Artistic Eye

In 1987 I was on a two week tour of London, and part of that included a quick pass through the National Gallery, where I saw many wonders. The most impactful for me (since I can still remember it like yesterday) was this perspective box.

This peculiar object is a perspective box – a rectangular wooden cabinet painted on the inside and outside, and open on one end to let in light. The inside is painted in such a way that it’s only when we peer through a peephole – there’s one on either side of the cabinet – that we see the illusion of a three-dimensional seventeenth-century Dutch house. The rooms are quiet: one woman lies asleep in bed, while another reads in a chair. The only other living being in the house is a dog, though a man outside peeks in through a window.

Hoogstraten’s Perspective Box, from the 1600’s.

Reflecting a fascination with perspective and optical devices, such boxes were produced in the Dutch Republic from about 1650, for a relatively short period of about 25 years. Only six survive today, and this one is the most complex and sophisticated.

I’m posting it here because it was so absolutely fascinating. As the description from the site states, the artist was able to engineer the painting inside the box so the walls, chair, bed, woman, etc. all stand up in three dimensions when you peer in from the corner.

For me, it’s a lesson in perspective.

From one vantage point, things may seem flat and lame, but from another point of view, even the smallest detail can stand out. It’s important to seek those perspectives, to recalibrate our heads to see the best in everything.

Also, that box is such a trick of the eye. It’s super trippy! I’m into shadowboxes and assemblage art, where things are packed together for effect. (For me, the effect is that I can explore all manner of wonders within a box or frame, admiring dimensions and depths of field for hours.) This perspective box does that for me with nothing but paint, actually “egg and oil” according to the website.