A Different Perspective

A Different Perspective By: Alex Romero The classic illusion that transcended most artistic techniques that came before it was linear perspective. It was an innovative concept that gradually crept into many Renaissance art pieces and changed the way art of that time was viewed. With artists such as Brunelleschi and Donatello adopting it and using it in their pieces, the movement that linear perspective was creating gained momentum and took off with it as one of the most significant characteristics of Northern Renaissance art. The discovery and application of linear perspective gave Renaissance art the feeling of unity and reality as well as making linear perspective transferable to all forms of art. It is well known that linear perspective changed art in countless ways, but what is not as well known is where or from whom the idea originated. In the Renaissance many painters needed to translate the three- dimensional things that they saw in the world to two- dimensional pieces of artwork; and linear perspective was the solution. The architect Filippo Brunelleschi is attributed to the discovery of perspective and explained a system of how items appear smaller according to the distance away from the eye. Brunelleschi unknowingly created one of the first windows to modern technological advances in art; and this specific advancement literally changed the way art will be viewed forever. Leon Battista Alberti continued this idea that is now called linear perspective with a new found concept. His concept was not to glorify god with his works, which was done in the middle ages, but to relate to the person viewing the artwork. This notion catapulted renaissance art to the next level and was a surprisingly astounding tool for many artists to come. With all of the artists of the time trying to pleasure the viewer’s eye with connections to the soul, linear perspective aided them in succeeding. It wasn’t meant to evoke extreme feelings that art is “supposed” to create such as sorrow or cheerfulness, but rather to ease the person with the feeling that everything in the artwork was perfect. In past works from different time periods art was definitely beautiful, but it was often unsettling in the mind because of a seemingly unidentifiable thing. It was the lack of mathematical technique to depict spatial reality. This was the culprit in causing medieval paintings to look flat, and while still magnificent, the proportions and scales were completely irrational. When artists were still creating for God, they made religious figures bigger and everything else smaller. Even though this created religious unity and harmony, it is later identified as imperfect. With linear perspective they could combine proportion and their newfound individual style to create a harmonious piece that is pleasing to the eye. What made linear perspective so adaptable in the Renaissance is that it was a universal agent in many forms of art. Linear perspective transformed three- dimensional objects into two- dimensional artworks, but it can also be said that they practically replicated three- dimensional works in a realistic manor. It is a principle of art that succeeded in transferring itself into all different kinds of art work, from tempera paintings to frescoes, in a uniform way. Linear perspective was often paired with playing with different lights to create beautiful works like Piero della Francesca’s fresco “The History of the True Cross”. This Early Renaissance Florentine painter’s cycle of frescos became one of the master pieces of Renaissance painting because of the genius artistic elements he used. Another close example on the linear perspective spectrum was Leonardo Da Vinci’s “Last Supper” which was one of his pieces that showed linear perspective, but not flamboyantly. These pieces and many others helped push linear perspective to be one of the most important elements in an artwork. The seemingly undetectable illusions that created linear perspective changed art for the better in the Renaissance. The application of this principle of design not only modernized but also rationalized two and three dimensional works. Linear perspective changed the way people would view art for centuries to come.