ABSTRACT
No "major" painter is known to be color deficient. Are there truly no color deficient artists, or have they not been recognized? The historical literature cites criteria for recognizing color deficiency in artists, but they are hard to apply without knowing the intentions of an artist. The work and commentary of a color-deficient artist who works currently in Paris are presented as an example. He uses a limited palette of colors, based on advice from colleagues as much as his own perceptions, and he uses colors in ways that do not always fit with expectations for color deficiency. Biographies of earlier painters suggest that there were a few whose color sense was poor, but these painters used assistants to help. The color sense of others, such as the English landscape painter John Constable (1776-1837), has been questioned because of a preponderance of suspicious color, such as murky green. However, there are good reasons to doubt that Constable was color deficient. It is instructive to know how proven color deficiency has influenced an artist's style. When medical information is unavailable, the best advice for the diagnostically-inclined observer is just to enjoy the art.
Subject(s)
Color Perception , Color Vision Defects/history , Ophthalmology/history , Paintings , Color Perception/physiology , Color Vision Defects/diagnosis , Color Vision Defects/physiopathology , Diagnosis, Differential , England , History, 18th Century , History, 19th Century , History, 20th Century , Humans , Paintings/history , ParisABSTRACT
UNLABELLED: The purpose of this study was the inventory of historical painters who were blind, and the analysis of their attitude in the face of the blindness. METHODS: The population study was extracted from the dictionary of painters by Benezit. The method of the study was ophthalmological, to assess precisely the type and the etiology of the blindness; and psychological and artistic to study the reactions of the painters. RESULTS: Blindness was found among 85 painters. They were 5 cases of transitory blindness; 20 cases of unilateral blindness; and 60 cases of bilateral definitive blindness. The psychological attitudes of the painters were either negative, with depression, and even suicide (5 cases); or positive, with perseverance to paint till to blindness, teaching of the painting after blindness. CONCLUSIONS: The small number of painters with a blindness caused by a precise etiology was disappointing, but the variety of the reactions gave a good account of the attitude of the painters who became blind.
Subject(s)
Blindness/history , Famous Persons , Paintings/history , Female , France , History, 15th Century , History, 16th Century , History, 17th Century , History, 18th Century , History, 19th Century , History, 20th Century , Humans , MaleABSTRACT
Charles Meryon, an important artist of the 19th century, had a congenital defect in color vision. Meryon recognized this defect during his study of art, and he gradually gave up painting in favor of etching. This biographical article includes reproductions of some of Meryon's etchings and one oil painting. "Ghost Ship." Two palates display the principal colors of the spectrum, as seen normally and as seen with a color vision defect. "Ghost Ship" reveals the color-defective artist's typical preference for blue and yellow.
Subject(s)
Art/history , Color Vision Defects/history , Famous Persons , Color Vision Defects/congenital , France , History, 19th Century , Humans , Male , Medicine in the Arts , Paintings/historyABSTRACT
The role of the right hemisphere in the building of our visual space is now well established. The purpose of the present research was to determine the proportion of left handed painters, and to identify famous painters which were left-handed. The methods were as follows. First, the study of the portraits of the painters; but self-portraits were worthless (right-handed painters often painting themself as observed in the mirror, i.e. left-handed). Therefore, only portraits of painters made by another painter or by photography were used. Secondly, the orientation of the hatchings used by the artist for the representation of the shadows in the drawing: the right-handed artist making hatchings descending from right to left, and the left-handed artist making hatchings descending from left to right. Thirdly, the study of the relevant literature about history of art. The studied population included 500 painters divided in two groups: a population of 127 painters studied by portraits and hatchings; and a population of 373 painters studied only by hatchings. In the first population, the proportion of left-handed painters was 4.7%. In the second population, the proportion of left-handed painters was 2.1%. Among the 500 painters they were 14 left-handed subjects, i.e. 2.8%. These 14 painters were, in alphabetical order: Cambiaso, Dufy, Escher, Füssli, Grandville, Holbein, Klee, De La Patellière, Léonard de Vinci, Menzel, Montelupo, Papety, Regnault, Van Goyen.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Subject(s)
Functional Laterality , Paintings/history , Europe , History, 15th Century , History, 16th Century , History, 17th Century , History, 18th Century , History, 19th Century , History, 20th Century , HumansABSTRACT
PURPOSE: The desaturated Panel D-15 was performed in a repetitive manner to determine whether such repetition improves test results, and, specially, whether repetition can eliminate false positives. METHODS: The study population included 100 subjects with normal colour vision. The experimental procedure included: first the standard Farnsworth's Panel D-15 test, then the desaturated Panel D-15 test performed three times consecutively by each subject. Qualitative evaluation with the Farnsworth D-15 classical diagram and quantitative evaluation with scores calibrated according to the ages of the subjects were used. RESULTS: The standard Panel D-15, performed first, was of no predictive value for the subsequent desaturated Panel D-15 (Cohen's K = 0.08). The desaturated Panel D-15 performed three times consecutively gave evidence of improvement in all the studied variables, from the first to the third time: scores tended toward low values, lower mean score (from 85 to 42); more zero scores (from 17 to 32); smaller number of abnormal scores (from 16 to 3). At the first performance of the desaturated Panel D-15, there were 16% false positives. At the second, there were 3%; and at the third, none of the initial false positives occurred. CONCLUSION: Three successive performances of the desaturated Panel D-15 were necessary and sufficient to eliminate all false positives and can also assess some abnormal results.
Subject(s)
Color Perception Tests , Adolescent , Adult , Aged , Aged, 80 and over , Evaluation Studies as Topic , False Positive Reactions , Female , Humans , Male , Middle Aged , Reference Values , Reproducibility of ResultsABSTRACT
Mr. J.J., painter, has been a professional artist for thirty years. On clinical examination of the color vision by pseudo-isochromatic plates, City University Colour Vision Test, standard and desaturated Panel-D 15, Farnsworth 100-hue test and Nagel's anomaloscop evidenced a typical hereditary deuteranopia. Neverless, the recognition and the denomination of coloured samples, presented singly or in simultaneous chromatic contrast, evidenced only a few errors. In an interview, the subject explained his difficulties with colours, mainly with green, and the procedures used to avoid mistakes in painting: knowledge of the names of colors written on tubes; precise order of arranging the tubes; use of a palette restricted to some basic hues, avoiding green. The subject artistic technique is based on drawing, on better perceived colours (i.e. the blues) and on value contrasts. He also enumerated his difficulties with colours in casual situations: clothes, traffic, food. Some reproductions of the works of the painter illustrate this study.
Subject(s)
Color Vision Defects , Paintings , Color Vision Defects/diagnosis , Color Vision Defects/physiopathology , Humans , Male , Middle AgedABSTRACT
The estimation of the validity of a test refers to whether this test measures what it claims to measure. The validity of the desaturated panel D-15 was estimated in 248 subjects with congenital hereditary dyschromatopsia. The method used was based on a qualitative and quantitative study of the so-called lines of confusion joining the positions of the colored caps on the classical Farnsworth's diagram. The qualitative estimation was evaluated according to the prevailing number of lines of confusion which were parallel to a given line of reference of the diagram; it was related to the axis of the dyschromatopsia. The comparison of the results with results of Nagel's anomaloscope used as a reference test, demonstrated an overvaluation of the number of the protan subjects (anomaloscope: 77; desaturated D-15: 107) and an undervaluation of the number of deutan subjects (anomaloscope: 169; desaturated D-15: 70). This kind of discrepancy was not apparent with the standard Panel D-15. The quantitative estimation was evaluated according to the whole number of lines of confusion whatever their directions; it was related to the severity of the dyschromatopsia. The comparison of the results with the results of Nagel's anomaloscope demonstrated that the dichromatic and extreme anomalous trichromatic subjects nearly always (40 subjects out of 42) had 7 lines of confusion, or more; the simple anomalous trichromatic subjects had a variable number of lines of confusion, from 1 to 8, without any prevalence in the great majority of cases (193 subjects out of 204).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Subject(s)
Color Perception Tests , Color Vision Defects/diagnosis , Color Vision Defects/congenital , Color Vision Defects/genetics , Evaluation Studies as Topic , Female , Humans , Male , Reproducibility of Results , Sensitivity and SpecificityABSTRACT
The influence of color vision defects on pictorial art was studied using three methods. 1) From a theoretical standpoint, the possibilities of choice of the color-blind painter are determined by the nature of his color perception. Characteristic errors result from the fact that he has to choose between many hues which are different to a normal individual but which all look the same to him. 2) Evaluation of the clinical cases of painters with dyschromatopsias has shown evidence of the following: a) the color-blind painter makes mistakes according to the type of color defect; b) if the color-blind painter makes several copies of the same model, he makes different mistakes at each attempt; c) when several color-blind painters make copies of the same model, they also make different mistakes, even when they suffer from the same type of color vision defect. Preferences for some colored patterns were studied by means of a forced choice procedure and choices of color-blind individuals were often characteristic of their dyschromatopsia. Recent clinical case of acquired dyschromatopsia reported in the literature are discussed, as is a personal case of a painter suffering from tapeto-retinal degeneration. This was a severe dyschromatopsia with a neutral zone in purple (so-called scotpic axis, by Verriest's terminology). The painting of this artist tended to be monochromatic, mainly in green and green-blue colors. 3) Recent studies in art history have shown that only the romantic etcher Meryon was definitively color deficient. The more dubious cases of the Polish painter Grottger and of Eugène Carrière are discussed and conclusions are negative. Among acquired dyschromatopsias, there have been many recent papers devoted to cataract dyschromatopsias, concerning the cases of Rouault, Monet and Mary Cassatt. The hypothesis of a degree of chromatopsia or dyschromatopsia of toxic origin in the case of Van Gogh is also assessed. In conclusion, the problem of the relations between congenital or acquired dyschromatopsias and pictorial art seems very complex and great care is required when making deductions and advancing hypotheses.
Subject(s)
Color Perception , Color Vision Defects , Famous Persons , Paintings , Color Vision Defects/history , Female , History, 19th Century , History, 20th Century , Humans , Male , Medicine in the Arts , Paintings/historyABSTRACT
Ohkuma's pseudoisochromatic test was evaluated in 147 subjects including 130 cases with hereditary dyschromatopsias, and compared with the color vision tests of Ishihara, the HRR, the Farnsworth Panel D-15 and the City University Color Vision Test. Qualitatively, Ohkuma's test was more exact for the diagnosis of the axis of the dyschromatopsia (protan or deutan); quantitatively, Ohkuma's test was of good efficiency for screening, but the quantitative gradation was mediocre, indicating dichromatism in only 3/4 of the cases.
Subject(s)
Color Perception Tests/methods , Color Vision Defects/diagnosis , Adolescent , Adult , Aged , Child , Evaluation Studies as Topic , Female , Humans , Male , Middle AgedABSTRACT
Critical study of two features of the painting of Van Gogh: the colored haloes, assignated to glaucoma; and the prevalence of yellow, assignated to xanthopsis induced by digitalis.
Subject(s)
Art , Digitalis Glycosides/adverse effects , Famous Persons , Paintings/history , Vision Disorders/history , Art/history , Color Perception/drug effects , History, 19th Century , Netherlands , Vision Disorders/chemically inducedABSTRACT
The Fechner's paradox is a visual phenomenon characterized by the fact that the monocular luminosity seems greater than the binocular luminosity. It's a simple and non-dissociating method for the clinical study of the binocular vision. In pathology, the Fechner's paradox may be abolished, or inverse, or may exist spontaneously. The abnormalities were induced by strabismus, or by some others ocular diseases disturbing the binocular vision (unilateral cataract, retinal lesions).
Subject(s)
Strabismus/physiopathology , Vision, Binocular , Humans , Vision, Binocular/physiology , Vision, Monocular/physiologyABSTRACT
Fechner's paradox is a visual phenomenon which may be summarized as follows: a subject looks at an illuminated screen in binocular vision; one of the eyes is provided with a photometric neutral filter (density 1,3), the other eye remaining uncovered. When the uncovered eye is covered by means of a cover-test, the apparent luminosity of the viewing screen seems to decrease; but when the eye with the filter is covered by the cover-test, the apparent luminosity of the screen seems to increase: this fact is apparently paradoxical, since a part of the luminous stimulus of the eyes was suppressed: this is Fechner's paradox. The exact mechanism of this phenomenon is not yet clear; nevertheless, it is a primordial phenomenon of binocular vision, is easy to use in clinical strabological practice. Our present study was an application of Fechner's paradox in 119 strabismic subjects, 5 kinds of responses were obtained: 2 normal kinds of responses: Fechner's paradox symmetrical (41 subjects) or asymmetrical (29 subjects), i.e. 60% normal responses; and 3 kinds of pathological responses: mononuclear abolition (34 subjects), binocular abolition (10 subjects) and inversion of Fechner's paradox (5 subjects). The comparison between these responses and the clinical features was as follows: 1) Fechner's paradox was normal in 78% of subjects when the difference between the visual acuities of the two eyes was below 5/10, i.e. without true ambylopia; Fechner's paradox was abnormal in 74% of subjects when the difference was greater than 5/10; unilateral abolition of Fechner's paradox was not clearly related to the differences in visual acuity, but bilateral abolition and inversion of the phenomenon was related to ambylopia of one eye.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Subject(s)
Strabismus/diagnosis , Vision Tests/methods , Vision, Binocular/physiology , Humans , Strabismus/physiopathologyABSTRACT
The two pseudoisochromatic tritan plates of the Ergovision apparatus were evaluated in 215 normal pathological subjects, by comparison with the usual clinical albums H.R.R., S.P.P. 2 and tritan album. A good specificity for tritan axis and a good correlation (according to statistical K of Cohen) with H.R.R. and S.P.P. 2 was evidenced for the plate n.1; this plate was not very influenced by age of the subjects. Conversely, the plate n.2 was in poor correlation with the 3 albums, and multiple false positive responses were evidenced, particularly in hereditary red-green dyschromatopsias and in subjects after 50 years.
Subject(s)
Color Perception Tests/instrumentation , Color Vision Defects/diagnosis , Adolescent , Adult , Aged , Aged, 80 and over , Child , Evaluation Studies as Topic , False Positive Reactions , Female , Humans , Male , Middle AgedABSTRACT
This paper is a study of the relationships between optics, right or left handedness and self-portrait, according to the concepts elaborated by Arthur Linksz. Four topics are studied: 1) Image reversal in the looking-glass: making his self-portrait, the painter looks at an self-image in a mirror, and so is copying an image of himself where right and left are, so to speak, inverted; eyes, ears, clothes, and above all, hands: the real right hand is the left hand in the picture, and the real left hand is the right hand in the picture. 2) Due to this reversal, the painter has two possibilities: either he can accept this apparent reversal, and represent himself as left-handed (painting using his left hand); or he can refuse this apparent reversal, and correct the reflected image in the picture. Both these options have in fact been used by painters, depending on whether they painted before or after the birth of photography: before photography, painters, generally, refused to seem left-handed; so, they used many tricks to correct the reflected image: suppression of the two hands in the self-portrait; suppression of the painted left hand (i.e. the real right hand); brushstroke in the painted right hand (i.e. the real left hand) and/or palette in the left painted hand (i.e.; the real right hand); only a few painters accepted to seem appearing left-handed in the self-portrait.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Subject(s)
Art , Ocular Physiological Phenomena , Optics and Photonics , Paintings , Portraits as Topic , Vision, Ocular/physiology , Art/history , Europe , Functional Laterality , History, 15th Century , History, 16th Century , History, 17th Century , History, 19th Century , Humans , Paintings/history , Portraits as Topic/historyABSTRACT
The therapeutic efficiency of the Ginkgo biloba extract was estimated in a double-blind trial, during a 6 months period, in 29 diabetic subjects with an early diabetic retinopathy evidenced by angiography, and associated with a blue-yellow dyschromatopsia. The functional criterion was the color vision evolution, studied by the Desaturated Panel D-15 and the 100-Hue Farnsworth test at the beginning of the trial and 6 months later. An improvement tendency was evidenced in subjects treated by Ginkgo biloba extract, and an aggravation in subjects with placebo, this improvement being statistically significative with the Desaturated Panel D-15 among subjects without retinal ischemia. These clinical results on visual function corroborate the pharmacological actions of Ginkgo biloba extract on diabetic retina.
Subject(s)
Color Perception , Diabetic Retinopathy/drug therapy , Clinical Trials as Topic , Double-Blind Method , Humans , Middle Aged , Plant Extracts/therapeutic use , Random Allocation , Time FactorsSubject(s)
Blood Glucose/analysis , Color Vision Defects/complications , Diabetes Mellitus/blood , Monitoring, Physiologic/methods , Adolescent , Adult , Aged , Child , Humans , Middle Aged , Self CareABSTRACT
The color vision was examined in 319 subjects in a comparative manner by means of the desatured Panel D-15 and Farnsworth 100-hue test used as reference test. The results expressed by scoring, were as follows: 1) a strong correlation (r = 0.80) was evidenced between the 2 tests; 2) the probable scores of the desaturated Panel D-15 were predicted from the 100-hue scores, by means of a suitable regression equation; thus allowing the calculation of norms of the desaturated Panel D-15 by reference to the well-established norms according to age of the 100-hue test; 3) the normal or pathological character of the scores of the desaturated Panel D-15 was infered from these norms, and was in good agreement with the scores of 100-hue test (K = 0.68); 4) the normal or pathological character of the qualitative patterns of the desaturated Panel D-15 was also infered from the scores; so: the minor errors were normal from 30 years old patients; a single diametral error is normal; 3 or 4 diametral errors are normal from 65 years old patients.
