People often see hidden faces in things. Depending on the circumstances, this is referred to as pareidolia, the perception or recognition of a specific pattern or form in something essentially different. It is thus also a kind of optical illusion. When an artist notices that two different things have a similar appearance, and draws or paints a picture making this similarity evident, they make images with double meanings. Many of these images are hidden faces or hidden skulls.
These illusionistic pictures present the viewer with a mental choice of two interpretations: head or landscape, head or objects, head or architecture, etc. Both of them are valid, but the viewer sees only one of them, and very often they cannot see both interpretations simultaneously.
Chance image: An alarm clock where a "sad face" could be perceived.
Sometimes buildings provide shapes which can be interpreted as "faces". (In Mon Oncle the filmmaker Jaques Tati gave a house "rolling eyes" by letting two actors move behind the windows.)
There are everyday examples of hidden faces, they are "chance images" including faces in the clouds, figures of the Rorschach Test and the Man in the Moon. Leonardo da Vinci wrote about them in his notebook: "If you look at walls that are stained or made of different kinds of stones you can think you see in them certain picturesque views of mountains, rivers, rocks, trees, plains, broad valleys, and hills of different shapes. You can also find in them battles and rapidly moving figures, strange faces and costumes, as well as an infinite number of things." Francois and Jean Robert collected and published a lot of photos of "chance faces".
The Mannerist master at the 16th-century imperial Habsburg courts of Vienna and Prague, Giuseppe Arcimboldo of Milan was probably the best known artist for creating extraordinary hidden faces. He arranged flowers, vegetables, fruits, shells, scallops and other animals, books and different things on the canvas in such a way that the whole collection of objects formed a portrait. His series of The Four Seasons seems to be the first use of this approach and technique. Arcimboldo's composite heads were celebrated and imitated by his contemporaries but they were relatively forgotten until participants in the twentieth-century art movements rediscovered them, bringing them to the attention of art historians. He is considered as forerunner of Dada and Surrealism.[citation needed]
Salvador Dalí was fascinated by the technique of Arcimboldo and his paranoia-critical method was influenced by the Mannerist painter. For Dalí the Arcimboldo effect was a form of self concealment as well as this exhibitionist painter seemed, all throughout his life of constant posturing, to hide his real self behind the gaudy externals of his behaviour. Larvatus prodeo, "I wear a mask," he could have said with Descartes and he used this quotation from the French philosopher for the epigraph of his novel Hidden Faces.[citation needed] Probably his most famous "hidden face" is Voltaire in his oil painting: "Slave Market with the Disappearing Bust of Voltaire". Other Surrealist painters rediscovered the technique of hidden faces in the first part of 20th century:
Istvan Orosz tries to combine the technique of anamorphosis with the hidden faces. Anamorphosis is used for those works of art that were made as distorted and unrecognizable through clever geometrical constructions. But when viewed from a certain point, or through a reflecting object placed upon it, the hidden image appears in its true shape, that is, it goes through retransformation. Orosz made experiments with anamorphoses not only in resurrecting the old technique but to improve and develop it. Instead of having a meaningless distorted image, his intent is to bring sense to the basic anamorphic picture, giving it meaning in itself with its second reading being revealed by viewing it from a different viewpoint such as looking at it through a special mirror.[1] The ambiguous layers coming up by this approach make use of the connection or contrast of the two images within the same picture being independent from each other.[2]
There are many other contemporary works using hidden faces:
The pioneering study on the matter is an academic dissertation, unpublished to this day: Anita Joplin, The Anthropomorphic Landscape: A Study in 16th Century Imagery (unpublished thesis, Reed College), 1974.
On anthropomorphic landscapes
Fernand Hallyn, "Le paysage anthropomorphe", Yves Giraud (ed.), Le Paysage à la Renaissance, Fribourg: Editions universitaires de Fribourg, 1988, pp. 43 ss.
Michel Weemans & Jean-Hubert Martin (eds.), Le paysage anthropomorphe à la Renaissance (international conference proceedings, 2009), Paris: Réunion des musées nationaux, (awatiting publication).
Michel Weemans, "Herri met de Bles’s sleeping peddler: an exegetical and anthropomorphic landscape", The Art Bulletin, Vol. 88, Iss. 3, pp. 459–481.
Andreas Hauser, « Andrea Mantegnas ‘Wolkenreiter’: Manifestationen von kunstloser Natur oder Ursprung von vexierbildhafter Kunst ? », Gerhart von Graevenitz, Stefan Rieger, Felix Thürlemann (eds.), Die Unvermeidlichkeit der Bilder, Tübingen, 2001, pp. 147-172.
Omar Calabrese (2006): Artists' Self-Portraits, ISBN978-0-7892-0894-1 (The book has a chapter on artists who hide self-portraits in their pictures: e.g. Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Rembrandt, van Gogh, Munch, Dalí, Albrecht Dürer, Velàzquez, Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun, Ingres, Degas, Toulouse-Lautrec, Gainsborough, Matisse, James Ensor, Egon Schiele, Frida Kahlo, Man Ray, Henry Moore, Robert Rauschenberg, Norman Rockwell, and Roy Lichtenstein.)
On crypto-images more broadly
Walter Melion, Bret Rothstein, Michel Weemans (eds.), The Anthropomorphic Lens: Anthropomorphism, Microcosmism and Analogy in Early Modern Thought and Visual Arts, Leiden: Brill, 2015.
Jean-Hubert Martin (ed.), Une image peut en cacher une autre - Arcimboldo, Dalí, Raetz (exhibition catalogue), Paris: Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, 2009. ISBN978-2-7118-5586-5
Jean-Hubert Martin, Stephan Andreae (eds.), Das endlose Rätsel. Dalí und die Magier der Mehrdeutigkeit (exhibition catalogue, Düsseldorf, Museum Kunst Palast), Ostfildern-Ruit, 2003.
Dario Gamboni, Potential images: ambiguity and indeterminacy in modern art, London: Reaktion, 2002.
Jean-Claude Lebensztejn, L'art de la tache: Introduction à la Nouvelle methode d'Alexander Cozens, Paris: Éditions du Limon, 1990.
Jean-Didier Urbain, "La crypto-image ou le palimpseste iconique", Eidos, 5, 1991, p. 1-16, et
On chance images
Horst W. Janson, "The ‘Image made by Chance’ in Renaissance Thought", Millard Meiss (ed.), De Artibus opuscula XL. Essays in Honor of Erwin Panofsky, New York, 1961, I, pp. 254– 266, II, pp. 87–88.
Horst Woldemar: "Chance Images", in: Dictionary of the History of Ideas. Studies of Selected Pivotal Ideas, ed. Philip P. Wiener, vol. 1, New York 1973, pp. 340-353.
Notes
^. gallery-diabolus.com. Archived from the original on 2007-09-27.
^. gallery-diabolus.com. Archived from the original on 2007-09-27.
April 18, 2023
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For other uses see Hidden face disambiguation This article needs additional citations for verification Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources Unsourced material may be challenged and removed Find sources Hidden face news newspapers books scholar JSTOR October 2010 Learn how and when to remove this template message People often see hidden faces in things Depending on the circumstances this is referred to as pareidolia the perception or recognition of a specific pattern or form in something essentially different It is thus also a kind of optical illusion When an artist notices that two different things have a similar appearance and draws or paints a picture making this similarity evident they make images with double meanings Many of these images are hidden faces or hidden skulls These illusionistic pictures present the viewer with a mental choice of two interpretations head or landscape head or objects head or architecture etc Both of them are valid but the viewer sees only one of them and very often they cannot see both interpretations simultaneously The Organ Player Pareidolia phenomenon in Neptune s Grotto Sardinia Contents 1 Chance images 2 Hidden faces created by artists 3 See also 4 Literature 4 1 On anthropomorphic landscapes 4 2 On crypto images more broadly 4 3 On chance images 5 NotesChance images Edit Chance image An alarm clock where a sad face could be perceived Sometimes buildings provide shapes which can be interpreted as faces In Mon Oncle the filmmaker Jaques Tati gave a house rolling eyes by letting two actors move behind the windows There are everyday examples of hidden faces they are chance images including faces in the clouds figures of the Rorschach Test and the Man in the Moon Leonardo da Vinci wrote about them in his notebook If you look at walls that are stained or made of different kinds of stones you can think you see in them certain picturesque views of mountains rivers rocks trees plains broad valleys and hills of different shapes You can also find in them battles and rapidly moving figures strange faces and costumes as well as an infinite number of things Francois and Jean Robert collected and published a lot of photos of chance faces Hidden faces created by artists Edit Marcus Gheeraerts the Elder Allegory of Iconoclasts c 1567 Hidden Face of the Baker in an illustration by Henry Holiday to Lewis Carroll s The Hunting of the Snark 1876 The Mannerist master at the 16th century imperial Habsburg courts of Vienna and Prague Giuseppe Arcimboldo of Milan was probably the best known artist for creating extraordinary hidden faces He arranged flowers vegetables fruits shells scallops and other animals books and different things on the canvas in such a way that the whole collection of objects formed a portrait His series of The Four Seasons seems to be the first use of this approach and technique Arcimboldo s composite heads were celebrated and imitated by his contemporaries but they were relatively forgotten until participants in the twentieth century art movements rediscovered them bringing them to the attention of art historians He is considered as forerunner of Dada and Surrealism citation needed Some other famous Renaissance and Baroque artists created hidden faces citation needed Tobias Stimmer Hans Holbein the Younger Matthaus Merian Maria Sibylla Merian Marcus Gheeraerts the Elder Wenzel Hollar Josse de MomperSalvador Dali was fascinated by the technique of Arcimboldo and his paranoia critical method was influenced by the Mannerist painter For Dali the Arcimboldo effect was a form of self concealment as well as this exhibitionist painter seemed all throughout his life of constant posturing to hide his real self behind the gaudy externals of his behaviour Larvatus prodeo I wear a mask he could have said with Descartes and he used this quotation from the French philosopher for the epigraph of his novel Hidden Faces citation needed Probably his most famous hidden face is Voltaire in his oil painting Slave Market with the Disappearing Bust of Voltaire Other Surrealist painters rediscovered the technique of hidden faces in the first part of 20th century Max Ernst citation needed Rene Magritte citation needed Istvan Orosz tries to combine the technique of anamorphosis with the hidden faces Anamorphosis is used for those works of art that were made as distorted and unrecognizable through clever geometrical constructions But when viewed from a certain point or through a reflecting object placed upon it the hidden image appears in its true shape that is it goes through retransformation Orosz made experiments with anamorphoses not only in resurrecting the old technique but to improve and develop it Instead of having a meaningless distorted image his intent is to bring sense to the basic anamorphic picture giving it meaning in itself with its second reading being revealed by viewing it from a different viewpoint such as looking at it through a special mirror 1 The ambiguous layers coming up by this approach make use of the connection or contrast of the two images within the same picture being independent from each other 2 There are many other contemporary works using hidden faces Shigeo Fukuda citation needed Octavio Ocampo citation needed Sandro del Prete citation needed Giuseppe Arcimboldo Vertumnus a portrait of Rudolf II 1590 1591 Reversible Head with Basket of Fruit oil on panel painting by Giuseppe Arcimboldo c 1590 Giuseppe Arcimboldo The Librarian c 1566 Tobias Stimmer Hidden Portrait of the Pope 1577 All is Vanity by C Allan Gilbert Life death and meaning of existence are intertwined Wenzel Hollar 1607 1677 LandscapeSee also EditAnamorphosis Anthropomorphism Face perception Hide and Seek painting Rubin vase UtiszLiterature EditThe pioneering study on the matter is an academic dissertation unpublished to this day Anita Joplin The Anthropomorphic Landscape A Study in 16th Century Imagery unpublished thesis Reed College 1974 On anthropomorphic landscapes Edit Fernand Hallyn Le paysage anthropomorphe Yves Giraud ed Le Paysage a la Renaissance Fribourg Editions universitaires de Fribourg 1988 pp 43 ss Michel Weemans amp Jean Hubert Martin eds Le paysage anthropomorphe a la Renaissance international conference proceedings 2009 Paris Reunion des musees nationaux awatiting publication Michel Weemans Herri met de Bles s sleeping peddler an exegetical and anthropomorphic landscape The Art Bulletin Vol 88 Iss 3 pp 459 481 Andreas Hauser Andrea Mantegnas Wolkenreiter Manifestationen von kunstloser Natur oder Ursprung von vexierbildhafter Kunst Gerhart von Graevenitz Stefan Rieger Felix Thurlemann eds Die Unvermeidlichkeit der Bilder Tubingen 2001 pp 147 172 Omar Calabrese 2006 Artists Self Portraits ISBN 978 0 7892 0894 1 The book has a chapter on artists who hide self portraits in their pictures e g Leonardo da Vinci Michelangelo Rembrandt van Gogh Munch Dali Albrecht Durer Velazquez Elisabeth Vigee Lebrun Ingres Degas Toulouse Lautrec Gainsborough Matisse James Ensor Egon Schiele Frida Kahlo Man Ray Henry Moore Robert Rauschenberg Norman Rockwell and Roy Lichtenstein On crypto images more broadly Edit Walter Melion Bret Rothstein Michel Weemans eds The Anthropomorphic Lens Anthropomorphism Microcosmism and Analogy in Early Modern Thought and Visual Arts Leiden Brill 2015 Jean Hubert Martin ed Une image peut en cacher une autre Arcimboldo Dali Raetz exhibition catalogue Paris Galeries nationales du Grand Palais 2009 ISBN 978 2 7118 5586 5 Jean Hubert Martin Stephan Andreae eds Das endlose Ratsel Dali und die Magier der Mehrdeutigkeit exhibition catalogue Dusseldorf Museum Kunst Palast Ostfildern Ruit 2003 Dario Gamboni Potential images ambiguity and indeterminacy in modern art London Reaktion 2002 Jean Claude Lebensztejn L art de la tache Introduction a la Nouvelle methode d Alexander Cozens Paris Editions du Limon 1990 Jean Didier Urbain La crypto image ou le palimpseste iconique Eidos 5 1991 p 1 16 etOn chance images Edit Horst W Janson The Image made by Chance in Renaissance Thought Millard Meiss ed De Artibus opuscula XL Essays in Honor of Erwin Panofsky New York 1961 I pp 254 266 II pp 87 88 Horst Woldemar Chance Images in Dictionary of the History of Ideas Studies of Selected Pivotal Ideas ed Philip P Wiener vol 1 New York 1973 pp 340 353 Notes Edit Anamorphosis with double meanings landscape and portrait of Jules Verne in the mirror cylinder gallery diabolus com Archived from the original on 2007 09 27 Anamorphosis with double meanings a theatre and portrait of William Shakespeare View from a narrow angle gallery diabolus com Archived from the original on 2007 09 27 Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Hidden face amp oldid 1142735110, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,
