The Artistic Eye

This is an art book‐but an art book with a message: the "artistic eye" is not only a matter of taste but a matter of what the eye can do.
Art is a cultural enterprise that depends on many factors that science cannot explain, but understanding the eye brings new appreciation of how artists work and what art is. The human eye is not a camera.
The retina captures images through powerful but imperfect mechanisms that put constraints on how we interpret depth, contrast, shading, and color. Artists use these complex mechanisms as they transform the visual world into the ethereal enterprise we call art.
Roughly 250 examples of fine art in this book illustrate features of vision and how knowledge about the eye can augment works of art. We consider art from all ages and styles, since eyesight is universal. We hope this book will provide pleasure not only as a collection of great paintings, but also by bringing a deeper appreciation of how artists work and what art is through understanding the eye.