Similarities and differences between gaze education in elementary geometry and figurative art

Abstract

An apparently immediate and simple spontaneous act, as the sight, that we use to look at figures in geometry and at pictures in figurative art, reveals on the contrary unexpected complexities with remarkable consequences on the learning of geometry. In this study we suggest didactical ways to educate it. We suggest several analogies between “seeing” geometrical figures and “seeing” in figurative art. We analyse the recognition of the so-called impossible figures and we provide some examples of works of art for whose interpretation sight is not enough, but it requires a semiotic analysis (suggested by the author).