Dr. Christopher Tyler of the Smith-Kettlewell Eye Researcy Institute, San Francisco has posted an essay online that is titled: “An Eye-Placement Principle in 500 Year of Portraits.” It is very short and well illustrated. Here is an exerpt:
To illustrate the degree to which an eye tends to be set on the center vertical in portraits, twelve classic portraits from the past five centuries were selected for reproduction. Selection for this figure was based on depiction of one eye as compositionally dominant over the other with the head in a variety of poses, with no attempt at a scientific sampling procedure. Each portrait is reproduced in its full width, but many are cropped in height to fit into the panels. From the perspective of frame geometry, many of the examples illustrate the lengths to which portrait artists seem to go to set the dominant eye on the center line. Several cases illustrate how clever composition generates the overall impression that the face is symmetrically located in the frame. Only when the guide lines are drawn through the pictures does it become clear that one eye is at the exact horizontal center.
Read the whole article (that is short), by clicking here. Thanks to Lines & Colours.
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