All language subtitles for Quay Brothers (1991) - Anamorphosis

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.

This strict rules of perspective

arose out of a desire
to systematise representation,

by analysing 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 taut,

the viewer realises 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,

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 anamorphosis

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.

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.

(Birds call)

(Creaking)

(Waves lapping)

(Bell tolls)

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 the apparatus
which Emmanuel Maignan supposedly used

to construct his anamorphic fresco
of Saint Francis.

If anamorphosis is the art of
delaying access to deeper meaning,

then we must learn to wait for revelation.

(Bell tolls)

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 -
"hohl Bein".

The skull is a sinister commentary
upon worldly vanities.

Death lurks beneath the most luxurious surface.

The visual trick of anamorphosis conceals,

then discloses the truth
which underlies appearances.