The painter and handicapped vision^*

* Adapted from a paper read at the Robertson Symposium, ‘The Art of Seeing and the Seeing of Art’, organised by the Centre for Visual Sciences and the Research School of Biological Sciences at the Australian National University, Canberra, 5–7 December 2001.

Abstract

A realist painter seeks to transform a three‐dimensional stereoscopic image on to a two‐dimensional surface, utilising one or more of the familiar cues to distance including linear and aerial perspective, relative size, overlap, tonal variation and use of colour. Sometimes this process can be jeopardised by one or more commonly occurring inherited and acquired vision problems, in particular errors of refraction, cataract, maculopathies, lack of binocularity and colour vision defects. Historically, several painters have been alleged to have suffered from one or more of these disorders to account for their particular style or changes in technique. The effects of these anomalies are discussed in relation to painters with particular emphasis on the ability for adaptation to occur.

Key words:

• adaptation
• artist
• vision disorders

Notes

* Adapted from a paper read at the Robertson Symposium, ‘The Art of Seeing and the Seeing of Art’, organised by the Centre for Visual Sciences and the Research School of Biological Sciences at the Australian National University, Canberra, 5–7 December 2001.