One of the questions we have learned to ask about paintings is what sorts of design elements does the painting have. Design elements consist of the things we can say about how the marks on the canvas (or wall or board or paper) look and what do they tell us about the decisions the artist made as she was creating the painting. Among other things, design elements consist of color, form, space, line, balance, composition, and perspective. The first design element we will look at is perspective.

Perspective, as it is used in the visual arts, is a method for creating the illusion of 3D space on a flat surface. When used in art, it is referred to as artificial, or linear perspective. While close enough to how we actually view the world to be convincing, linear perspective is worked out mathematically so it can only fool the eye, not mimic how the eye actually sees.

Perspective begins with a horizon line and a vanishing point. Then orthogonal are inserted which create the illusion of things getting smaller as they recede into the distance. They also allow the painter or graphic artist to proportion objects correctly in space to continue the illusion of distance.




Once the objects have been placed in the scene the orthogonal are removed or painted over, leaving just the scene.

The vanishing point represents the fixed viewpoint of the eyes and the horizon line establishes where the viewer is in terms of the objects--on the same level, above, or below. 

For an animated demonstration of perspective, click here.
(Highly recommended that you take the time to look at the demo.) 


History 

As a pictorial system, perspective was developed in the 15th century through the efforts of Filippo Brunelleschi and Leon Battista Alberti. The particulars of their developments are quite detailed and mathematical and make for fascinating reading and study. While known more for his architectural work, especially the great dome for the Florence Cathedral, Brunelleschi was the first to demonstrate perspective with his "perspective panels." Alberti concentrated more on the geometry involved, developing the use of the vanishing point and the orthogonals. 

Early perspectival paintings of the Renaissance were quite blatant in their use of linear perspective, often running tiled floors and structural elements of a room along the orthogonals. As time passed, it was acknowledged that too literal a representation of the orthogonals was almost too "linear," and later artists' use of perspective was more subtle, such as Georges de La Tour's Education of the Virgin. 


Let's look at some examples of perspective from the Webmuseum. 

The three paintings we'll look at will go from a very literal use of linear perspective to a more naturalized use. But in each, you will be able to easily find the vanishing point. (Click on paintings.)
Sandro Botticelli's The Cestello Annunciation

Here is an animated GIF of the Botticelli with the orthogonals. In order to see the lines follow the orthogonals, hit your reload button. Notice how you can identify them by looking along any straight edge or line created by objects in the painting, in this case the terra cotta floor.

Leonardo da Vinci's The Last Supper

Jan Van Eyck's The Arnolfini Marriage

This would be a good time to go visit the "Eyes On Art" site. You will find a discussion of design elements with examples. Don't forget that you are to complete one of the units from this site and comment on it in one of your Agora postings.