WINDOWS
History of a Metaphor
Art is a universal language. And the modern communications media can provide the global infrastructure for this universal language. Thus, artists use the possibilities of interactive media in order to underline the dialogue-oriented nature of man and his art. That is precisely what technology and economics have to learn from the artist. (Thomas Middelhoff, Bertelsmann AG)
The ‘window’ metaphor has a long career in the history of art and, in fact, in the evolvement of the human perspective in general. It has been associated with the voyeuristic and inquisitive instincts of man as well as - considering Alberti’s use of the metaphor - with the emergence of the ‘central perspective’ of modernity. To-day, within our new communications culture, we find multidimensional window arrangements - interfaces - that will permit man to navigate the non-Euclidean realms of postmodern cyberspace.
Above all, though, windows have permitted man to experience the essence of light, from Chartres Cathedral to the paintings of Vermeer, and to this day even their most mundane use implies some sort of interaction with the unknown and with infinity.
In addition, the window metaphor has popped up in man’s quest for space, referring to time frames for rocket launches; and in that fine political figure of speech: ‘windows of opportunity’. So it was no surprise that the word was also chosen to denote a software that became part of the most successf20ul business venture of all times.
We think that a book exploring the cultural background and context of the window metaphor could greatly contribute to ‘civilizing’ the new informational technology, integrating it into the mainstream of global cultural heritage (for, obviously, the window metaphor has its place in non-European cultures, too). ‘Windows into the unknown’ are opening up as science advances; ‘interface design’ could prove to be the art form of the next century (Steven Johnson). The window metaphor, through history, has, in a sense, prepared for all of this. Therefore a well made, visually attractive volume on the subject should generate widespread interest all over the world.
The Evolution of the Window
Metaphors, figures of speech and thought, grow out of the experience with natural objects and cultural artifacts. They try to explain or accomodate the unknown through the known. As of recent, for example, human intelligence has been likened to the functions of a computer. This ‘computer metaphor’ only became possible because of technological advances. Likewise, ‘windows’ had to be there before they could be used as metaphors and in allegories.‘Doors and windows’ are the staple of the architectural process. The contrast between pre-historic caves and dwellings having ‘openings’ (other than an access hole) could not be greater. Historically, in Europe, something happened between the emergence of the Gothic style and the Renaissance revolution that bore heavily on the technology (and, for that matter, on the spirituality) of the window and its cultural implications. We will have two or more chapters to deal with this.
In Florence, to give an example of the technological advances, the window, at the times of Alberti and Brunelleschi, was still mainly defined by its shutters. The windows had nothing but these shutters to close them. Beginning with the fifteenth century, ‘impannate’ - frames stretched with linnen that had been painted with oil varnish to make it waterproof - were used. The window truly was a screen. Tenants took this ‘window-furniture’ along when they moved. Flat glass panes were practically unavailable commercially and the tondos imported from Venice, France or Flanders were expensive and rarely to be found.
And then the history of window glass: The Romans made flat glass by rolling out hot glas on a smooth table. This produced a window glass that was uneven and not very transparent. Plate glass was first produced at St. Gobain, France, in 1668, by the ‘broad glass’ method. But even then window glass was a luxury. Only the rich could afford to glaze their windows. In 1871, William Pilkington invented a machine which allowed ever larger pieces of glass to be made. This, for example, made possible the great Victorian extravaganza in glass, the Crystal Palace.
Of course, 20th century architecture, making use of the advances in glass production and window construction, has seen, in a sense, the substitution of the wall by the window, by expanses of complex ‘plate glass arrangements’. At the same time the ‘reflexivity’ of incorporating windows into the architectural experience has increased - along with a knowledge about the shifting relations between the ‘interior’ and the ‘exterior’. By now, what might be called the Interface Culture of the 21st century (Steven Johnson) is emerging. And from all we hear, Bill Gates’ new mansion is not noted for its windows, but for the screens and interfaces permeating the building.
The Evolution of the Window Metaphor
The technological advances toward the ‘windows’ of to-day have been quite slow and only accelerated with the industrial revolution itself. Glass, plate glass, colored glass for centuries had been associated with the high and mighty. Using sheltering windows to look out into wide landscapes or over huddled houses down below was for the very few. The metaphor of opening gates (or crushing them) was much more rampant. The delicately colored light passing through the windows of Gothic Cathedrals was perceived as a revelation from above, never intended to permit the interactive glimpse from the within to the without.
During the flowering of the Renaissance the term ‘window metaphor’ became associated with Leon Battista Alberti, who, based on the theory of perspective originated by the paintings and drawings of Filippo Brunelleschi, in 1435 published his famed ‘De Pictura’. This was the first theoretical and critical account ‘on how to paint’ in an aesthetically attractive and visually convincing way.
He expounded on the central or ‘linear’ perspective as a way to constitute a form of interactivity between artist and viewer : "the existence of another virtual space, another three dimensional world enclosed by a frame and situated inside our normal space." (Lev Manovich) But this had consequences. The ‘modern’ perspective entailed the imprisonment of the body on both the conceptual and the spiritual level – both kinds of imprisonment already appearing with the first screen apparatus, Alberti’s perspectival window...
A painting following this theory was particularly convincing if the central perspective was offered through skillful window arrangements. Alberti continued to apply his ideas (especially about windows) to architecture and, in his capacity as an architect, has to be ranked alongside the likes of Michelangelo and Leonardo.
Jan Vermeer (see below) would, in a way, rediscover the mystic of light for modernity. But what should be important for the archaeology of the window metaphor is, first of all, the immense value of the screen (which really was what the early windows were) for representation. Looking back, the window as a screen describes equally well a Renaissance painting and (recall Alberti) a modern computer display. Manovich: "Even proportions have not changed in five centuries...(...the very names of the two main formats of computer displays point to two genres of painting: a horizontal format is referred to as a ‘landscape mode’ while the vertical format is referred to as ‘portrait mode’.)"
The window metaphor bloomed during the evolution of the modern theatre and its stage (‘Guckkastenbühne’) and finally during the 19th century, when introspection and voyeurism led to a host of rather strange viewing apparatuses. And then, a hundred years ago, a new screen became popular, the ‘dynamic screen’, the screen of cinema, television, video. "The dynamic screen brings with it a certain relationship between the image and the spectator - a novel viewing regime..." (Lev Manovich)
"Thanks to Microsoft’s lavish advertising budgets, the window is now shorthand for a wide array of innovations that make up the modern interface... ...Forget about the mouse pointer, and the desktop metaphor, and the menu bar - the history of interface now neatly divides into two epochs: pre- windows and post-Windows." - But, Steven Johnson continues, we even begin to no longer think of our virtual windows as analogs of the real-world version: "They’re species unto themselves."
Source of Eternal Light: the Gothic Cathedral
"The gothic stained-glass window, for ever unexplained, for ever inexplicable, lasted throughout the age of ‘true gothic’. Master and servant of light, whose effect comes less from the colour of its mosaics or fragments of glass than from a certain unanalysable quality of both colour and glass. For as a fact this glass does not react to light like ordinary glass. It seems to be transformed into precious stone that does not so much let the light pass as itself become luminous. Under harsh and direct action of the sun, a stained glass window does not project its colour as does merely tinted glass, but only a diffused, clear splendour. Another peculiarity is that whether light outside the church is soft or harsh the window is just as splendid and even remains luminous in the shades of twilight as in full day. No chemical analysis has so far, to our knowledge, penetrated the mystery of the gothic window."
These musings by Louis Charpentier, author of a controversial book on ‘The Mysteries of Chartres Cathedral’, nevertheless reflect the very special effect of these ‘light sources’. The magic of the gothic window well merits exploration.
"Writing about Dürer’s famous print of a draftsman drawing a nude through a screen of perspectival threads, Martin Jay notes that a ‘reifying male look’ turns ‘its targets onto stone’; consequently, the marmoreal nude is drained of its capacity to arouse desire...Similarly, John Berger compares Alberti’s window to ‘a safe let into a wall, a safe into which the visible has been deposited.’ And in the Draughtsman’s Contract, time and again the draughtsman tries to eliminate all motion, any sign of life from the scenes he is rendering. With the perspectival machines, the imprisonment of the subject also happens in a literal sense...[up to the] petrified world of the photographic image..." (Lev Manovich) - What Renaissance artists had clearly achieved through careful observation of nature, including studies of anatomical dissections, was a means to recreate the 3-dimensional physical reality of the human form on 2-dimensional surfaces. In part, the key to this achievement lay in understanding the underlying, hidden structure of the human body.
But in addition, by literally systematizing the ‘view through a window’, a similar inspiration occurred to those seeking a corresponding dramatic reality in the representation of physical space. A means - namely window-like frames - was devised early in the 15th century for translating the reality of 3-dimensional natural phenomena onto 2-dimensional surfaces, producing virtually realistic copies. A correspondence was thus made possible, through mathematics, between the representational reality of the artist and the physical reality of nature.
Chapter Five
Light on Privacy: the Windows of Jan Vermeer
Perhaps the most famous metaphorist of the window has to be Jan Vermeer. With him the light mysticism of the Gothic cathedrals and the aesthetic achievements of the Renaissance were transformed and focused on the individual, on the privacy and intimacy of personal relationships.
His paintings, his painted window metaphors, have had tremendous impact on establishing the private sphere that came to be the underpinning of civil society. And in some sense these paintings are shedding an eerie light on the ongoing privacy debate relating to electronic communication. We will discuss this painter extensively, trying to find out what motivated him and how his art has been discussed and received up to now.
Intro Authors Windows in Painting German Sample Chapter Overview
All Rights Reserved (1999/2002) H. J. Krysmanski
