Optical Illusions and the Human Shape of the Holy Land

 

Many viewers of the Holy Land Map find it difficult to identify the human figure which is hidden in the landscape. They believe that they look at an ordinary map of the Land of Israel and do not see the human figure with characters parallel to that of the landscape. The reason is the numerous Geographical details of the picture, which force the eyes to focus on them, while loosing the general view.

 

The eyes tendency to focus on details on account of the general view is well known and is used by many artists to create Optical Illusions. These are images were a second reality is hidden behind what is visible at first glance. Only after a long observation, and with the help of many clues, can the viewer of an Optical Illusion discover the hidden image

 

 

Can you recognize in the map a human figure?

 

Holy Land Map as a Human Shape

Holy Land Map as a Human Shape

 

 

This common use of the eyes faculties is a trouble for the viewers of the Holy Land Map. The aim of the map is to clarify at a first glance its objective: The connection between the landscape of Israel and the human shape. This connection has enough problems by itself for the imagination. The creator of the map has no needs for Optical Illusions. The Optical Illusion distracts the mind. It turns the secondary into primary, in a way that it appears that the whole perception of reality is based upon it.

 

The basic idea of the Holy Land Map is combining the Anatomy model with the landscape of the Land of Israel.

 

Anatomy model with the landscape of the Land of Israel

Anatomy model against Land of Israel

 

 

To make it easy to discover immediately the human figure which appears on the landscape, a satellite photo of the Land of Israel is shown below. A sculpture of a head by the Swiss artist Giakommeti is placed over the photo's upper part, a neck from a portrait by the artist Modigliani is placed over the middle, and an Anatomy model of the torso is placed over the lower part. This combination represents the idea of the Holy Land Map as a Human Shape: The face is the land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. The neck is the Negev Plateau. The torso is Sinai Peninsula. The hair is Jordan Red Mountains. Angel's rays are the Lebanon Mountains.

 

The elongated head of Giakommeti's sculpture fits the elongated structure of the land west of the Jordan River.

 

The elongated head of Giakommeti's sculpture fits the elongated structure of the land west of the Jordan River

Giakommeti's sculpture on Israel map

 

 

If you haven't discovered the human figure yet, please go back to the map on top and try again to find it.

 

 

The landscape lines do not mach exactly the lines of the human shape. A complicated metamorphosis process is needed to change the topographic map into a human shape. But the opposite process exists too: Human beings make constant efforts to compare between their shape and the landscape form. This fact creates a dialog between man and landscape. It is a sublimation process.

 

The metamorphosis between landscape and man is represented in the Human Shape of Israel.

 

A metamorphosis between landscape and man

Metamorphosis between landscape and man

 

 

There are few characteristics that must be paid attention for while viewing the Holy Land Map:

The face part of the Holy Land Map is longer and narrower in relation to the Anatomic reality. The torso part is relatively wider.

The face appears in a profile and the torso more in a front view.

The face of the Holy Land Map appears in its external appearance: You can see the eye, ear, cheek, nose, mouth, etc.

The torso appears in its interior appearance: You can see the internal organ systems of the heart-lungs, liver-stomach, and intestines.

 

Illustration to point out the parallels between the body and the map: Near every body organ appears the region name to which it is associated.

 

Parallels between the Human Body Organs and the Geographic Regions of the Land of Israel

Parallels between Anatomy and Israel

 

 

Links to Anatomy Tutorials

 

Links to Satellites photos

 

 

The Holy Land Map was created through a long empirical process. The landscape was examined by satellites photos and maps, in relation to human portraits and Anatomy models. This is naturally an infinite process of the imagination, which activate the important power of the imagination to disintegrate existing formal images, for recreating them as new dynamic images. You can read about this function of the imagination in Gaston Bachelard's books.

 

The creative process is, at first, disintegrating of existing formal images.

 

The creative process is, at first, disintegrating of existing formal images

Disintegration of existing formal images

 

 

In this way the proper connection between any land region and any body organ was established. The next step was a preliminary drawing, where a portrait was sketched according to the landscape. The illustration emerged as a clear human figure, but the connection to the landscape became vague. In addition, the character did not have a sufficient amount of textures and colors.

 

The Holy Land Map was at the beginning, a simple graphic illustration of a human portrait, without many colors and textures.

 

The Holy Land Map as a graphic illustration of a human portrait, without many colors and textures

Holy Land Map early version

 

 

A renewed modification to the landscape was done afterward and new features were added. As a result, some of the characteristics of the portrait became less common.

The need to add colors and textures to enrich the character with details, made it necessary to rely on the landscape as a source of inspiration. Colors and textures typical to the paralleling country regions were added. The general approach was to regard the landscape as the human flesh and skin. The preliminary lines of the illustration are the skeleton, covered with flesh and skin in the pattern of the various lands. It was done like one of the basic attributes of human existence.

 

Resurgence, as a dynamic sublimation process, is an unceasing dialogue between mankind and earth.

 

Resurgence

Resurgence

 

 

This is not the place to discuss the possibility of a connection between the evolution of mankind and the landscape of the Holy Land, perhaps via the Birds Migration. But the use of the landscape for flesh and skin textures is natural and affluent. When the details seemed to be too many, this usage was stopped by the Holy Land Map creator. It was for the sake of keeping the general idea. With the use of powerful Geographical simulators and complex Anatomy Models, it might be possible to reach much higher levels of details, even such huge enlargements were anyone will recognize himself personally on the Holy Land Map

 

 

Here is an illustration by Gustav Dore from 1854, of Russia as an old woman. It comes to illustrate the combination between Optical Illusions and Anthropomorphic Maps.

 

The city of St. Petersburg is the eye, The Caspian Sea is the ear, the chin is above the Black sea, and so on

 

Russia as an old woman

Russia as an old woman

 

 

The painter Amedeo Modigliani specialized in characters with an imaginary elongated form.

 

Here is a Modigliani's painting which is integrated very well with the map of Israel

 

Oe of Modigliani's paintings which are integrated very well with the map of the Israel

Modigliani's painting on Land of Israel

 

 

End

 

 

 

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