Fun and games, nr 2: Another question of perspective.

Hello my friends, 

A few weeks ago I showed you the diorama or peep show that was a popular way of entertainment in the seventeen and eighteen hundreds. The next subjects popularity in this little series about historical fun and games was rather shortlived. It became popular in the mid 17th century but fell out of favour already 25 years later. 

Why? It involves a lot of artistic skill and mathematical knowledge of the maker. Therefore these were expensive and not every artiest could make one. Another downside is that you can not change the scènes like with a diorama. So people actualy got bored with them and many ended up as a oddity in someones art collection or attic, no longer recognised for their ingenuity. 

The painted perspective box. 

Detroit Institute of Arts 

As the title suggests I am talking about the perspective box. Here not a succession of drawings make up a three dimensional scene like in the diorama, but a single scene is painted on the inside of a triangular or rectangular box in such a (distorted) way to suggest a perfect image when seen from the right vantagepoint. As I said, few were made, and even fewer have survived until this day. 

Bredius Museum (Den Haag) 

Only 6 are known to be in existence today. They are all from the middle of the 17th century and seem to be made as object d'art that display the skill and talent of the artist who made them. Rather than simple divertisment like the diorama. 

In other words. The perspective box was not meant as 'simple' entertainment. It's place is rather among the paintings and objects in an art collection. But the (unsuspecting) person who looks into it will be astonished and entertained none the less. The painter of the box I have used here is Samuel van Hoogstraten. And this box can be seen in the National Gallery in London. 

Why did I choose this box. Partly because this box is photographed inside and out and these photos are available on the internet, although it was a hell of a job to find them. 

National Gallery (London) 

But I also chose this one because it is a great and beautiful object! But without these high quality pictures I would not have a chance to to make a miniature version that is this precise. 

Here too I used the card board. I glued the printed paintings on the cardboard. Then I cut the panels out with 2mm allowances where another panel was to be glued in place. The holes in the sides were "expertly" made with the use of a standerd office perforator. luckily the diameter of the perforator was almost perfectly scaled!

Then I needed to add an extra layer of card to the top and the bottom so I can add an apropriate moulding along the top and bottom of the box, somewhat similar as with the original box. 

Once that was done I glued on the painted scenes that Samuel van Hoogstraten added to the outside of the back and the side panels. Each panel on the outside shows the artist (from the back) at work and a little angel pointing at him. Each with a their own motto in latin. 

They translate as: For the sake of money, for the sake of honour, for the sake of art. 

I see it as an elegant way to describe the treadwheel any artist not born into wealth has to walk in. He needs to sell art to make money. He needs money to be able to make art. And he needs a good reputation to sell his art in the first place and to make them pay more than time and material invested into it.

I finally added the quite risqué scene of a naked lady stepping out of her bed. With cupid reveiling a little more than is apropriate by pulling away the bedsheat. Unfortunately, this last picture can only be seen in the right perspective with the use of a concave mirror or lense with the right curvature. When you look in the round mirror glass, place at the far end of this picture you should see the distorted picture as if it would be in the correct perspective. A concave mirror is something I do not have unfortunately.

I guess it is painted on the top so that children could not see it. A little naughty joke for the adults to enjoy? If they have a curved mirror that is. Or it could just be there for practical reasons. It is the only side where you can place a concave mirror without having to hold it on you hands all the time. 

Then all left to do was painting the whole thing black and varnish it several times. I pondered about distressing the box but decided against it. I did however added some beads onderneath as feet for the box to stand on. Ik is quite a big thing and it looks massive. Raising it on the low but decorated feet makes it look a bit less massive. The plastic beads are recycled from an old Christmas decoration and painted black.

And there we have it. A miniature perspective box painted by Samuel van Hoogstraten. One of the difficulties of perspective boxes is that they only work from one fixed point. From there the painted panels form a perfect picture together. Any other viewpoint and it does not work. 

While looking through the hole on the left.

The perspective it only works when peering through one of the two holes in the side panels. Looking through them into the oposite corner gives you the right perspective. When you look closely you see where the bottom panel goes over into the side panels and where those go over into the painted top panel. But the painted floor, walls and ceiling of the room ignore those lines of the box and present one continuing picture to your eye. 

The open front ( with this box) is only meant to let the (sun- or candle) light into the perspective box. When you look into the box from the front (see the second picture from the top) the illusion does not work at all.

While looking through the hole on the right.

Well, this is the second item used to entertain and impress guests. I hope that you have found it as 'entertaining' to read about it as I have found making it. 

The next one will be the model theatre. Stay turned! 

Huibrecht 

Fun and games, nr 1: A question of perspective.

The Italian Garden

It is always a question of the right perspective. Is it not? 

Hello my friends,

What to do in the Eighteen hundreds to divert oneself? Espescially on long winter evenings, when family and guests are preventing you from reading a good book in solitude? Even an eight course meal can take only so much time... And one can not always play (card) games in the drawingroom or listen to cousin Eloise singing or Ludwig playing on the harpsichord... 

No. No, sometimes you need to show off some novelty or other! Evidently, the wealthy could afford more time and money on leisure entertainment than the rest of society.

                       

People like the Zonneschut's did not work to pay their way. They made their (inherited) fortune, land, houses (shares in) companies, and such work for them. And they employ stewards, directors, tennants, and servants to do all the work needed and keep the household running smoothly. So what to do on those long evenings to amuse oneself and ones guests? Do pity those poor rich bastards (please excuses my language) 😉

I want to make miniature versions of some of these items used for entertainment, and share them here with you. This is the first part of a small series. Most items may be familiar to you as Victorian pieces. They all originate from earlier times though. But up and until the Victorian era none were mass produced or even available to the middle classes. 

I can place the finished pieces in the salon or in the attic. I do not have a fixed idea yet where to put them. But first let me try to make them all as intended! 

The peep show or diorama. 

The first object for amusement I want to show you is the peep show. Not to worry, nothing unsavoury, salubrious or risqué here. Just the classic paper peepshow with cut out paper scenes placed behind each other to suggest depth, just like the two examples in the pictures above. The perspective gives a feel of fthree dimensionality. These were very popular in the 18th century. Espescialy scenes in grand gardens, churches, palatial rooms and hunting scenes were in demand. 

Several printers published sets.Artist Martin Engelbrecht (1684-1756) and his brother Christian were printsellers and engravers in Augsburg, Germany during the eighteenth century. They were perhaps the most prolific in sets for paper peep shows. The apparatus to hold these were often made from card board but several antique wooden examples survive unto today too. 

This type of entertainment was still out of reach of the common man, but from the middle classes upwards these were available to anyone who wanted to pay for them. 

Because most of my tools and materials are (still, I know) packed I used 2mm thick, acid free, cardboard. I cut out all required pieces for an 8 cm deep box. And evidently I glued them together. It resembles a marble sarcophagus more than an object for divertisment, but bear with me. 

The rectangular piece of cardboard you see on the right of the picture above is not glued on for a purpose. It will be the front of a drawer in the bottom part of the box to store the different sets. 

It was quite difficult to find pictures of the individual sheets of sets. Often you see the ensemble together. Which can be stunning, but of no use to me. Luckily I managed to scrape some pretty sets together from different museum websites. 

I have printed them om paper and glued them to another sheet of printing paper. pressing them under a stack of books to make sure they stay flat. Then I cut them out including the holes in the sheets so you can see the sheet(s) behind it when they are placed in their slots inside the box. To make sure the slots on each side of the box line up, I cut out a little template to make sure the little card board support I side the box line up. It worked quite well although I glued the template together with the support u to the box two or three times... 

As you can see in this test run, the sheets are stacked behind each other to give the illusion of depth. 

With the drawer in place, it is time to decorate the outside. I first painted it in a bone white on the outside and a dark blue on the inside.  Lastly I added some patina through the use of a varnish tinted with a little drop of umber. 

Well this is the first item I planned on making in this category. Unfortunately the camera I use finds it difficult to really focus on the sheets on such a short distance. In reality the little prints are sharper and more detailed than the pictures show here. But you can see the perspective works when looking through the peephole. 

 I hope that you like it. Soon I will show you the next piece that I am making. Which is the perspective box. 

The Cathedral

But there is more. The Zonneschut's will also get a paper theatre. I also plan on making a 'laterna magica' and something called a 'diafanorama'. And last but not least a 'camera obscura' as well. But with that last one we actualy leave the realm of 18th century parlour games and go towards one of Lady Zonneschut's favorite hobby's, painting! 

Stay well!

Huibrecht 

The Royal Library