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Art on Screen Databasetm Full Record


© 1985-1997 Program for Art on Film, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Title: DE ARTIFICIALI PERSPECTIVA OR ANAMORPHOSIS
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Data: 15 min. col. 35mm; 16mm; video
Year: 1991
Country of Prod'n: United States; Great Britain
Language: English
Producing Agency: Program for Art on Film, a joint venture of The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the J. Paul Getty Trust; Koninck Studios Limited
Sources: Zeitgeist Films; Program for Art on Film; Films Incorporated Video
Int'l Sources:
Director: The Brothers Quay
Producer: Keith Griffiths
Executive Producer:
Writer: Roger Cardinal
Camera: The Brothers Quay
Editor: The Brothers Quay
Narrator: Witold Schejbal
Animator: The Brothers Quay
Music Composer: Leszek Jankowski
Art Consultant: Roger Cardinal; Sir Ernst Gombrich
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Synopsis: Animation techniques elucidate the illusional art of anamorphosis, a method of visual distortion whereby an image is presented in confused and distorted form. When looked at from a different angle or in a curved mirror, the distorted image appears in normal proportions. Using a puppet as master of ceremonies, the animators demonstrate the basic effects of anamorphosis and reveal the hidden meanings that lurk within. During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the practice of creating anamorphic images was an outgrowth of artists' experiments with rendering perspective. Artworks featured here include a chair by Jean Francois Niceron (c.1638), two wooden puzzle pictures by Erhard Schon (c.1535), an anonymous painting of saints (c.1550), the fresco Saint Francis of Paola (1642) by Emmanuel Maignan in the cloister of Santa Trinita dei Monti in Rome, and the painting The Ambassadors (1533) by Hans Holbein the younger. A film by animators Timothy and Stephen Quay and art historian Roger Cardinal. Project adviser: Sir Ernst Gombrich.
Genre Film: Visual Essay; Animation
Aud./Grade Level: College/University; Adult
Suggested Uses: General Information
Subject Headings: Animation
Visual genres -- Anamorphoses

Assoc Concepts: Perspective; Optical illusion
Artist's Name:
Artist on Camera: No
Reviews: Boston Globe, 19 Oct 91
Awards: American Film & Video Festival Honorable Mention, 1992; British Academy of Film/Television Arts Animation Category nomination, 1992
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