and his wife Giovanna Cenami(?). National Gallery Technical Bulletin 16.