Vanishing point: Perspective

Q. What is it

A. The dictionary describes it as 'the technique or process of representing on a plane or curved surface the spatial relation of objects as they might appear to the eye; specifically representation in a drawing or painting of parallel lines as converging in order to give the illusion of depth and distance; a method of graphically depicting three-dimensional objects and spatial relationships on a two-dimensional plane or on a plane that is shallower than the original'. It comes from the Italian prospetto, a view.

�

Q. When was it first used

A. It was used in Classical times, but the skill was lost in Europe after the fall of the Roman Empire.

�

Q. So, who made the rediscovery

A. At the beginning of the Italian Renaissance, early in the 15th century, the mathematical laws of perspective were discovered by the architect Filippo Brunelleschi, who worked out some of the basic principles, including the concept of the vanishing point. These principles were applied in painting by Masaccio, whose work ushered in an entirely new approach in painting. A style was soon developed using configurations of architectural exteriors and interiors as the background for religious paintings, which thereby acquired the illusion of great spatial depth.

In his book Della pittura (On Painting), published in 1436, Leon Battista Alberti codified much of the practical work on the subject that had been carried out by other artists.

�

Q. So how does it work

A. In Western art, illusions of volume and space are generally created by use of the 'linear' perspectival system, based on the observations that objects appear to the eye to shrink and parallel lines and planes to converge to infinitely distant vanishing points as they recede in space from the viewer.

�

Q. So did earlier artists not use perspective at all

A. European artists�of the Middle Ages�did use perspective, but one that was an individual interpretation of what he saw rather than a fixed mechanical method - what might be called a 'conceptual' model. Pictures drawn by young children and 'primitives' or untrained artists depict objects and surroundings independently of one another, as they are known to be, rather than as they are seen to be, much in the way that pre-Renaissance European art was made.

�

Q. What about Chinese art

A. Another kind of system, a 'parallel' perspective combined with a viewpoint from above, is traditional in Chinese painting. It is less 'realistic' than the European model, but it does still give a sense of three-dimensionality to a painting.

�

Q. And the 20th century

A. Linear perspective dominated Western painting until the end of the 19th century, when Paul C�zanne flattened the conventional Renaissance picture space. The Cubists and other 20th-century painters abandoned the depiction of three-dimensional space altogether and hence had no need for linear perspective.

�

For more on Arts & Literature click here

�

By Simon Smith