Original subtitles

[Narrator] By the early 16th century...

European painting had advanced to a position of mastery.

At a time of fast-developing exploration...

it was prized for its ability to collect and display...

the contents of the known world in the most vivid fashion.

Emphasis was laid on painterly artifice—

the tricks whereby artists could conjure up...

an illusion of three dimensions,

The most prized illusions were those achieved.

through the principles of perspective.

The strict rules of perspective arose out of a desire...

to systematize representation by analyzing the processes...

whereby the eye construes forms spatially.

This diagram from a painter's manual.

suggests how a shape on the floor...

is projected onto the retina,

It is as if threads were to link each corner of that shape...

to the viewer's stationary eye.

Drawing the threads out...

the viewer realizes a perfect geometrical relationship...

to what is visible.

But such a perfect relationship...

almost cries out to be subverted.

The meticulous mechanism of perspective...

Is something that can also be tampered with.

An object such as a chair set strictly in perspective...

- [ Gears Whirring ] - may be shunted just as strictly...

out of perspective.

In ordinary circumstances...

our gaze is free to roam in space across the changing aspect of objects...

gauging their true shape.

That is why our eyes...

can normally guide us safely through the environment.

The effects of anamorphoss...

rely on forcing the eye...

to look out from a single fixed point such as a peephole.

This 16th century woodcut.

offers a fascinating visual puzzle.

Only by turning the picture sideways...

can the viewer make sense of the image.

The celebrities of the age lie concealed.

amid a perplexing array of nonsensical forms...

and misleading diversions,

-[ Horns Sounding ] -[ Dogs Barking ]

In this second woodcut, we are given easy access...

to the scene of an old man embracing his young wife.

Initially withheld, a second meaning...

emerges into unmistakable focus.

“Out, you old fool?”

The young wife has now made her choice of lover.

As well as hiding secrets in the secular world.

anamorphosis can enhance the mystery of the numinous.

In this anonymous religious painting...

peepholes bored through the side of the frame...

direct the eye to the holy images...

hidden within the confusion,

[Seagull Squawking I

- [Wood Creaking ] - [Water Lapping I

[Bell Tolling]

Crammed with visual red herrings...

this picture might be thought...

to parody the fumblings of the spiritually blind.

There is only one way to true vision.

Painted on the wall of a cloister in Rome...

a 17th century landscape...

with pilgrims, ships and towns...

is overwhelmed by incoherent shapes.

Anamorphosis is a most powerful device...

for controlling understanding.

It may be used whimsically to amuse...

or else it can provoke and instruct,

An image grasped too quickly...

might not leave a lasting impression.

To lead the eye slowly through incomprehension...

and then to offer a resolution

that is insight,

Anamorphosis thrives on mystery...

and its masters rarely give away their secrets.

Here we peep at that apparatus which Emmanuel Maignan...

supposedly used to construct.

his anamorphic fresco of St. Francis.

[ Children Chattering I

[Bell Ringing ]

Ifanamorphosis is the art of delaying access to deeper meaning...

then we must learn to wait for revelation.

[Ringing Continues ]

The Ambassadors.

A mystery in two acts.

On one level, Hans Holbein's famous painting...

Is a gorgeous display of enviable riches.

Well-nourished and confident.

the ambassadors pose beside the emblems...

of their knowledge and worldly authority.

The artist is thought to have conceived his picture...

with a doorway to the right, guiding the viewer to a final observation.

The anamorphic skull Is a hidden signature...

for Holbein's name means “hollow bone™

Hohlbein.

The skull is a sinister commentary...

upon worldly vanities,

Death lurks beneath...

the most luxurious surface.

The visual trick of anamorphoss...

conceals then discloses the truth...

which underlies appearances,