Repoussoir

Repoussior: an avenue of lime trees as a vegetal frame in the foreground, which serves to accentuate the motif as well as an increased depth effect, parish church Weissenbach an der Triesting

A repoussoir ( French repousser " drive back") describes an object placed in the foreground of a painting or a photograph, which, due to its oversized representation and dark colors, increases the impression of depth compared to the rest of the objects shown.

The repoussoir in paintings

The repoussoir was mainly in the painting of the Renaissance rather suggests a technical trick that spatial depth and it points than actually produces. The picture itself does not show any clear depth dimension apart from a staggering one behind the other.

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  Raffael and Giulio Romano : L'incendio di Borgo ( The Borgo Brand )

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  Annibale Carracci : Triumphal procession of Bacchus and Ariadne

As an example, the view through the windshield of a car

Marginal figurative phenomena, which have the sole function of drawing the viewer's gaze in depth, are called “repoussoir figures”. A well-known example is the fresco Der Borgobrand by Raphael in the Vatican , 1514. On the far right of the picture, a woman with a jug on her head is depicted from behind; it seems to go into the depth of the picture.

Another recent example is Umberto Boccioni's painting La strada entra nella casa from 1911, in which a woman, shown from behind, watches the hustle and bustle on the street from an elevated position, a balcony. It leads the viewer's gaze into the depths of the picture.

literature

• Editing for art of the Bibliographisches Institut (Ed.): Meyers Kleines Lexikon. Meyers Lexikonverlag, Vienna / Zurich 1986, ISBN 3-411-02655-3 .