Follow Up Activities

Anamorphic Art

Materials Needed

For the group:

The Magic Cylinder Book by Ivan Moscovich, ISBN 0 906212 67 7, $7.95

For each student:

one 8” x 5” piece of Mylar
colored pencils
a xeroxed copy of the “Photocopy Master”

Subject Areas:

Art - anamorphic pictures
Math - polar and square grids
Science - light rays, mirrors, reflections

Overview of the Activity

“Perhaps the pictures in this book will remind you of those funny distorting mirrors you find at a fun fair. By moving about in front of that kind of mirror you can alter the way you look in a most amusing fashion.”

“In this book we have concentrated on one particular type of anamorphic art. It is probably the most interesting type and it is not difficult for anyone to learn how to draw such pictures. Firstly we need to understand a little about reflections and how the Magic Cylinder distorts the image. Then we can make allowance for that and start to produce pictures which the Magic Cylinder can undistort and make spring to life.”
(Moscovich, 1988)

Peepshow Box

Materials Needed

For each student (or group of 2 students):

tape
sharp pencil or hole punch
one “Scene Box”, bar code #8880002517, that can be ordered from:
Museum of the Moving Image (MOMI)
South Bank Center
London, SE 1
Phone: 071-401-2636

Overview of Activity

Students cut out and assemble the “Scene Box,” a desktop model of a peepshow box. The model allows students a glimpse at the miraculous world of van Hoogstraten’s peepshow box.

Surf the Web!!!!

We found lots of information simply by surfing the web. Since server addresses change, here are some of the key words we used to research our topic.

ARTHlinks

There is a wonderful art history resource site at Sweet Briar College (sbc.edu) monitored by Dr. Witcombe. It covers everything from prehistoric art forward and is hyperlinked to other web sites. You should be able to find it by searching for “witcombe” or “ARTHLinks.”

WebMuseum, Paris

This is a great place to find general art and biographical information on artists, along with links to their best known works. This site is like an on-line encyclopedia. We really enjoyed the visual presentations! Try typing in “webmuseum.”

The Ambassadors

Many of the paintings we used can be found on the web, but you have to look for them. We located The Ambassadors by Holbein at jhu.edu. just by entering the painting’s name and searching. Sometimes we had to search by artist’s name instead.

Visit the Library

For further information, check out the following from our bibliography page:
Perspective
Constantijn Huygens and the early attitudes towards the camera obscura
Pepys and the pictorial arts
The Camera Obscura and Greenwich

Field Trips

If you happen to live near London or are planning a trip there in the future, several sites would be worth visiting if you are interested in this topic.

The National Gallery

This London museum houses many of the paintings and peepshow boxes which we studied. They are well worth the time and effort to see them. You can actually make a customized map of The National Gallery on their free computer which really saves time in locating your pictures in their vast collections.

The Royal Observatory at Greenwich

You can actually enter a room-size camera obscura similar in construction to those used by artists in the 1600s. Besides, you can also take home a photo of yourself standing across the Prime Meridian.

Computer Resources

Many software manufacturers are producing CDs with information and pictures by famous artists. Most of the pictures we used can be found on one CD entitled Microsoft Art Gallery. It provides both visual representations and descriptive text featuring certain pictures from The National Gallery collection.

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