In the book On Painting, Alberti speaks about the things he likes in a good historia. He says if the people in the paintings look directly at the spectators and telling what is going on, and either beckons them with his hand to look, or with forbidding glance which challenges them not to come near, like he wished their bussiness to be secret, historia is explained. Some examples of this are
The Wedding Feast at Cana (1562-63)
Adoration of the Magi (1488)
And also he mentions historia as the great work of painter which we can understand it's like a key point for paiting. "From the composition of surfaces we make members and members make bodies and bodies make historia", so it is like completing the piece of art, isn't it? :)
ReplyDeleteI researched those paintings and realised that communicating figure in the second one is the self portrait of the painter,Perugino and third one is again the self portrait of Ghirlandio who is the painter. It is very interesting fact that they have chosen the communicating figure in the paintings as themselves which -I think- is completely logical and fitting with idea's of Alberti. To be true, I would do the same :D
ReplyDeleteI think these paintings confirm that making eye contact with a figure in a painting can leave quite an impression. But Alberti could criticize Adoration of the Magi for he states "Same gesture or attitudes must not appear in any of the figures."
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