Topic > "The Bridal Chamber" - a work of art by Andrea Mantegna

The Bridal Chamber (1465-1474) by Andrea Mantegna is a fundamental model of a work of art that attempts to defeat spatial constraints through an illusion of depth. The work is an example of trompe-l'oeil painting, which uses realistic images to create optical illusions of continuous space on an architectural surface, Camera degli Sposi translates into the bridal room This would have been the place where the bride and groom would have consummated their wedding inside the Palazzo Ducale in Mantua, Italy (Web Gallery of Art, 2017, A). architecture and the resulting spatial limitations that Schmarsow defends. The room could easily be described as a “sculptural image” due to the extreme emphasis on pictorial images in three-dimensional architectural formation. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Here architecture and painting have been exquisitely combined to create an illusionistic surface, reminiscent of the relationship between the two art forms. This connection is emphasized through the rib curves and sculptural busts that protrude from the flat, marble-like texture created by the paint and tactically applied to the ceiling surface. The wall paintings do not display as much trompe-l'oeil technique as the ceiling, reflecting the meaning of division, enclosure and privacy that the couple would have desired. However, the room is only 8.1 square meters and the wall painting still makes us feel like it is much more spacious (Web Gallery of Art, 2017, B). A modern analogy of these ideas can be found in the famous BBC series Doctor Who. Throughout the science fiction programme, the Doctor's TARDIS (Time and Relative Size in Space) appears from the outside like a small police telephone box. However, it is much larger on the inside than it appears on the outside. In Mantegna's work, the illusion of an open sky painted in the center of the ceiling would have encouraged the couple to imagine the "infinity and immeasurability" of space. The ideas represented in the creation of the TARDIS also explore this through its large three-dimensional interior and ability to travel through infinite space. However, the particular image of the sky in the Bridal Chamber blurs the boundaries between internal and external space through its images. It is this artistic illusion of depth that eliminates the disadvantage of any spatial limitations or claustrophobia without the privacy of the room being compromised. The “picture of infinity” (Boullé in Neumeyer, 1999, p. 245) is made even more effective through the spherical structure of the ceiling. The dividing point between the walls and ceiling of the room does not exist, allowing the illusion of the painting to perceptually extend the space further (Neumeyer, 1999). Schmarsow's theory was put into practice here.