Illusion and space in classical imagery

Illusion and space in classical imagery

Illusionary elements create the sense of being in the picture
"blurring distinctions between real space and image space"(grau 2003 p.
25) Grau's discussion makes it clear that his view of the success of
the illsions is dependant on the physical surrounding of the images.
Thus his description of a figure on the wall, a maenad apparently
about to step through the picture plain and into "the space of the
observer".
The description Grau offers apparently connects figures on one side
of the room with those on the other. For example he describes a a
demon about to flagellate a girl on the adjacent wall. That such
interactions seem to compress the distance between the walls in some
cases, and in the case of the figures at the far wall it seems to
widen suggests anachronistically a medieval notion of perspective,
with the physically more distant but pictorially more central elements
of the gods Bacchus and Venus occupying more area than would be
expected of a linear perspective, yet surrounded by compostional
imagery sugessting the Gods as the focus of perspectival lines.
This raises two questions; Is a surround required for an immersive
experience and does the interactivity of games imagery , especially
perspectival games achieve such immersion because the subject is
stationary but is induced by a shifting visual field that also
responds to player/audience response?
Villa dei misteri, room #5, Pompei
Les Fresques de pompéi ND 2475 f74x 1983
Dionysos bl820 b2j4
In Grau(2003)
Strocka(1990) p. 213
Borbein(1975) p.61
Wesenberg(1985) p. 473
Andreae(1967) p. 202