Two figures, a gentleman
and a lady, approach two other ladies There is hierarchy here. But
the theme can be perfectly visual, as demonstrated by Longhi. The social
milieu he depicts is filled with flirtation and deception, hints and
secrets, masks, fans, glances, gestures, nudges and whispers and winks – all
happening in a public realm where such surreptitious carryings-on are
acknowledged by everyone, but where appearances and standards must be kept
up. They have plenty of heroic moments, very few awkward moments. Novels and plays and operas are full of sticky social situations Paintings
are not. There are several well-known omissions in European painting:
hardly any paintings of sex, for instance, none of childbirth. Longhi’s work
makes you realise that there are also very few pictures about the perils,
pretences and anxieties of social interaction.

But when it happens, it may not be
obvious whether it is an error or an effect – whether the artist just hasn’t
mastered the rules, or is deliberately bending them in order to generate (as
with those theatre sets) a sense of difficulty and crisis For example, in a
highly charged social situation

Enter Pietro Longhi This Venetian painter is a singular figure His work
fills a gap. They will look like figures positioned on a steep
slope, some higher up than others They will make a supposedly level floor
look like a ramp

It is a classic perspective mistake. If you neglect that, and make all your figures,
near and far, the same size, and then position the mat various distances
along the receding ground, they will not look like figures who are
themselves receding. This happens because they overlook a key rule of
perspective, which says that things that are nearer should be bigger than
things that are further.

It only means that the view is seen from a point above ground
level, and the ground is therefore visible. But since the view is projected
on to a flat surface, there is the risk that the ground stretching away will
look more like a sheer slope

There are pictures that give this impression They make receding ground
resemble a raked stage. The
inverted commas are there because, of course, it isn’t meant to look as if
it is rising. A feeling of
literal precariousness and physical danger was often part of the drama. With a picture that is done in perspective, the floor or street that recedes
from the viewer also “rises up” towards the middle of the image.