Problems With Perspective

For years now we've had this painting by Manet hanging in our living room.   I've looked upon it many times while I lay on the couch pondering the universe, or trying to nap.  Every time I would point my mental focus on it I was a bit bothered by the apparent lack of proper perspective...things don't line up.  I viewed it with contempt and a little disgust.  We're pretty unforgiving in art when that art is an attempt to portray of reality.  Things are supposed to reflect reality, and line up.In this form, perspective matters, a lot.  So naturally each time I viewed it I bad mouthed Manet in my mind.  I didn't understand why, if he were such a great artist, would he paint something so obviously wrong.  One day recently, as I was again lying on the couch and again looking at this seemingly bad perspective painting, the thought occurred to me, "Maybe he did it on purpose to force upon the viewer a certain experience, a disconnect of sorts.  Maybe there was more to the story?"  So I got up and researched it online (god bless the Internet!).

Turns out, it was neither.  He did not make a mistake knowingly or unknowingly.  He played a prank of perspectives.  This painting is actually accurate, and reproducible in real life, although tricks are employed to fool you into thinking the woman and the man are looking at each other and engaged is some kind of interchange.

http://www.getty.edu/art/exhibitions/manet_bar/looking_glass.html

WoW!  Now this painting becomes so full of messages and morals in my mind about perspective and appearances, and wrongfully assessing people and ideas.   The big one: Some things that may not appear to be correct may in actuality be so, you are just looking at it wrong, and applying your rules.  I have oft suspected that this may be the case in what we perceive as reality...maybe it's an inverted, twisted, skewed version of the infinite.  Inherent in symmetry is inversion.  The mirror in this painting is a form of metaphor, etc, etc, on, and on.  Suddenly now this painting comes alive to me...just goes to show (at least to me), anything you look at long enough and try to understand becomes all the richer.  I now love this painting... now that I understand it better, and this the result that I was no longer content to merely continue laying about and casting self righteous judgement on it, and rather I sought to understand it, or maybe to assume depth and purpose behind something that at face value looked so stupid .  I think about how some people may be making the same mistakes when we consider the artist god.  Maybe god or the universe is pranking our perspective, intentionally hiding things from our viewpoint to teach us something, or to make life more rich, deep, and profound.  Maybe from our current position, and inability to get up from our current perspective, we are unable to consult, or even understand the cosmic internet.  I think I'll go muse on it again as I ponder in my view from the couch...maybe even enjoy a nap.