An exhaustive study on Renaissance perspective and a critical appraisal that embraces the history of art, architecture and mathematics.
This volume explores the complex interaction between scientific interests and technical procedures that provided the basis for some of the most remarkable masterpieces in painting, architecture and science itself during the Renaissance. Divided into four chapters – In the Name of Euclid, Prospectiva pingendi, Prospectiva aedificandi, Measurement and Representation – the volume traces the history of perspective: from the geometry studies based on Euclid’s model to Giotto, who must be credited with having revolutionized the concept of spatial representation; Brunelleschi, who is commonly recognized as the father of linear perspective; Leon Battista Alberti and his De pictura; and Leonardo’s considerations on optical and geometrical problems. The book also includes analyses of architectural works in which perspective has been used to stunning effect, from the Choir of Santa Maria in the Church of San Satiro by Bramante (Milan) to the painted illusory architecture by Andrea Pozzo, and Bernardo Vittone’s openwork domes.