Winslow Homer - The Obtuse Bard (draft 20150402) screen 028b
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La FARGE - THE THREE WISE MEN
Whenever we look, we can only recognize things to the extent that we can match those forms to something in our collection of visual memories from experience. The photograph, Looking East from St. George's Chapel Tower, and the many other images we have looked at from this area, has added to your collection of visual memories such that you might recognize the background on the left half of this painting as the area by Berkeley's Rock and Second Beach. Knowing that La Farge was the painter and that he did lots of paintings in this area is important for that perception, since context influences our perceptions. Without those two facts, even being familiar with this area, you would be much less likely to see the background as Second Beach, because knowing that we are looking at "The Three Wise Men," we would not expect them to be traveling around Newport.

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Copyright 1992-2015 Peter Bueschen
The presentation is available at The Obtuse Bard website http://obtusebard.org.