Object/Subject Relationships

Diego Velasquez painting Las Meninas 1656

This blog furthers on how drawing type and technique can inform, or better inform, spatial experience with particular reference as to how viewing a drawing can inform a spatial composition. Las Meninas by Spanish painter Diego Velasquez, is a intricate and illusive layering of perspective within the drawing raises questions of where reality sits within the drawing itself. The phenomenology of the painting exists in relationship between viewer and the figures on the canvas. Although it may be flat, the painting draws the eye in, forcing the viewer to look beyond the singular perspective.

"the direction of the gaze dictates the flow of judgment: the viewer judges or adjudicates the presentation of the viewed but not vice versa. In other words, the viewer in his or her viewing is active and autonomous while the viewed is passive and subordinate. This I call the asynunctry principle. Our simple model of viewing can be represented as follows: ,

The Viewer Viewing - The Viewed - Subject Viewing Object"

"As we begin to survey Las Meninas, we become the viewer and the painting the viewed, according to our initial simple model. It can be represented as the following:

The Viewer Subject We - The Gaze - The Viewed Object The Painting"

Chang, BG 1986 'Representing Representation: A Visual Semiotics of Las Meninas', Journal of Communication Inquiry, vol. 10, no. 3, pp. 3-13.

Object/subject relationships are very important in the reflection of drawing and spatial composition. Velasquez diverts and redirects the viewers gaze to engage with specific object/subject relationships amongst the painting. In this sense, looking at architectural drawing beyond a singular perspective to imagine what exists or what object/subject relationship exists in the space beyond can become a powerful tool to envisage and create a specific spatial experience.