Erhard Schön: Beyond Entertainment

Da Vinci was the first to draw an anamorphic image but in the 1500’s they took anamorphism beyond just a child’s eye. An artist named Erhard Schön created a woodcut he called Vexierbilder (secret images).

This woodcut was not done to entertain the viewer but to hide his political message from those he did not want to see it. The image looks almost to be a confused, mottled mess but upon further glance one sees that the edges include small images. Once the anamorphic image becomes clear, the little images around the edges become the accompaniment to the four faces depicted in an anamorphic way. This piece depicts four European rulers: Charles V, Ferdinand of Austria, Pope Paul III, and Francis I. People he apparently did not agree with politically.

Schön not only created images that were politically charged, he also created erotic imagery that was “taboo” for his era. In his piece, Out, You Old Fool, Schön depicts a young woman who is enticing an older man.

If you look closely you see she is actually steeling money and handing it to a younger man behind the curtain. There’s even a fool peering around the corner, alluding to the man being a fool for thinking a young woman would want to be with him. Once

you turn the piece you see the distorted image becomes the young man and woman engaged in an exotic embrace. This image would be one he would want to hide because this was a sexual image of a man and a woman together. Nude women were the norm but a piece depicting a nude male was almost unheard of.

Schön created numerous anamorphic woodblock images. Here is a link to one of his pieces in the British Museum that seemingly looks like a reference to the biblical story of Jonah and the whale. Once the image is looked at in the correct perspective, one sees the hidden image of a “squatting and defecating peasant.”

Although these pieces are all done by using the correct perspective of the viewer, there are more ways to look at anamorphic images. Perhaps this will be my next question to answer: Besides paintings and woodcuts done on paper/canvas what other methods were used in anamorphism to show the correct perspective of a piece?

The Wealthy Take Anamorphosis as Their Own

Anamorphosis does not have a definite start but it seems that Da Vinci was one of the first to document his findings on distorted images in his book, Codex Atlanticus, where he demonstrates this kind of distorted image with the drawing a child’s eye.

It is interesting to note that these sort of images were seen as “charms” to the wealthy classes when they were first around. Daniel Collins calls them “perceptual oddities” from his article “Anamorphosis and the Eccentric Observer: History, Technique and Current Practice.” The wealthy would likely own a piece of art or, in rare cases, have an entire room made up of these anamorphic images. This was a status symbol to some and to others, these were grotesque, distorted images. King Edward IV had an image painted of himself in the anamorphic style, something a commoner could not afford to do and most certainly never be able to afford a painter who could achieve it at the level the King’s is painted at.

After doing a bit more research I noticed that optics and lenses were becoming common around the 1800s. They were using lenses to fix astigmatism as well as use in telescopes. This idea of distorted images becoming clear was not just from the standpoint of the viewer in front of an image but from another form of optics- being lenses. I’m sure the usage of lenses was a very important factor to the inception and idea of anamorphosis in the 1800s.

Anamorphosis: Understanding a Form of Art

Anamorphosis was a kind of art that was popular around the 1600 and 1700's. It is a distortion of an image in which the viewer can only optically see it correctly from a certain view point.

Photo credit: http://wiki.bennington.edu/wiki/DRAWING

This is a modern example of a corrdor painted in the anamorphic manner.

I want to find out more about anamorphosis and the different ways the images can be seen by using mirrors or just by the correct vantage point. I want to see if the different ways the images were rendered was for special purposes besides just entertaining the viewer. I plan on researching and reading other's articles and journals; whether it be another art historian or someone just as interested in anamorphic art. I will share my thoughts about my research and ideas I come across here and try to form an opinion about why it was used in most situations.

As an art historian myself this subject is fascinating to me. Seeing how an art form that originated in the 16th century is still relevant today is something I find quite interesting.