JF Ptak Science Books: Unusual Antiquarian Perspective--Directly Above and Oblique. J.J. Grandville, 1844

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The History of Ideas Blog by John Ptak is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
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Unusual Antiquarian Perspective--Directly Above and Oblique. J.J. Grandville, 1844

JF Ptak Science Books Quick Post

This is the fourth installment in as many days (starting here) on the artwork of the great proto-Surrealist, J.J. Grandville. Today's quick post (again from his Un Autre Monde, 1844) isn't so much fantastical as the other work pictured here, but it is subtly unusual. It is my experience in looking at prints and other artwork for the last 30 years or so that antiquarian images looking straight and directly down froma height are very unusual--so too for the next thing closest to it, looking down from a slightly oblique angle. Grandville does this often in his work, and I think gives another insight into a brain that was just seeing (most) things differently. [Here's a link for some posts on looking straight down, here and here, for example.]