Why a Painted Face Seems to Follow the Viewer
A note on the fixed gaze and foreshortening of painted figures, beneath a hexagonal rosette
A short note on the optics of pictures: a painted face that looked toward the master who made it appears to look at everyone who beholds it, and a figure painted as if seen from above continues to seem seen from above even when the viewer's eye is lower than the picture. Above the note a washed circle encloses a six-fold flower-of-life rosette on a marked axis, continuing the geometrical studies of the surrounding sheets.
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The fixed gaze and viewpoint of a painted figure
That face which in a painting looked into the face of the master who made it always looks at all those who behold it. And a figure painted as though seen from above downward will always appear seen from above, even though the eye of the viewer be lower than the painting itself.
Hexagonal flower-of-life rosette
A softly washed circle at the centre of the sheet encloses a six-fold rosette of interlocking arcs set on a marked vertical axis, matching the circle-division studies of the adjacent folios.