July 2010
The Art of Illusion’ by Tom Errington
At its last meeting of the season, on 20 July, the Farnham Decorative and Fine Arts Society was given a talk by Tom Errington on ‘The Art of Illusion’. What is known in the jargon as ‘trompe l’oeil’ – French for ‘trick the eye’ – is the technique of painting on flat surfaces in a way that deceives viewers into thinking that they are looking at a real three-dimensional object or scene. Tom began by showing some of the most impressive examples of this style, notably a violin hanging on a door of the music room at Chatsworth House. Although the violin is simply a painting, it is so effective an illusion that it is hard to distinguish it from the real thing. Trompe l’oeil can also be employed on the exteriors of buildings, and Tom showed pictures of plain churches ornamented by the addition of balconies and stairs, plain gable ends of houses enlivened by the addition of false facades, and a magnificent example of the technique used on a multi-storey blank wall in Lyons, in France. At a more mundane level, trompe l’oeil is often used as false painting of plain surfaces to represent wood grain, marbling, or masonry.
Tom explained how it is that the viewer is deceived: in vision, the brain processes signals from the eye at great speed, and to help it do so, it makes assumptions about the signal it is getting. It has to come to an instant decision on whether an image is really three-dimensional, or is simply a flat representation. In making its decision, the brain checks the perspective, and also the colour, the shadow effects, and the reflected colour.
Up to the fourteenth century, painters made no attempt to represent perspective, but showed figures simply against flat backgrounds. In 1311, Duccio began to experiment with perspective representations, based on observation, rather than on mathematical principles. Later artists refined the technique and gained an understanding of the mathematical principles involved, and particularly of the importance of the fixed horizon. This understanding was used in the development of trompe l’oeil painting – it is essential that the horizon is on the eye-line of the viewer. Tom is a professional trompe l’oeil painter himself, and described how his first stage in setting out a work is to start from the position from which the viewer will see the painting.
As well as perspective, colour is used to deceive the eye. Some colours, towards the blue end of the spectrum, appear to recede – a blue room will appear larger than it is – and so can be used to suggest depth. Red dominates, so a red dot against a blue background will thrust forward. Again, the further away an object is, the less intense in colour it appears to be, due to the effect of atmospheric haze. Colour is also significant in the representation of shadows; a shadow is not simply grey, but takes on an element of the colour of the object – a tomato against a white background will cast a rose-grey shadow. All these aspects – colour, tone, and shadow – are used in developing a convincing illusion.
Having given his audience the elements of the theory, Tom concluded his lecture with some examples of his own work, both in progress and as completed. He observed that the most successful trompe l’oeil was of stationary objects – moving objects did not convince. Subjects were often architectural features such as fireplaces, windows, and false doors; books worked well (and their titles could be customised for the client). He observed that there is an element of a practical joke in trompe l’oeil painting; the first stage is the uncritical acceptance by the viewer of the illusion; the second stage is the realisation of the deception, and the means by which it has been achieved.
As a postscript to his talk, Tom showed us the famous painting of the Last Judgement on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Rome, which demonstrates a tremendous illusion of height and space – and helpfully cleared from the minds of his audience the misunderstanding that Michelangelo painted it while lying on his back. The artist’s own sketches, and his documented complaints about the damage he was doing to his back by the awkwardness of painting above him, prove he painted while standing up. Another illusion shattered….
Visit To Brighton Pavilion And Nymans Gardens 22 July 2010
An early start enabled fifty intrepid adventurers from Farnham DFAS to descend from their coach, directly in front of Brighton Pavilion, just in time to enjoy a refreshing cup of coffee and excellent homemade biscuits in the Pavilion tearooms. Having attended to the needs of our inner man or woman, we felt able to turn our minds to things artistic and historical.
We did this by means of an audio-guided tour of the quite extraordinary building which is the Prince Regent’s Pavilion. As the new craze for sea-bathing took off in the late eighteenth century, Prinny decided to build himself a fantasy palace in what had been a little fishing village called Brighthelmstone. Under his patronage it was turning into the fashionable resort of Brighton. The Chinese style of furnishing was having a great vogue in England so the Prince decided to have an Indian Taj Mahal-style exterior with all the Chinoiserie inside. The results are certainly intriguing and probably more comfortable to live in than Ludwig II’s fantasy mediaeval castle at Neuschwanstein in Bavaria. Queen Victoria, when it came into her hands, did not like it – the ceilings were too low and there was no sea-view. All the same, some of the rooms, particularly the Banqueting Hall, make a stunning impact. The audio-guide was useful in that everyone could go at his or her own speed but there was no opportunity to ask questions. This was a pity, particularly as, from the N|ADFAS point of view, there was surprisingly little comment on individual artefacts.
Lunchtime saw us heading for the gardens at Nymans in the Sussex Weald. Initially the weather let us down, so those who had brought their own picnics had a nostalgic meal with the familiar childhood feeling of rain crawling down the back of your neck as you ate. Luckily the sun returned by the time we re-assembled for our guided walks – two groups, one going further round the wilder gardens while the other concentrated on the more formal plantings towards the house. There was still plenty of colour in the herbaceous borders and we saw many enormous trees, even though the garden was badly damaged by the hurricane in the 1980s.
The guides’ commentary was interesting and informative, hitting a good balance between horticultural information and the fascinating story of the Messel family’s rise through three generations from Jewish refugees to Lord Lieutenant, mother-in-law of Princess Margaret, builders and inspired garden designers – and, of course, theatrical designer. The house itself was built on the whim of an early Messel lady who wanted a fourteenth-century manor house. The Georgian farmhouse was therefore demolished and replaced by an utterly convincing mediaeval house. Under the foundations of the Georgian building were discovered – the remains of a fourteenth century manor-house. Later ‘Tudor’ additions made the newbuild look even more authentic but sadly the whole building was badly damaged by fire and is now largely a romantic ruin. You couldn’t make it up!
Many thanks to Diana Crowther, Jeanne Stow and the driver for providing a most enjoyable day.
Copy by Jan Herbert