Drawing is the Hypotyposis of Art
The Greeks are the people of the idea. The Greeks made lying an honorable occupation, as Plato accused the poets of doing. By the poetic suspension of disbelief, the epic poets created a superhuman world of myth, one beyond good and evil. Strange as it seems, their model for Olympus was the human, all-too-human world of hubris and revenge. Describing the event from above - metaphysically - one is struck by the willing consent to be deceived -and to deceive. To repeat: lying effectively was considered a virtue, in ancient Greece. It was almost as if the audience wished to play a part in the play. All it lacked was a mask.
Our use of hypotyposis is borrowed direct from the Greek ὑποτύπωσις meaning "sketch" or "outline," and it is derived from the Greek verb “hypotyoun”, which means "to outline" or "to depict," combining hypo- ("under") and -typos ("impression" or "form"). Synonyms of hypotyposis include “description”, “depiction”, “representation”, and “illustration”, that is, a kind of rhetorical device that creates a powerful image in the imagination. Antonyms of hypotyposis include “abstract”, “nondescript”, and “vague”, as these convey ideas without the incisively descriptive detail that characterizes hypotyposis.
Aristotle uses the example of a chalk drawing to illustrate the importance of structure and form over mere sensory appeal. He argues that even the most beautiful colors, if applied confusedly, will not provide as much pleasure as a simple chalk outline of a portrait, which captures the essential form and shape:
"The Plot, then, is the first principle, and, as it were, the soul of a tragedy: Character holds the second place. A similar fact is seen in painting. The most beautiful colors, laid on confusedly, will not give as much pleasure as the chalk outline of a portrait. Thus Tragedy is the imitation of an action, and of the agents mainly with a view to the action."
The drawing - also called the "design" - of a painting, is analogous to dramatic plot, or the structured arrangement of events. It is the most crucial element in tragedy and art, both of which give the work its coherence and meaning.
It is the point in the creative process at which art and theater overlap. It is too easy to call a painting a miniature theater, just as it is misguided to call a a theatrical stage a painting. Nothing moves in a painting, as the figures in a play are always alive. One might as well call painting "the theater of rigor mortis." And yet, the confusion of the two mediums produces a third, the cloud kingdom of myth. Out of chaos, order, a hypostatized world-above-the-world, the realm of belief/disbelief. The artist's, or poet's role is to limn the outlines and contours of the realm of the imagination.
As a child one enters a culture through an apprenticeship in proper names. One must learn the names that designate close relations, important people in distant places, famous persons long dead, mythical figures and the invisible God. These names are rigid designators meaning nothing, or laden with various and conflicting significations. They can be attached to phrases belonging to altogether different situations. Names are not learned by themselves they are lodged in little stories - at first - connected in an apparently infinitely expanding sphere of meaning. Like a balloon the more one breathes into it the bigger it gets. It is this inflated presence which makes the hypostate suspected of being filled with nothing.
"Poetic suspension of disbelief" refers to the reader's or audience's temporary willingness to set aside their skepticism and critical faculties to fully engage with a fictional narrative, particularly one involving the supernatural or fantastical, in order to experience its emotional and imaginative power. The audience "knows" the play is not "true." It goes along with the ruse -for its own motives. This concept, popularized by the English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge in his 1817 work "Biographia Literaria", describes the mental state where one accepts the internal logic of a story, even if its events are implausible in reality, as long as the narrative provides a "semblance of truth" and "human interest".
Coleridge used this idea to explain his own work, such as "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner", where the reader must accept the supernatural elements of the tale on the story's own terms. The phrase is often used to describe the essential agreement between creators and audiences in fiction, where the audience suspends disbelief to be immersed in the storyworld, while the creators are responsible for maintaining consistency and verisimilitude to earn that suspension. It is not about believing the fiction is real, but about willingly participating in the imaginative experience for the sake of enjoyment and understanding.