Early Approaches To Motion in Art
Evidence of artistic interest in depicting figures in motion can be seen as early as Paleolithic cave paintings. Animals in these paintings were often depicted with multiple sets of legs in superimposed positions. Because these paintings are prehistoric they could be explained a number of ways, such as the artist simply changing their mind about the leg’s position with no means of erasing, but it’s very likely that they are early attempts to convey motion.
Another example includes a 5,200-year old earthen bowl found in Iran in Shahr-e Sukhteh. The bowl has five images painted along the sides, showing phases of a goat leaping up to nip at a tree.
An Egyptian mural, found in the tomb of Khnumhotep and Niankhkhnum, at the Beni Hassan cemetery includes a sequence of images in temporal succession. The paintings are approximately 4000 years old and show scenes of young soldiers being trained in wrestling and combat.
Seven drawings by Leonardo da Vinci (c. 1510) extending over two folios in the Windsor Collection, Anatomical Studies of the Muscles of the Neck, Shoulder, Chest, and Arm, show detailed drawings of the upper body with a less-detailed facial image. The sequence shows multiple angles of the figure as it rotates and the arm extends. Because the drawings show only small changes from one image to the next, the drawings imply motion in a single figure.
Even though some of these early examples may appear similar to an animated series of drawings, the lack of equipment to show them in motion causes them to fall short of being true animation. The process of illustrating the passing of time by putting images in a chronological series is one of the most important steps in creating animation so historic instances of this practice are definitely notable.
Read more about this topic: History Of Animation
Famous quotes containing the words early, approaches, motion and/or art:
“Mormon colonization south of this point in early times was characterized as “going over the Rim,” and in colloquial usage the same phrase came to connote violent death.”
—State of Utah, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)
“No one ever approaches perfection except by stealth, and unknown to themselves.”
—William Hazlitt (1778–1830)
“I dunno what my 23 infantile years in America signify. I left as soon as motion was autarchic—I mean my motion.”
—Ezra Pound (1885–1972)
“‘Tis no extravagant arithmetic to say, that for every ten jokes,—thou hast got an hundred enemies; and till thou hast gone on, and raised a swarm of wasps about thine ears, and art half stung to death by them, thou wilt never be convinced it is so.”
—Laurence Sterne (1713–1768)