Rudolf Arnheim - Visual Dynamics

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1/8

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Visual DynamicsAuthor(s): Rudolf ArnheimSource: American Scientist, Vol. 76, No. 6 (November-December 1988), pp. 585-591Published by: Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/27855470.

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2/8

Visual

Dynamics

Rudolf

Arnheim

What

has

been the

most

important

development

in

the

psychology

of the

arts

during

the

twentieth

century?

My

own

answer

would have

to

be the

insight

that theworld

of

sensory

experience

ismade

up

primarily

not

of

things

but of

dynamic

forces. This realization has

had

to

oppose

a

long

tradition based

on

the

commonsense

view

that

a

basic difference exists between the

objects

populating

our

world and the

forces

setting

them in

motion,

forces

that

either

are

located

in

an

object

itself

or

push

and

pull

it

from the outside. In the nineteenth century, as Leopold

Infeld

explains

in

his book

on

Albert Einstein

(Infeld

1950),

physicists

believed in

two

laws

of

conservation,

of

mass

and

of

energy.

Energy,

such

as

heat,

occupies

and drives

things,

for

example engines,

but

it

was

believed

to

possess

neither

weight

nor mass

by

itself. Einstein

rejected

this distinc

tion.

Energy,

he

taught

us,

is

not

immaterial,

and

objects

are

bundles

of

energy.

I

have become

convinced

that

this

changed

conception

of

the

phys

ical world

applies equally

to

the

world of themind, the world presented to us by our

senses.

A

change

of

emphasis

transforms

the massive

substance of familiar

objects

into

configurations

of almost

dematerialized

action.

This

change

amounts not

only

to

a

fundamentally

different

way

of

experiencing

the world

around

us;

it also makes

for

a

decisive

advance

in

our

understanding

of

the

arts.

Perceptual

dynamics

is the

very

basis of

expression, expression

is

themanifestation

of

life,

and life

is

what

art

is

all about.

One of

our

sensory

modalities

makes

it

easy

for

us

to

experience

the

dynamics

of

objects

or

bodies because

it

offers

an

immediate

perception

of the

physical

forces that

activate

them.

Kinesthesis,

with

its

receptors

located

in

the

muscles,

tendons,

and

joints,

informs

us

about the

directed tensions

working

in

our

bodies

and

thereby

also

about

the forces

operating

in

things

with

which

we

come

in

touch.

Think

of

playing

with

a

kitten.

Not

only

is

the

commotion in

your

own

body

alive

in

your

conscious

ness,

but

almost

equally

so

is

that

of

the

small

animal,

experienced

as a

bundle

of

energy.

Compare

this

experience

with that

of

just

watching

the

play

of

the

kitten.

We

see

it

moving, jumping,

pushing,

but

now

the

physical

forces

generating

the

action

are

not

available

to

us.

This

is

so

because

vision

is

a

sense

that

reaches

across

space.

It

reports

about

shape

and

color

by

means

of

the

light

reflected from the

surface

of

an

object,

but

it

supplies

us

with

nothing

The

key

to

expression

in

visual

art

is

the

rendering

of

dynamic

orces

in

fixed mages

tangible

about the

physical

forces

operating

out

there.

And

yet

it

takes

only

a

bit of sensitive

attention

to

notice that

our

visual observation of

the

animal is also

a

thoroughly

dynamic event?dynamic

beyond

the obser

vation of

mere

locomotion.

Locomotion

can

be

all but

devoid

of

dynamics.

Ask

a

dancer about the

difference

between

just

extending

an arm

mechanically

and

push

ing

it

forward

aggressively

or

groping

with

caution.

Even

with

eyes

closed,

the

dancer

feels

the difference

in

her

limb. But?and here comes themiracle?the same differ

ence

is

perceived

at

a

distance

through

their

eyes

by

the

members of the audience.

The

shapes

of the

body

on

the

_

stage

are

carriers

of

dynamic

forces,

and

only

because

they

are

do

they

transmit artistic

expression.

The

forces inherent

invisual

per

ception

are

not

without

a

physical

basis of their

own.

This

basis,

how

ever,

is

not

situated

in

the

objects

perceived

but

in

the

nervous

system

of

the

perceiver. Physiologists

have

told

us

much about

how

single

shapes

and colors

are

generated

in

the retina and the cortical centers of the brain, but we

know

next to

nothing

about

the

organizational

and

dynamic

processes

constituting

the

life of

visual

experi

ence.

Even

so,

these

processes

must

have

physiological

equivalents

of

their

own,

and

my

personal

supposition

is

that

the

dynamics

perceived

in visual

objects

reflects

the

Figure

1.

The most

important

development

during

the twentieth

century

in

the

psychological study

of artistic

expression

has been

the

realization

that

sensory

experience

endows

stationary objects

with

dynamic

force.

The different

impressions

made

on

observers

by

the features of the

two

simplified

faces shown

here,

for

example?the

face

on

the left

seemed

aged,

sad,

and

mean,

the face

on

the

right

youthful

and

serene?are

the result

of

perceived

contractions

and

expansions

representing

the muscular

pattern

of

the human face.

(After

Galli

1964.)

1988 November-December 585


3/8

91

i

directed

forces

brought

about

when

stimuli

generated y

the

optical

nput

interact

with the

forces

that

make

up

the

corresponding

cortical

field.

While this is

mere

hypothesis,

there

can

be

no

question

about

the

ubiquity

of

dynamics

in visual

expe

rience. But there is no easy way to

measure

and

quantify

these

phenom

ena,

and

this

is

the

reason

that

they

have

not

been

given

their

due

place

in

the

experimental

literature.

A

sim

ple example

from studies of visual

expression

will

illustrate

the

present

state

of affairs.

Figure

1

is taken

from

a

monograph

by

Galli

(1964),

which

Figure

2.

The

German

psychologist

and

aesthetician

Theodor

Lipps pioneered

the

study

of

the

dynamics

of

expression.

Lipps's

prime

example

is

the

classical

column,

which

rises from

the

ground

and

expands

in

response

to the

weight

of the

lintel,

the

horizontal

member

on

top

of

it. The

columns shown in the

picture

on

the left

are

at

the ancient Roman

seaport

of

Leptis

Magna,

in

modern

Libya.

Curves

and

straight

lines

respectively

impose flexibility

and

rigidity

on

the visual

appearance

of

building

material.

A

striking example

of this

phenomenon

is the

seventeenth-century

church

of San Carlo

aile

Quattro

Fontane

in

Rome

(below),

whose

facade

displays

a

combination

of

the two effects.

586

American

Scientist,

Volume

76

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4/8

refers

back

to

a

well-known

early

investigation

by

Bruns

wik

and

Reiter

(1937).

In

both

cases

experimenters

asked,

as

many

would ask

today,

what kind

of facial

expression

was

created

by

the

measurable

variables

of

length

and

distance

in

the

features

of

the

simplified

faces.

Subjects

reported,

for

example,

that

the face

on

the

left

looked

aged,

sad,

and

mean,

whereas

the

face

on

the

right

looked youthful and serene.

Obviously,

however,

what

makes

these

faces look

the

way

they

do

is not

the

measurable

geometry

of

the

features but the

dynamic

tension

deriving

from

it,

namely

the

contraction

and

expansion

and

the

stretching

of

lines

and

proportions.

Only

the

dynamics explains

the

expression,

but

no

reference ismade

to

it

in

the

pertinent

literature.

When

visual

dynamics

has

been

acknowledged,

it

has

been

explained,

for

the

reason

given

above,

as

a

loan

from

kinesthesis.

Significantly,

it

was a

clinical

psychol

ogist,

Hermann

Rorschach

(1921),

who

for

the

interpre

tation

of

his

inkblot

test

needed

to

distinguish

between

two

kinds of

observers: those

who

while

looking,

for

example,

at

a

picture

of

a

bird in

flight

merely

know

that

the bird

is

flying

and thosewho

vividly

sense

the

dynamic

tension

animating

the

wings.

In

keeping

with the

psy

chological

conceptions

of

his

time,

Rorschach asserted

that

the

perceptual experience

becomes

dynamic

when

a

kinesthetic

resonance

in

the

body

of

the viewer is

added

to the

information

gathered by

the

eyes.

The

principle

Rorschach

used

to

explain

this

aspect

of

the

inkblot

test

is

known

as

empathy.

It

was

intro

duced

by

the

influential

psychologist,

philosopher,

and

aesthetician

Theodor

Lipps,

who maintained that

visual

perception

is

dynamized

when

a

viewer enriches it

by

a

kinesthetic

response

generated

within his

own

body.

What

this

theory

overlooked

was

the

phenomenon

to

which

this

article is

dedicated,

namely

the

fact that visual

experience

itself is

thoroughly dynamic

and

that

it

wak

ens

an

equally

dynamic

response

in

the

body

of the

viewer

only

because it is

dynamic.

Remarkably

enough,

it

was

Theodor

Lipps

himself

who,

guided

by

his

personal

sensitivity,

which

we

may

call

an

artistic

intuition,

moved

beyond

his

own

theory

of

empathy

and

the

psychological

axioms of his

generation.

The

first

section of

Lipps's

monograph

on

the

aesthetics

of

space

and

geometric-optical

illusions,

published

in

1897,

is in

my

opinion

the

most

important

statement

available

to

us on

the

subject

of

visual

dynamics?a

piece

of

pioneering entirely

unappreciated

by psychologists

up

to

this

day.

For

a

century,

psychologists

have accumulated

an

enormous

body

of

data

on

the

perception

of

shape,

color,

movement,

and

so

forth,

but,

as

I

showed

by

the

exam

ple

of

Figure

1,

with

very

few

exceptions

they

have

dealt

with the inventory of the visual world as essentially static

objects

defined

by

their

size,

shape,

location,

and

loco

motion and

related

to

other

objects

by

all sorts

of

con

nections.

Thus

although

I

said

at

the

beginning

that

I

consider

the

dynamics

of

perception

themost

important

acquisition

in

the field

of the

psychology

of

the

arts,

I

have

to

confess

now

that this

progress

has

come

about

essentially

behind the

back

of

the

profession.

A

notable

exception

to

this

general

situation

is Heinz Werner's

discussion of

"physiognomic

perception"

as

distin

guished

from

what

he

calls

"geometrical-technical

mat

Figure

3.

As shown

in this Greek

relief of

a

dancing

maenad from

the

late

fifth

century

B.c.,

visual

form

can

transform marble into

mobile fabric. The

opposite

effect?making

insubstantial materials

look

solid?is

also

possible.

ter-of-fact"

qualities

(Werner

1948)

and the

experiments

in

which he and his

collaborators showed that

"some

perceptual objects

express

a

vectorial

quality

definable

in

terms

of direction and

force"

(Werner

and

Wapner

1954;

Kaden

et

al.

1955;

Comalli

et

al.

1957).

It

was

not

by

coincidence

that

the

first

theoretical

acknowledgment

of

visual

dynamics

came

from

a

scholar

whose

psychological

interest

was

directed toward the

arts,

for

although

the

phenomenon

pervades

perception

in

general,

it

is

particularly

evident

to

persons

whose

minds

are

geared

to

the

expressive

qualities

ofwhat the

eyes

see;

and

these

qualities

are

apprehended, empha

sized, and sharpened in works of visual art. Lipps's

prime

example

is the

column

of

classical architecture

(Fig.

2).

The

column,

he

says,

rises

by

an

inherent visual

force,

opposing

the

physical

force

of

gravity,

which

draws

the

marble

downward. In

its horizontal

section

the

column

displays

a

tension

between

an

expansion

of

its

girth

and

a

counteracting

constriction.

These inherent

forces

are

not

transmitted

by

the column

as

such but

by

the

spatial

dimensions

of

its

lines,

planes,

and

volumes.

In

other

words,

the carrier of

visual

dynamics

is the

perceived

form,

not the

material of

which

an

art

object

is

1988 November-December 587



5/8

Figure

4.

Unlike the

flowing

lines of the

sculpture

in

Figure

3,

strict

geometrical

elements

such

as

the

pyramid

convey

a

pure

but

rigid

visual

experience.

This

Mayan pyramid

on

the

Yucatan

Peninsula of

Mexico demonstrates

the

dynamics

of

sharp

pointedness

and

upward

rise. Each

edge

is

straight

and

unchanging.

made.

Form

determines the

experience

to

such

an

extent

that

it

overrules

a

viewer's

knowledge

of

the

physical

medium. What

looks

hard and

heavy

can

be

made

of

flimsy Styrofoam,

or,

more

often,

what

looks soft and

flexiblemay be made of stone. Lipps refers to architec

ture in

this

connection.

An

obvious

example

would be

certain

baroque buildings,

such

as

Borromini's small

church

of

San

Carlo aile

Quattro

Fontane

(Fig.

2),

whose

facade

softens

the

stone

within

the

horizontal

planes

into

forward- and

inward-swinging

shapes;

at

the

same

time,

the

facade maintains

sufficient

straightness

in the

verticals

to

avoid

a sense

of

flabby

pliability,

which

Figure

5.

The

difference

between

unchanging

geometrical

elements

and

elements

subject

to

change

is

illustrated

by

these

pictures

of

the

Sydney

opera

house

as

originally designed (top)

and

as

modified

to

simplify

the

casting

of the

sail-like concrete shells

(bottom).

The

intended

profiles

are

parabolic

curves,

whose

curvature

changes

at

each

point;

the

final

version

uses

unchanging

circular

curves,

with

the

consequence

that

the visual

expression

of the roofline

loses

some

of

its

impetus.

(From

The

Other

Taj

Mahal,

by

John

Yeomans.)

would

sabotage

the

solidity

of

the

building. Similarly,

in

a

Greek

relief of

a

dancing

maenad

(Fig.

3),

the

curving

folds of

the

garment

impose

a

gracefully

undulating

motion

upon

the

grainy

texture

of

the

marble.

Lipps

also

makes

enlightening

observations about

the

expression

of

geometrical

shapes.

On the

one

hand,

the

pure

geometry

of,

say,

a

stone

pyramid

(Fig.

4)

displays the dynamics of sharp pointedness and upward

rise

with

the

greatest

clarity

because each

direction of

edge

or

plane

is

straight

and

unmitigated.

On

the other

hand,

however,

the

obstinate

uniformity

of

such

shapes

makes

them

internally rigid.

The

absence of

change

within

each

element

excludes

new

dynamic

impulses.

A

straight edge,

once

straight,

remains

straight

throughout

its

course.

A

circle maintains its

rate

of

curvature.

The

effect

can

be

illustrated

by

modifications

made in

J?rn

Utzon's

design

for the

Sydney

opera

house

(Fig.

5).

The

profile

of

the

shells,

resembling

sails,

was

conceived

by

the

architect

as

reducible

to

parabolic

curves,

because

a

parabola

changes

the

rate

of

its

curvature at

every

point

and

therefore is

dynamized

by

an

internal

crescendo.

This

same

change

of

curvature,

however,

would have

required the builder to provide a different form for

casting

each

section

of

the

concrete

shells.

For

economy's

sake,

the

paraboloidal

surfaces

were

changed

to

spherical

ones,

which

allowed

a

single

form

to

be

used

for the

casting

throughout

but also

lessened the bold

swing

of

the

shells

intended

by

the

architect.

The

principal

contribution

of

the

fundamental

geo

metrical

shapes

to

visual

dynamics

becomes

evident

when

one

remembers that

dynamics

is

created

typically

by

a

deviation from

a

base. For

example,

in

a

photograph

by

Robert Sowers

(Fig.

6)

the

tension

conveyed

by

the

leaning

position

of

the

sleeping

man

and

the

diagonal

of

the

railing

ismade

explicit by

the

door,

the

steps,

and

the

wall,

supplying

the horizontal and vertical

framework,

the

zero

level fromwhich the

obliquely

oriented

shapes

deviate.

Lipps

warns,

however,

that

departures

from the

basic

framework

will

lead

to

an

effective

result

only

when

they

avoid

arbitrariness.

In all

its

complex

detail,

the

liberated

pattern

must

possess

an

inner

consistency,

which

Lipps

calls

its

"natural

flow." Thus when Matisse

cuts out

the

abstraction of

a

dancer

with his

scissors

(Fig.

7),

a

fluid

spine?if

there

can

be

such

a

thing?

pervades

the entire

figure,

moving

smoothly

into all the

branches and

integrating

the

whole

to

embody

an

indi

vidual

logic

all

its

own.

So

far,

I

have talked about

dynamics only

as

an

attribute of

visual

perception,

and

I

have noted

that

although

it is

an

essential

quality

of

sensory

expression,

it

has

escaped

the attention of

psychologists

almost

entirely.

In

another

part

of the

field,

not

unrelated

to

the

arts,

psychologists

are

quite

familiarwith the

dynamics

of

human

behavior,

namely

in

the

theory

ofmotivation.

If

we

think of

the

mind

as

operating

on

the

infrastructure

of

a

homeostatic

equilibrium,

we

can

say

that

any

stim

ulation from the

outside

or

inside

of

an

organism

will

upset

the

balance of that basic

state

and lead

directly

to

a

countermove.

The

upset

motivates action.

Sigmund

Freud

(1920),

in

particular,

formulated

this

idea with

great

clarity

in

Beyond

the leasure

Principle:

"In

the

theory

of

psycho-analysis

we

have

no

hesitation

in

assurning

that

the

course

taken

by

mental

events

is

588

American

Scientist,

Volume

76



6/8

Figure

6.

As shown

in

this

photograph by

Robert

Sowers,

visual

dynamics

is

generated by

deviations from

verticality

and

horizontality.

The

oblique positions

of

the

sleeping

man

and the

railing

endow

their immobile

shapes

with visual tension.

automatically regulated by

the

pleasure principle.

We

believe,

that is

to

say,

that the

course

of

those

events is

invariably

set

in motion

by

an

unpleasurable

tension,

and that it

takes

a

direction such

that

its

final

outcome

coincides with

a

lowering

of that tension?that

is,

with

an

avoidance of

unpleasure

or a

production

of

pleasure"

(Standard

Edition,

vol.

18,

p.

7).

Freud

had

a

preference

for

immobility,

or even

death,

as

the

final

goal

of

the

organism's

aspirations.

We

may

want to

compensate

for

this

one-sidedness

by

observing

that the stimulation

brought

about

by change, challenge,

and adventure is

as

desirable

to

themind

as

the reestablishment of

equilib

rium.

In

this

more

comprehensive

form

we

find Freud's

principle

useful

in

accounting

for what incites human

beings

to

respond

with

artmaking

to the

challenges

of

life

and to seek out works of art in search of questions and

answers.

The

mechanism of

motivational

dynamics

in

human

behavior

is

reflected

in

the

art

media that

present

hap

penings

in

time?the

cinema, music,

and

dance,

and

especially

the theater

play,

the

prototype

of

sequential

action.

Aristotle,

in

the Poetics

(VII,

3;

1450b),

describes

the

drama

as

a

whole,

consisting

of

a

beginning,

a

middle,

and

an

end.

"A

beginning,"

he

says,

"is

that

which

is

not

itself

necessarily

after

anything

else,

and

which has

naturally

something

else

after

it;

an

end is

that

which is

naturally

after

something

itself,

either as its

necessary

or

usual

consequent,

and with

nothing

else

after

it;

and

a

middle,

thatwhich is

by

nature

after

one

thing

and

has

also another

after it"

(Aristotle

1940,

p.

21).

If

we

translate

this

uninspiring

enumeration

of

parts

into

dynamic

terms,

it

says

that

a

configuration

of

directed

forces

is

set

up,

which

face

one

another

in

conflict,

generating

a

crescendo

of tension. The conflict is acted

out,

with

each force

trying

to

obtain

a

reduction

of

tension

in

its

own

way

until

a

general

denouement

or

unraveling

of the knot reduces

all tension

to

zero.

The

commotion has

stopped.

The

protagonist

has

attained

his

goal

or

has succumbed

to

the

struggle.

The

drama

ends

as

an

open

system,

as

the

physicists

would

say,

when

all the

energy

is

dispersed

and the action has

run

out.

While

the

temporal

arts

present

the

motivational

Rudolf

Arnheim is

Professor

Emeritus

of

the

Psychology

of

Art,

Harvard

University.

He

has also

taught

at

Sarah

Lawrence

College,

theNew School

for

Social

Research,

and

the

University

ofMichigan.

He

has

published

numerous

books and articles

on

art and

psychology,

including

an

article in

American Scientist

(January-February

1986)

on

"The

Artistry

of

Psychotics."

Selections

from

his

notebooks,

1959-1986,

will be

published by

the

University of California

Press in 1989. Address:

1133

South

Seventh

Street,

Ann

Arbor,

Ml 48103.

1988 November-December

589



7/8

forces

in their

coming

and

going,

a

timeless medium

such

as

painting

portrays

human life

as

a

closed

system

in

which all relevant

forces

are

shown

together

in

con

figuration,

each

in

its

characteristic

direction and

appro

priate

strength.

Timeless

images

have the function of

letting

our

rnind

cope

with the

flight

of

events

which

in

our

daily

lives

are

consumed

by

the

very

moment

that

generated them. To understand their interaction, we

must

be able

to set

them

against

one

another

in

a

confrontation.

The

German

philosopher

Karl

Philipp

Moritz,

in

a

curious

meditation

written in

1787,

sug

gested

that the

events

experienced by

humans

in

an

unrolling

sequence

exist

in

the

consciousness

of

God

as

a

simultaneity.

In

God,

he

said,

"the entire life of

a

person

stands

eternally

in

juxtaposition

like

a

painting,

in

which

light

and shadow

mterrningle beautifully,

whereas the

human

being

must

live

through

it

to

comprehend

it"

(Werte,

vol.

3,

p.

307).

In

a

painting,

then,

the forces

that make

up

its

composition

are

deprived

of themotion of

events

and

display

their directed tension

through

immobile but

dynamically

animated form. To understand visual

art in

its

own

terms

as a

translation of live action into timeless

images

is

an

intuitive

ability

given

to

everybody,

even

to

children.

The difference

between

action

and

image

was

clarified

theoretically by

the

German dramatist

and

critic

Gotthold

Ephraim Lessing

(1766)

in

a

classic

essay

on

the

Figure

7.

A

great

artist like

Henri Matisse

knows how

to fit

the

dynamic impulses

of the

components

to

the

overall flow of

the

total

composition.

His

paper

cutout

La

Danseuse

possesses

a

fluid

spine

that

winds

smoothly

into

all

the branches

of

the

figure.

(Courtesy

of

Robert

Motherwell.)

confines

of

painting

and

poetry.

Lessing explained

that

painting

relies

on

shapes

and colors

in

space,

and liter

ature

uses

sequences

of

words

in

time;

so

that

painting

can

represent

action

only through

the

composition

of

shapes

whereas

literature

describes

objects

or

situations

best

through

scenes

of

action. But

one can

also

ignore

the

fact that

images

translate

action into

a

medium

governed

by different principles. One can force an image into the

dimension of

time

and

misinterpret

its

immobility

as

paralysis

or

immortality,

as

John

Keats

did,

for

poetical

purposes,

in

his "Ode

on

a

Grecian

Urn,"

where lovers

never

reach

their

objective

and

trees

are

in

foliage

for

ever.

One

can

also

overlook

the difference between the

media

out

of

pedantry,

as

happened historically

when

painters

who

used

the

plots

of theater

plays

as

subjects

for

their

pictures

were

accused

by

critics

of

showing

persons

and actions

together

that

appeared separately

in

sequence

on

the

stage.

For

an

example

Iwill

rely

on

an

article

by

the

art

historian

James

Henry

Rubin

(1977),

which

recounts

what

happened

in

1802 when the French

painter

Pierre-Narcisse

Gu?rin

exhibited

a

painting

de

rived from Jean Racine's tragedy Ph?dre. The play tells

the

mythological

story

of

Phaedra,

wife

of

King

Theseus,

who

falls

in

love

with her

stepson

Hippolytus

and is

persuaded

by

her

confidante

Oenone

to

accuse

the

son

of

trying

to

seduce

her.

The

enraged king

has his

innocent

son

killed,

while

Phaedra,

overcome

by

her

sense

of

guilt,

takes

poison.

The death of

the

two

leading

characters releases the

tension

created

by

the conflict.

The

painter

Gu?rin,

a

classicist follower of

Jacques-Louis

David,

shows the

principal

themes of the

plot

in

their

direct

interaction

(Fig.

8).

Hippolytus

rejects

the

accusa

tion;

his father listens

to

him with

deep apprehension;

and the

queen,

in

the turmoil

of

her

conflicting impulses,

turns

away

from the

confrontation

and

is

urged by

her

confidante

to

insist

on

the false

accusation.

Gu?rin,

whom the

poet

Charles

Baudelaire called

an

abstractor of

quintessences,

reduces each

figure

to its

dynamic

theme.

Hippolytus, petrified

and

detached

by

some

distance from

the

group,

does

not

actively

engage

in

his defense.

The

verticality

of

his

stance

and

the

right

angle

that

straightens

his

gesture

of

rejection

freeze

his

response

into

immobility,

whereas the

king,

closed off

by

a

rectangular

backwall,

is

swept

away

from

his

son

in

a

powerful diagonal

wave.

The

queen

is

caught

in

this

rebound

but

is

nevertheless

kept

out

of

it

by

her

frontal

ity,

which ties

her

to

the

equally

frontal

position

of

Hippolytus.

The

innocent

youth

and the

gu?ty

woman

are

kept parallel by

their detachment from the

sweep

of

the

accusation,

while the confidante seeks

to

increase the

intensity

of the attack.

The

schematic

theatricality

of

Gu?rin's

painting

in

terfereswith its life s awork of art to thepoint ofmaking

it

look

ridiculous,

but

its

very

abstractness

makes

it

particularly

useful

as

an

illustration of the

perceptual

principle

I

have been

trying

to

describe.

An

episode

of

human

life

is

reduced

to

a

configuration

of

visual

forces,

which

spells

out

the conflict

diagrammatically.

The dia

gram,

however,

is

not

given

directly

and

nakedly.

We

envisage

it

only

in the

painted figures

of

the

actors,

because

perception

does

not

consist

in

the

simple

record

ing

of

shapes

but

in

the

grasping

of the structure

under

lying

the

appearance

of

the

objects.

This

perceptual

590 American

Scientist,

Volume

76



8/8

JBB^

^ u,i

inn

ppn-T,,

^fffl^g^^^psPj?fliF^^^^^^^Wi^^^ft?BP.ii;;,?.

,|;

^^^^^S?r

v\

Figure

8. In

the

painting

Ph?dre

et

Hippolyte

(1802),

the French

artist Pierre-Narcisse Gu?rin tells

the

mythological

story

of

Phaedra,

translating

a

sequence

of

events

from

a

theater

play

by

the

seventeenth-century

dramatist

Jean

Racine into

a

single

configuration

of

directed

forces.

The

interplay

of

the

oblique

lines created

by

the

figures

of

Phaedra

and her husband

King

Theseus

on

the

right

and the vertical

and

horizontal lines of

Hippolytus

on

the

left

presents

the

dramatic

conflict

in

purely

visual

terms.

(Mus?es

Nationaux,

Paris.)

reduction

serves

not

only

to

clarify

the

nature

of

the

objects

and

their

behavior;

it

also

defines the material

presence

of the

pictorial

scene as

a

dynamic happening

extracted

from

the

flow of

human

events.

But

there

is

more.

Any

abstraction

raises

an

individ

ual instance

to

the

level of

a

more

general

validity,

and

the

reduction

of

a

percept

to

its

structural skeleton

is

already

such

an

abstraction.

This

is

why

any

ordinary

perception

conveys

to

a

reasonably

alert

rrtind

more

than

the individual

instance

that

gave

rise

to

it?a

desirable

gain,

which is all the

more

effectively

obtained when

an

artist

sharpens

the

pattern

of forces

inherent

in

the form

of his

work. He

thereby helps

us

to

acquire

the

kind

of

wisdom thatmakes us espy a kernel of truthbeneath the

surface of

our

images.

References

Aristotle.

1940. Aristotle's Art

of

Poetry,

trans.

W. H.

Fyfe.

Clarendon

Press.

Brunswik, E.,

and L.

Reiter. 1937.

Eindruckscharaktere schematisierter

Gesichter.

Zeitschrift ?r

Psychologie

142:67-134.

Comalli, P.E.,

Jr.,

H.

Werner,

and S.

Wapner.

1957. Studies

in

phy

siognomic

perception:

III.

Effect of

directional

dynamics

and

mean

ing-induced

sets

on

autokinetic

motions.

/.

Psych.

43:289-99.

Freud,

S. 1920.

Jenseits

des

Lustprinzips.

In The

Standard

Edition

of

the

Complete

Psychological

Works

of Sigmund

Freud,

vol.

18,

trans.

J.

Strachey, Hogarth

Press and

Inst.

of

Psycho-Analysis,

1955.

Galli,

G. 1964.

Sulle

qualit?

formali

dell'area

fisionomica. Bologna:

Istituto

di

Psicologia

dell'Universit?.

Infeld,

L.

1950. Albert Einstein.

Scribner's.

Kaden,

S.

E.,

S.

Wapner,

and H. Werner. 1955.

Studies

in

physiogno

mic

perception:

II.

Effect of directional

dynamics

of

pictured

objects

and of words

on

the

position

of

the

apparent

horizon.

/.

Psych.

39:61-70.

Lessing,

G.

E.

1766. Laokoon:

oder ?ber die Grenzen der

Mahlerey

und

Poesie.

(Laoco?n:

An

Essay

on

the Limits

of

Painting

and

Poetry,

trans.

E.

A.

McCormick,

Bobbs-Merrill,

1962.)

Lipps,

T.

1897.

Raumaesthetik und

geometrisch-optische

T?u

schungen.

Schriften

der

Gesellschaft

f?r

psychologische

Forschung,

vol.

2,

pp. 295-726.

Moritz,

K. P. 1787.

Fragmente

aus

dem

Tagebuche

eines

Geistersehers.

In

Werke,

vol.

3,

ed. Horst

G?nther,

Frankfurt: Insel

Verlag,

1981.

Rorschach,

H.

1921.

Psychodiagnostik. (Psychodiagnostics,

trans. P. Lem

kau and B.

Kronenberg,

Gr?ne and

Stratton,

1942.)

Rubin,

J.

H.

1977. Gu?rin's

painting

of

Ph?dre and the

post-revolu

tionary

revival of

Racine. Art Bull. 59:601-18.

Werner,

H. 1948.

Comparative Psychology

of

Mental

Development,

rev.

ed.

International Universities

Press.

Werner, H.,

and S.

Wapner.

1954. Studies in

physiognomic

perception:

I.

Effect

of

configurational dynamics

and

meaning-induced

sets

on

the

position

of the

apparent

median

plane.

/.

Psych.

38:51-65.

1988

November-December

591

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Rudolf Arnheim - Visual Dynamics

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