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Depth Perception and the History of Three-Dimensional Art: Who Produced the First Stereoscopic Images? - PubMed

  • ️Sun Jan 01 2017

Depth Perception and the History of Three-Dimensional Art: Who Produced the First Stereoscopic Images?

Kevin R Brooks. Iperception. 2017.

Abstract

The history of the expression of three-dimensional structure in art can be traced from the use of occlusion in Palaeolithic cave paintings, through the use of shadow in classical art, to the development of perspective during the Renaissance. However, the history of the use of stereoscopic techniques is controversial. Although the first undisputed stereoscopic images were presented by Wheatstone in 1838, it has been claimed that two sketches by Jacopo Chimenti da Empoli (c. 1600) can be to be fused to yield an impression of stereoscopic depth, while others suggest that Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa is the world's first stereogram. Here, we report the first quantitative study of perceived depth in these works, in addition to more recent works by Salvador Dalí. To control for the contribution of monocular depth cues, ratings of the magnitude and coherence of depth were recorded for both stereoscopic and pseudoscopic presentations, with a genuine contribution of stereoscopic cues revealed by a difference between these scores. Although effects were clear for Wheatstone and Dalí's images, no such effects could be found for works produced earlier. As such, we have no evidence to reject the conventional view that the first producer of stereoscopic imagery was Sir Charles Wheatstone.

Keywords: Chimenti; Da Vinci; Dali; art; depth; disparity; perception; stereopsis.

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Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.

Depth cues in Palaeolithic art. (a) and (b) Occlusion and transparency in paintings in the Chauvet cave (c. 30,000 BCE). (c) and (d) Occlusion and transparency in the Lascaux cave (c.15,000 BCE).

Figure 2.
Figure 2.

Consistent use of occlusion in ancient Egyptian art. (a) The Palette of Narmer and (b) Opening of the mouth ceremony, from the Book of the Dead (papyrus of Hunefer, c. 1300 BCE). (c) Nofernoferuaton and Nofernoferure from the Amarna period (c. 1360 BCE).

Figure 3.
Figure 3.

Depth cues in classical art. (a) The Stag Hunt mosaic by Gnosis (c. 300 BCE) demonstrates the use of attached shadow. (b) Pompeiian fresco Paris on Mount Ida, including the depth cues of shading gradients and aerial perspective. (c) Roman fresco in the Room of the Masks, House of Augustus, showing examples of the use of the cast shadow.

Figure 4.
Figure 4.

Depth cues in medieval and Renaissance art. (a) Ognissanti Madonna, by Giotto (c. 1310). (b) Madonna and Child, by Duccio (c. 1300). (c) Judith Beheading Holofernes, by Caravaggio (1598–1599). (d) Elevation of the Cross, by Peter Paul Rubens (1610–1611).

Figure 5.
Figure 5.

A new perspective. (a) Brunelleschi’s experiment, confirming the correspondence between the visual scene and his own perspective drawing, with the use of a (removable) mirror and a small aperture in the picture, which faced away from the observer. (b) Brunelleschi’s view of the Florence Baptistery, demonstrating 2-point perspective. (c) One of the first known coherent perspective images: Masaccio’s The Holy Trinity.

Figure 6.
Figure 6.

One of the first confirmed stereoscopic images: The Wheatstone Arch (Wheatstone, 1838). Presented in Universal Freeview (L-R-L) format (such that parallel fusion results in a stereoscopic image on the left and a pseudoscopic image on the right, while crossed fusion produces the converse) at the top, and Dubois anaglyph format below.

Figure 7.
Figure 7.

Chimenti’s stereograms, presented in Universal Freeview (L-R-L) format at the top, and Dubois anaglyph format below. (a) Original ink-wash sketches produced around 1600 by Jacopo da Empoli. (b) Woodcut facsimiles produced from copies of the drawings in 1862 (Wade, 2003). Note that as these images were completed on separate sheets, it is not known which, if any, is intended to represent the left or the right eye’s half-image.

Figure 8.
Figure 8.

The Mona Lisa, presented in Universal Freeview (L-R-L) format at the top, and Dubois anaglyph format below. (a) The Prado version, believed to have been produced by an apprentice alongside Leonardo da Vinci around 1603 is presented as the left eye’s half-image. The “Louvre” version after digital restoration by Pascal Cotte (Elias & Cotte, 2008) who retains all copyright is presented as the right half-image. Although the original Louvre version was also used in this study, the restored version offers an enhanced chance of stereoscopic depth due to the greater similarity of colour palette.

Figure 9.
Figure 9.

Schematic diagram of display apparatus: The True3Di SDM-240 stereomonitor.

Figure 10.
Figure 10.

Paradigm check image #2 (Train), presented in Universal Freeview (L-R-L) format at the top, and Dubois anaglyph format below.

Figure 11.
Figure 11.

Paradigm check image #3 (River), presented in Universal Freeview (L-R-L) format at the top, and Dubois anaglyph format below.

Figure 12.
Figure 12.

(a) Depth and (b) coherence rating differences for artistically filtered stereoscopic paradigm check photographs (Lake, Train, and River) and the Wheatstone Arch. Error bars represent 95% confidence intervals. *p ≤ .05; **p ≤ .01; ***p ≤ .001.

Figure 13.
Figure 13.

(a) Depth and (b) coherence rating differences for the Chimenti images. Error bars represent 95% confidence intervals.

Figure 14.
Figure 14.

(a) Depth and (b) coherence rating differences for full portrait images of the Mona Lisa. Error bars represent 95% confidence intervals.

Figure 15.
Figure 15.

(a) Depth and (b) coherence rating differences for images of Mona Lisa’s head. Error bars represent 95% confidence intervals.

Figure 16.
Figure 16.

(a) Depth and (b) coherence rating differences for images of Mona Lisa’s hands. Error bars represent 95% confidence intervals.

Figure 17.
Figure 17.

(a) Depth and (b) coherence rating differences for paintings by Salvador Dalí. Error bars represent 95% confidence intervals. *p ≤ .05; **p ≤ .01; ***p ≤ .001.

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