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VISUAL (OPTICAL) ILLUSIONS
Portrait illusions. Encyclopedia of visual illusions
At leisure / Visual (optical) illusions << Back: figure and background >> Forward: Illusions when an object moves Many have seen the so-called mysterious, as if alive, portraits that always look directly at us, following our movements and turning their eyes to where we are moving. This interesting feature of such portraits has been known for a very long time and has always seemed incomprehensible to many. In ancient times, such portraits aroused superstitious fear, and this was sometimes used by clergymen, frightening people with images of gods and miracle workers - icons deliberately painted in such a way as to inspire "the fear of God." Nervous people are sometimes literally frightened by such portraits. N.V. Gogol's story "Portrait" describes a portrait of one evil and greedy St. Petersburg usurer who killed many people by his actions. Here is a description of the portrait: “Two terrible eyes stared directly at him; a formidable command to be silent was written on his lips ... The eyes stared at him and seemed not to want to look at anything else, as soon as at him ... The portrait looks past all that is around, right into him - just looking inside him ... ". A variant of N. V. Gogol's story is the story "Portrait" by the Soviet writer A. N. Tolstoy, which also describes the "wonderful properties" of the eyes of a serf count, depicted by his serf artist. Walking through the halls of the Tretyakov Gallery, you can see several portraits of great Russian artists; these are portraits that have the property of "turning your eyes to the viewer", which, of course, will cause you nothing but aesthetic pleasure. Such portraits include, for example: a portrait of the playwright A. N. Ostrovsky by the artist V. G. Perov, his own self-portrait, a portrait of L. N. Tolstoy by the artist I. N. Kramskoy and some other portraits. Consequently, the mystery of such living portraits has already been unraveled, and the superstitious legends created on this occasion are just idle fiction. What explains this property of these portraits? Firstly, it is explained by the fact that the pupils of the eyes in the portrait are placed in the middle of the section of the eyes. This is how we see the eyes looking at us, but when the eyes look to the side, past us, the pupil and the entire iris seem to us to be not in the middle of the eye, but shifted to the side. When we move away from the portrait, the pupils, of course, do not change their position - they remain in the middle of the eyes, and since we continue to see the whole face in the same position in relation to us, it seems to us that the portrait has turned its head and is following us . Currently, such posters are sometimes used for campaigning and advertising purposes. A sample of a propaganda poster from the time of the Civil War, made by the Soviet artist D. E. Moor, is shown in fig. 116.
Secondly, the reason for the appearance of the illusion of a living portrait, most often in the case of portraits - works of art, is a special arrangement of shadows on the upper part of the face and near the eyes, which sometimes hides a slight turn of the head, and some shift of the pupils to the edges of the eye, and the look seems turned not to the side, but directly to us. It should be noted that the eyes of animals (horses, dogs, deer) can also be depicted in such a way that they will follow us everywhere. This effect was once used in the demonstration of the first "live pictures" in the cinema. There are also features of portraits, first noticed by the English physicist W. Wollaston. Firstly, we judge facial expression not so much by the eyes themselves, but by the lines of the mouth. So, for example, the questioning look belonging to the face in fig. 117 on the left, turns into a mocking face in fig. 117 on the right, although the position of the eyes remains unchanged in both cases. Secondly, in many cases we judge the direction of the gaze not so much by the eyes themselves, but by the turn of the face, by the position of the nose, mouth, etc. Many artists use these properties of the portrait.
Finally, on a black background, Fig. 118 depicts two artists whose artist did not draw any arms, legs, or torso. Subconsciously, you seem to see the legs and imagine the position of the hands, especially if you look at the drawing at a distance of 80 centimeters. Very often, in order to evoke a certain image in our minds, it is enough for an artist to recreate any one of the signs of this image: either the outline of an object, or the light impression that it makes on it. Other signs can be automatically added by our rational activity due to the habit of always seeing them in connection with others. It also happens that we see objects on the canvas that are not depicted on it. When looking at some pictures, it is easy to see that we distinguish individual hairs on a beard or leaves on trees where these objects are absent. The artist, on the other hand, did not paint hair or leaves, but reproduced the well-known effect of light reflected from the rough surface of the canvas, and since we observed such illumination on hair or leaves, our consciousness gives us the impression of what the eyes do not see at all. That is why a picture, correct in all respects of outline, perspective, lighting and colors, gives us exactly the same visual impression as the objects themselves depicted in the picture.
The game proposed by the artist T. Ya. Kobrina is interesting. A contour of the head is given (Fig. 119) and it is proposed to draw several caricatures or caricatures on its basis, and any turns of the contour are allowed so that the line OO? can form any angle with the horizontal. And now, let's say, two artists, competing with each other, gave three caricatures, depicted in fig. 120. It is easy to see that several more similar drawings can be given within the same contour, and this indicates how friendly our vision and thinking are.
The next type of visual illusion associated with portraits is the secondary image illusion. It is as follows. If you look at a dark (dense) negative carefully, and if possible, without shifting your gaze from two white dots on the lower part of the face for 10-15 seconds, and then quickly look at a sheet of white paper and also look at it motionlessly, then after about 2-3 seconds a positive image of the negative will appear on the sheet. This secondary image will be visible for about 6-8 seconds (Fig. 121, 122).
The illusion of a secondary image is explained by the fact that when viewing a negative, the nerve fibers (cones) of that part of the retina, which contain light (white) places of the negative, become more tired; and those places of the retina, on which little reflected light falls (from the dark places of the negative), get tired less. When we then look at the white paper, a lot of light falls on all areas of the retina. The untired nerve fibers of the retina easily react to this light, giving the impression of white in the brain. Areas of the retina with tired nerve fibers are not yet able to respond to light in full force, and our brain creates the impression of a positive portrait. Fatigue of the retinal nerve fibers can also be observed by looking at Fig. 123. A similar phenomenon can be observed by examining a series of black spots on white paper and fixing the gaze on one of them; through other spots they will begin to disappear, but then reappear (Troxer's experience). Finally, in fig. 124 presents another illusion, close in essence to those given in this paragraph.
Author: Artamonov I.D. << Back: figure and background >> Forward: Illusions when an object moves
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