The Construction of Meaning in Vision—Three Examples: Bonnard, Hammershøi, Poussin

In this article, I part from two of Jean Petitot’s [22, 30] fundamental claims or scientific findings: (1) certain spatial relations occurring both in ordinary vision and in pictures are intrinsically significant by virtue of their purely spatial properties, and it is therefore possible to develop a qualitative semio-ontology of such morphologies and of meaning in vision; (2) artists have developed some of their formal techniques (e.g., the use of perspective) to exploit those operations of the visual brain that respond to and process significant spatial structure in the visual world. I will give three examples of how artists construct meaning in vision, by means of perceptual grouping, exploitation of shape dynamics, and use of non-generic viewpoints. The underlying claim is that such purely visual structures are part of what could be called a qualitative ontology of the picture, which in turns guides and constrains the phenomenology and hermeneutics of the experience. They constitute the platform for the construction of meaning in vision.