VISUAL ESCAPEMENTS IN ROCK ART:

Back in 1979 I described what I call Visual Escapements to describe the clues that artists use to give the illusion of depth in paintings. As we know much of human creative history was accomplished before the creation of perspective in Renaissance Europe, and a whole lot of other creativity ignores the rules of perspective. One example would be the observation that things that are farther away look smaller than things that are closer. That can be explained by the rules of perspective, but one did not have to understand perspective to be aware of this phenomenon.

My phrase, visual escapements, was chosen on the similarity of the visual indications of distance provided by artists in paintings to the escapement mechanism in a mechanical clock  that divides up the time into segments of equal duration.

Ginevra de’ Benci by Leonardo da Vinci, 1474-1478. Internet image, public domain.

In Leonardo da Vinci’s Ginevra de’Benci these steps are comprised of various elements including the landscape behind her. First, her figure establishes the picture plane. The next is the tree behind her head and the left side of the picture. These are followed by hills with trees in intermediate and far ground, culminating in distant mountains blued by atmospheric distance. Each of these steps is definable as a visual escapement.

The Assumption of the Virgin or The Frari Assumption by Tiziano Vecelli (also known by Titian), 1516-1518. Internet image, public domain.

One can do the same sort of analysis for Titian’s Assumption of the Virgin, with figures in the foreground backed up by landscape features into the distance.

 

Both differentiation in size, and in vertical placement according to distance would be examples of my idea of Visual Escapements which I posited in 1979.

"Holy Ghost Panel," Horseshoe Canyon, Utah. Photograph by Peter Faris.

In 2019, Dr. James Farmer presented a webinar for the Colorado Rock Art Association in which he stated that he believes that the Holy Ghost panel in Horseshoe Canyon shows purposeful perspective with the smaller figures receding into the distance. I do not believe that the artists of Barrier Canyon Style panels knew the rules of single point visual perspective, but they would have observed that that are farther away look smaller than things that are closer. But, I would not call their use of this technique perspective, I would call the various sizes of figures apparently receding into the distance as an example of my concept of Visual Escapements. Another example, also illustrated in the Holy Ghost panel is that smaller figures are higher up than the bottoms of the larger figures. If the different figures are purposely sized in relation to the other figures in the panel, then one might indeed infer perspective and the use of visual escapements in the composition.

Horseshoe Canyon, Utah. Photograph by Don I. Campbell, May 16, 1984. 

On the other hand, if the figures were independently created and just scattered over the surface without relation to each other than this analysis may not be accurate. Did the artists know what they were doing, and were they doing it on purpose? And can we even know this?

NOTE: Some images in this posting were retrieved from the internet with a search for public domain photographs. If any of these images are not intended to be public domain, I apologize, and will happily provide the picture credits if the owner will contact me with them. For further information on these reports you should read the original reports at the sites listed below.

REFERENCE:

 

Farmer, James, Dr., 2019, Southwestern Rock Art and the Mesoamerican Connection, 18 April 2019, Colorado Rock Art Association online webinar.