Study on Spatial Perception in Modern European Art in the Context of 19th-Century Visual Culture

Abstract

This paper investigates spatial perception in contemporary European art in the context of nineteenth-century visual culture. Rather than presenting new empirical data, it compiles historical and theoretical studies on the construction of the observer, optical devices and pictorial practices to show how new regimes of vision shaped artistic space. The discussion will show how the observed subject changes under the influence of optical devices and physiological optics, focus on the development path of models such as the camera obscura to stereoscopy and panoramacy, and investigate how modern European artists, especially those in the French school, have adapted to these changes through painting techniques that manipulate depth, focus of attention, and the position of the subject. Based on the social and political history of nineteenth-century art, it examines how urban life, mass visual media, and realist-impressionist techniques changed the concept of spatial continuity and fragmentation. It believes that the idea of space in contemporary European art should no longer be viewed as an extension of representation, but rather as an integral part of the larger visual culture of spectacle, surveillance and daily observation.