Art Analysis: A Cubist's Parody of Trompe-l'Oeil

Jul 20, 2024

This analysis was originally written and formatted for Twitter. Click the link HERE to read the original Twitter Thread.

Trompe-l'Oeil = “deceives the eye”

Both styles use different tricks to disorient our eyes. How do they do it? 😵‍💫

In order to create 3D depth on a 2D surface, artists paint objects in 1 of 3 planes:

Artists arrange objects in these planes to mimic the depth our eyes see naturally.

Let’s start with Harnett’s painting, “Still Life-Violin and Music.”

He begins the illusions at the foreground: the picture frame and lock. They’re not real.

Their shadows create the illusion that you’re looking into a real-world scene.

At the midground, Harnett painted realistic objects symbolizing his life history.

The natural light source, the sun shining through his window, casts shadows of varying intensity and distance, based on the object’s size and shape.

These objects are in the room with us.

See the door in the background? It’s not closed.

The shadow shows the door slightly open, tilting the whole scene forward, projecting every object towards us, into our physical space.

When I saw this painting at the MET, the painting looked 3D even from the side. You can see it a bit in my photo.

I was tempted to reach out and touching the violin 😬

But looking at Picasso’s “Violin and Grapes,” there’s no clear foreground, midground, nor background - the violin and grapes exist in all 3 layers.

It’s like we’re seeing these objects reflected in a shattered mirror.

Picasso’s painting could also be a snapshot of his mind, recalling the objects from memory.

When we think of objects, we recall them in blurry fragments and put them together in our mind.

In addition to the violin and grapes, I see a bow and sheet music.

What else do you see?

Even the textures are distorted, it’s like the wood texture is floating above the violin.

Apparently Picasso used a comb to paint this texture on the violin. I’m down to paint with objects other than a brush. Any suggestions?

To compare, Trompe-l’Oeil artists use shadows to create the illusion of depth. Objects exist in the foreground, midground or background.

Cubists reject how we naturally perceive the world and represent an object within all 3 planes at once.

See how the violin's shown in each:

I prefer the illusions created by Cubists because they invite us into their new constructed realities. Which style do you prefer?

Are there any specific artists or artworks you’d like me to analyze?

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