2. Optic Qualities

Distortion of Perspective Scale (extreme/steep perspective)

Portraits dans un bureau, Nouvelle Orléans (The Cotton Exchange in New Orleans), 1873

Several paintings by Degas contain looming figures and objects in the foreground and dwarfed objects further in depth. This is the characteristic effect of spherical aberration created by the lens of a camera.

Is this the "modern error" (as stated by George Frederic Watts) or the "modern truth" (Scharf, 193)? A third option was proposed by Joseph Pennel; he argued that the camera perspective is "literally correct" but "artistically absurd"--though truthful, it is a way of seeing that is ill-suited to the aesthetics of painting.

These distortions also occur in Japanese prints (especially Ukiyo-e woodcuts), but they may not be as intentional or frequent as in photography (Scharf, 196).

Wide angle lens photograph

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