Through a glass, darkly
An alchemical crucible, containing a landscape in microcosm, through a glass, darkly explores sublime readings of landscape, in particular Gordale Scar in Yorkshie, a famous staging post on the Romantics' quest for wild and savage landscape.
Exploring various observational devices, from the Claude glass to the Camera Obscura, this piece inverts the landscape, and encapsulates it within a specular bowl, whereby its power becomes a tangible experience for the viewer.
Exploring various observational devices, from the Claude glass to the Camera Obscura, this piece inverts the landscape, and encapsulates it within a specular bowl, whereby its power becomes a tangible experience for the viewer.
A Claude glass is a slightly convex tinted mirror, which was supposed to help artists produce works of art similar to those of Claude Lorrain. The Reverend William Gilpin, an amateur artist, advocated the use of a Claude glass saying, 'they give the object of nature a soft, mellow tinge like the colouring of that Master'. Many 18th-century artists and landscape theorists were interested in the effects of Claude glasses and they were widely used by tourists (who viewed scenery via the mirror to give the real live view the required 'mellow tinge').
