Perspective

Perspective is the visual system that attempts to represent 3 dimensional space on a flat surface. Perspective is like a visual illusion. Artists conducted careful observations of nature and tried to understand the world. In 15th century florentine artist and engineer named Flippo Brunelleschi developed a mathematical theory of perspective through optical experiments. Brunelleschi was able to understand science behind perspective by analyzing and experimenting with the visual lines and points of perception.

The first known picture to make use of linear perspective was created by the Florentine architect Fillipo Brunelleshi (1377-1446). Painted in 1415, it depicted the Baptistery in Florence from the front gate of the unfinished cathedral. The linear perspective system projected the illusion of depth onto a two dimensional plane by use of ‘vanishing points’ to which all lines converged, at eye level, on the horizon. Soon after Brunelleshi’s painting, the concept caught on and many Italian artists started to use linear perspective in their paintings.

Masaccio (1401 – 1428) the first great painter of the early Renaissance period, was the first artist who demonstrated full command of the new rules of perspective; the figures in his paintings have volume and the buildings and landscapes realistically recede into the distance. Masaccio is seen now as being the initiator of the new style of Florentine Realism.

When a young artist named Raphael was hired to paint a fresco on a wall of the library at St. Peter’s Church in Rome, he was excited to show off this technique.

From our point of view, when we look at School of Athens (above, right) it is hard to tell where the real architecture ends and the painted arches begin. It is as if we are looking through the wall it is painted on and into the next room. In that room are some of the great thinkers of history who inspired Raphael, including the Greek philosophers Plato and Aristotle in the center.

Raphael used one-point perspective to compose this work. The lines on the floor tiles and the pillars converge at a single vanishing point on the horizon line. It is between Plato’s and Aristotle’s heads (see diagram). The converging lines also draw our attention to the two figures. Even though they are painted smaller and with less detail than the figures in the foreground (the closest area to the viewer), we can still tell they are the most important.

School of Athens is considered one of the best examples of linear perspective. For more than 500 years, artists have continued to use the techniques developed during the Renaissance.

Reference: 
http://www.msichicago.org/scrapbook/scrapbook_exhibits/reverspective/history.html
http://www.op-art.co.uk/history/perspective/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perspective_(graphical)
http://www.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=3757092