Visual Perspective

NAME: Visual Perspective

ALTERNATIVE NAME/S:   Linear Perspective

DETAILS/DESCRIPTION:

In art, "perspective" relates to representing three-dimensional objects on a flat surface.  In  pre-Renaissance Europe, this was achieved by placing nearer objects either in front of or lower in the pictorial space than distant ones, or by making distant objects smaller.  There was no scientific basis for the relationship or size of objects in the pictorial space.

In 1424, <developed by> Toscanelli* (1397-1492) helped develop a perspective theory which was later formulated by <formulated by> Alberti* in 1435-1436:  De pitturahas been translated into many languages, influencing many generations of artists.

This new visual perspective combined mathematics and optics to produce a proportioned system of orthogonal lines converging to a single vanishing point, forming an imaginary network that connected the beholder's eye with the objects in the pictorial space.  Objects were systematically foreshortened and reduced as they receded into the distance. 

One way of visualizing this is to picture a railroad track vanishing into the distance:  as the tracks get farther away, the rails appear to grow closer and closer together, finally vanishing at a single point on the horizon. 

Since the focus was now on connecting the human viewer with an apparently real pictorial space, this reflects the Renaissance movement to human-centered and science-based rather than God-centered ideas.

ONELINER: Visual Perspective

ONELINER: None

BIBLIOGRAPHY:    

Alberti, Leon Battista. On Painting. [First appeared 1435-36] Translated with Introduction and Notes by John R. Spencer.  New Haven: Yale University Press, 1970.  http://www.noteaccess.com/Texts/Alberti/ 29 December 2003.

Delahunt, Michael.  "linear perspective" and "perspective."  Artlex  30 Decmeber 2003.  <www.artlex.com> 30 December 2003.

Fredlund, William.  Making of the Western Mind.  Santa Cruz, Cal.:  University of California Extension Santa Cruz, 2003.  <http://www.westernmind.com/syllabus/perspective.shtml>

"Toscanelli" and "perspective."  Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th Edition.  New York:  Columbia University Press, 2002.  New York: Bartleby.com, 2002.  <http://www.bartleby.com> 30 December 2003).