Early Visual Cultures and Panofsky’s Perspektive als ‘symbolische Form’

Abstract

This paper investigates the historical dimension of perspectival representations. It aims to provide a heterogeneous though comparative picture of culturally unrelated visual con- ceptualizations of pictorial spaces, written with a view toward explaining how the multiple modes of perspective were introduced in antiquity. Point of departure for this critical approach is Erwin Panofsky’s essay Die Perspektive als ‘symbolische Form’ , published in 1927. His essay analyses the pictorial visualization of space and spatiality in different historical contexts, examining their cultural codification in terms of the heuristic category of ‘sym- bolic form’. However, ‘perspective’, which is commonly understood as synonymous with ‘linear perspective’, deserves a new discussion in the context of diverse visual cultures: A ‘naturalisation’ of the gaze as it is suggested by pictorial spaces which function mimetically is primarily associated with the early modern period in Western art. Instead of merely re- reading Panofsky’s canonical text, this paper presents an interdisciplinary re-viewing of a selection of the pictorial examples chosen by Panofsky, commenting upon their perspec- tive(s) from different vantage points.