ABSTRACT
Blindness ironically has much to do with perspective. To excavate the full function of sight is to tackle the problem not only of what one sees and does not see but in either case what one does with it. What does what we see mean, and how is that known? For Alberti and the tradition that likely influenced him, Narcissus functioned as the appropriate metaphorical trope, well worn in its ability to lift the veil that threatens higher, sharper clarity of mind. Recognizing the limitation of sight as a mere physical source of knowledge frees one to see inwardly, where those finite limitations give way to infinite realms no longer subject to place, distance, proportion, measure, or even time. Where might we find artistic evidence of such an idea of vision?
