Perspective
by Janice Skinner
Perspective
in art is a method of graphically depicting three-dimensional objects
and spatial relationships in two-dimensional planes. The illusion of depth
in a painting, drawing, or graphic is created using the perspective method.
Perspective is based on elementary laws of optics: objects in the distance
appear smaller and less distinct than objects that are near.
Linear
perspective applies to the way objects optically appear to grow smaller
as they as they move away from the viewer. Parallel lines appear to converge
as they recede into the distance. The proportion of this change is linear
and can be plotted on in a continuum of lines that intersect at the furthermost
viewpoint or vanishing point. The pattern of lines follows a consistent
set of geometric rules for rendering objects as they appear to the eye.
The
hand rails of the escalator are a good example of linear perspective.
They appear much farther apart at the top of the escalator near the camera.
However, at the bottom they appear to be very close.
In perspective drawing, the flat surface of the picture is the picture plane. The line at "eye level" that divides the scene in the distance is the horizon line. The vanishing point is located on the horizon where all the parallel lines seem to intersect.
We are all familiar
with perspective as we drive down the highway. In this picture taken from
the middle of highway 6, the sides of the road and the lines of utility
poles seem to converge on the horizon. The utility poles appear smaller
as they recede into the distance.
Depending
on the alignment of the objects, a scene may have more than one vanishing
point. This picture of the Eiffel Tower taken from the Arch de Triumph
has two vanishing points. The streets of Paris fan out from this central
location and the ends of two streets converge in the horizon on each side
of the tower
Linear
perspective is especially visible when viewing the straight angles of
a building. Here the face of the Cathedral appears quit large. The angle
of the lines going away from the camera appears to angle sharply giving
a three-dimensional effect. This 30-degree view point is known as an isometric
plane. Architects and draftsmen use the isometric plane for rendering
design drawings.
Aerial
perspective applies to the atmosphere's effect on the appearance of objects,
such as the change in color of distant mountains. In the east the Appalachian
Mountains that pass through North Carolina and Virginia are named the
Blue Ridge Mountains for the blue appearance the mountains have when viewed
from a distance. The atmospheric effect is slightly different in Tennessee
and the mountains there are referred to as the Smokey Mountains from their
gray blue appearance.
This
picture shows the atmospheric effect when these electrical towers recede
into the distance they appear blurred and very blue.
Another
picture taken from the Arch of Triumph also shows this atmospheric effect.
The buildings and streets fade into the horizon in a subtle blue blurring.
The understanding of perspective is relatively new to history. I was not accurately formulated until the Italian Renaissance period of the 15th century. Notice the painting of early Egyptians, they appear flat and primitive. Later the Romans developed some idea of perspective but never developed or intersecting parallel lines but never evolved a consistent idea of vanishing points. In the Italian Renaissance, around 1400, artist developed a true understanding of perspective. Between 1417 and 1420 architect Filippo Brunelleschi developed the laws of perspective through a series of experiments. Florentine painters Masaccio and Paolo Ucello were among the first to use Brunelleschi's rules to achieve the illusion of perspective in their paintings. Later, in 1436 Leon Battista Alberti wrote a treatise on painting. He used Brunelleschi's method to explain perspective and his paper became the basis of all later use of perspective. Aerial perspective is credited to the Dutch and Flemish masters such as Jan van Eyck.
Bibliography:
Microsoft® Encarta® Encyclopedia 2002. © 1993-2001 Microsoft
Corporation.
Hockney, D., Rediscovering the Secrets of the Old Masters, 2001.
Francis, R., http://users.senet.com.au/~rfrancis/home.htm
Online Museum Examples:
The impressionist Paul Cezanne uses the principle of perspective in his landscapes. In his painting, The reflecting Pool, his images in the distance are no more than dabs of paint with hues of blue representing the blurred horizon.
http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/cezanne/land/cezanne.jas-buffan-pool.jpg
Leonardo da Vinci made wonderful use of aerial perspective in his painting. In the painting, Madonna Litta, the mother and child are silhouetted against arched windows depicting blue mountains in the distance
