Pavel Florensky, reverse perspective and the neurosciences

Abstract

The way we perceive the world has always been a major concern of philosophy and art. Pavel Florensky was a Russian polymath who wrote Reverse Perspective (1920), a rather unique essay on perception and art. His analysis confronted two representation methods: linear perspective, characteristic of Renaissance works, and reverse perspective, characteristic of Russian icons and Byzantine art. Florensky argued that the use of reverse perspective and multiple viewpoints (polycentredness) in Russian icons, far from ‘imperfections’, were superior ways of representation. Moreover, departing from rules of linear projection and the use of incongruent shadows, line contours or extreme features were actually required for the ‘essential’ reconstruction of the physical reality. He coined the term ‘physiological space’ as opposed to the physical space to refer to the mechanisms by which we actually see the world. In doing this, Florensky unveiled some fundamental principles of the organization of human perception that anticipated the current neuroscientific approach to art.