Historical Dictionary of Renaissance

PERSPECTIVE

Perspective: translation

Technique used by sculptors and painters to create the illusion of three-dimensional reality in an image executed on a two-dimensional surface. Ancient painters had attempted with consider-able success to achieve this illusion, but in lateantiquitythe new Byzantine style, for reasons of taste rather than lack of skill, created a pictorial art that deliberately transformed paintings into a pattern ap-plied to an unabashedly flat, two-dimensional surface. In late me-dieval Western art, interest in the illusion of three-dimensional depth reappeared. The paintings ofGiottosucceeded in creating an appear-ance of depth by a composition based on the placement of the figures in relation to each other and to the viewer; his technique did not, how-ever, extend the illusion beyond the foreground of the painting.
Although interest in three-dimensionality is evident in later 14th-century painters, only at the beginning of the 15th century did artists discover and refine rules that guaranteed success in creating the illu-sion. Among the painters of the Flemish school, especially the broth-ers Jan and Hubertvan Eyck, artists learned to suggest depth and three-dimensionality by careful variation of color and shading, a vi-sual trick known as aerial perspective, but they never worked out a set of rules that could be applied by less skilled artists. Almost at the same moment, Italian sculptors and painters were moving toward an alternative technique known as single-point or vanishing-point per-spective. In this system, the illusion is created by basing the compo-sition on a set of (invisible) converging lines that come together at a single point in the background, so that each object in the image is scaled appropriately in order to create the illusion that it is not set onto the flat surface of the work but is placed within the apparently three-dimensional world of the work of art.Unlike the Flemish aer-ial perspective, single-point perspective can be reduced to a set of mathematical rules that any competent artist can master.
Although a biographer of theFlorentineartistFilippo Brunelleschiabout 1480 described two panel paintings made by Brunelleschi about 1413 that applied single-point perspective to create three-dimensional space, the earliest surviving work that demonstrates use of the new technique is the relief sculptureThe Feast of Herod, created about 1425 byDonatello. About a decade later, the sculptorLorenzo Ghiberti, in designing the 10 panels of his second set of doors for the Florentine Baptistery, applied the principles of single-point perspective with an ease and assurance that demonstrates full mastery of the new tech-nique. The panel depictingThe Story of Jacob and Esauis a striking example of this success. In painting, shortly after Donatello'sFeast of Herod, the painterMasaccioproduced several works that showed a ma-ture ability to create three-dimensional appearance by applying single-point perspective in a variety of different configurations, represented by hisHoly TrinityandThe Tribute Money. Art historians conjecture that Brunelleschi, though he functioned primarily as an architect, was the actual discoverer of the rules on which single-point perspective was based, deriving his new method from careful measurement of exam-ples of ancient architecture and sculpture.
The principles discovered by Brunelleschi and applied successfully by Donatello and Masaccio were codified byLeon Battista Albertiin his treatiseDella pittura(ca. 1435-1436), which reduced the new tech-nique to a set of geometric principles that any artist could learn and ap-ply. Later Italian artists such asPiero della FrancescaandAndrea Mantegnademonstrate increasing sophistication in use of the tech-nique. Mantegna successfully solved the problem of projecting a three-dimensional image onto a vaulted surface. Late in the 15th century, Italian painters also became aware of the type of aerial perspective de-veloped by the Flemish painters and began to combine it with their single-point method. This development is evident in the work ofLeonardo da Vinci, whose paintings employ a delicate gradation of light and shading known assfumatoto enhance the illusion of a three-dimensional image. There is considerable evidence that some artists simplified their task by applying the principle of thecamera obscurato project images onto the surface of their intended work.

  1. perspective—perspective translation noun strong in artADJECTIVE distorted horizontal vertical PREPOSITION in perspective out of perspective That tree is out of perspective PHRA...Collocations dictionary
  2. perspective—A way of regarding situations or topics etc. The appearance of things relative to one another as determined by their distance from the viewer...Crosswordopener
  3. perspective—Perspective bersetzung die Kunst Gegenstnde so abzubilden da sie nicht flach sondern als greifliche Krper erscheinen. S. Plastik.Bl....Damen Conversations Lexikon
  4. perspective—Perspective translation Seeem Atmospheric perspective Onepoint linear perspective....Dictionary of Renaissance art
  5. perspective—perspective bersetzung avenirem Aussicht f panoramaem Ausblick m manire de voirem Perspektive f perspective [pspktiv] Substantif fminin gomtrie beauxarts Perspektive ...Dictionnaire Francais-Allemand
  6. perspective—perspective translationSynonyms and related wordsaesthetic distance airscape angle approach arrangement atmosphere attitude balance base brushwork cityscape clearance clo...Moby Thesaurus
  7. perspective—[pspektv]перспектива ракурс проекциявид вид на будущее перспективаперспективный...Англо-русский большой универсальный переводческий словарь
  8. perspective—перспектива вид перспективный...Англо-русский дополнительный словарь
  9. perspective—перспективное изображение...Англо-русский морской словарь
  10. perspective—вид перспектива перспективный doubly perspective triangles дважды перспективные треугольники trebly perspective triangles трижды перспективные треугольники angular ...Англо-русский научно-технический словарь
  11. perspective—перспективный...Англо-русский онлайн словарь
  12. perspective—перспективный...Англо-русский онлайн словарь
  13. perspective—вид проекция ракурс перспектива аксонометрическое представление объемных объектов на плоскости построение перспективы в машинной графике...Англо-русский словарь компьютерных терминов
  14. perspective—Perspective перспектива...Англо-русский словарь компьютерных терминов II
  15. perspective—n перспектива...Англо-русский словарь Лингвистика-98
  16. perspective—a перспективный...Англо-русский словарь Лингвистика-98
  17. perspective—perspective [pspektv] . nu перспектива вид вдаль виды на будущее . au перспективныйperspective geometry аксонометрия...Англо-русский словарь Мюллера
  18. perspective—. сущ. перспектива ракурс проекция from a perspective с точки зрения in perspective в перспективе to look at see smth. in perspective смотреть на видеть чтол. в перс...Англо-русский словарь общей лексики
  19. perspective—вид проекция ракурс перспектива аксонометрическое представление объемных объектов на плоскости построение перспективы в машинной графике...Англо-русский словарь по компьютерам
  20. perspective—n .strong перспектива изображение на плоскости предметов в соответствии с кажущимися их очертаниями при этом у наблюдателя создается впечатление объема .strong вид вдаль ...Англо-русский словарь по социологии
  21. perspective—.strong nto put a different perspective on smthem представлять чтол. в другом свете bleak perspective a...Англо-русский словарь политической терминологии
  22. perspective—n. перспектива вид виды на будущее...Англо-русский словарь редакция bed
  23. perspective—перспектива axonometric perspectivestrongАнглорусский строительный словарь. М. Русский Язык.С.Н.Корчемкина С.К.Кашкина С.В.Курбатова...Англо-русский словарь строительных терминов
  24. perspective—сущ.emstrong перспектива изображение на плоскости предметов в соответствии с кажущимися их очертаниями при этом у наблюдателя создается впечатление объема вид вдаль прост...Англо-русский социологический словарь
  25. perspective—перспектива вид перспективный cavalier perspective draw in perspective perspective geometry perspective line perspective plane perspective sketch...Англо-русский технический словарь
  26. perspective—аксонометрическое представление объмных объектов на плоскости...Англо-русский толковый словарь терминов и сокращений по ВТ, Интернету и программированию
  27. perspective—точка зренияIn his lectures on the teaching of cell biology in the upper grades of the Waldorf schools Rudolf Steiner suggested that cell biology be described from a cosm...Англо-русский универсальный дополнительный практический словарь И. Мостицкого
  28. perspective—.strong nперспектива вид.strong adj...Англо-украинский словарь
  29. perspective—перспектива перспективний...Англо-украинский юридический словарь
  30. perspective—n перспектива плани на майбутн...Англо-український дипломатичний словник
  31. perspective—перспектива...Англо-український словник
  32. perspective—. n перспектива вид плани перспективи на майбутн in у перспектив у майбутньому . adj перспективний оптичний зоровий glass збльшувальне скло....Англо-український словник Балла М.І.
  33. perspective—Побудова перспективи в машиннй графц...Англо-український словник технічних термінів
  34. perspective—побудова перспективи в машиннй графцперспектива вид перспективний...Англо-український словник технічних термінів II
  35. perspective—перспектива перспективний...Англо-український юридичний словник
  36. perspective—I fmem отem perspectifIIstrongf перспектива perspective arienne воздушная перспективаperspective cavalire вид с птичьего полта косоугольная аксонометрическая проекцияde...Большой французско-русский и русско-французский словарь
  37. perspective—.strong [pspektv] n. перспективаlinear perspective линейная перспективаhistorical perspective исторический аспектpicture out of perspective картина в которой нарушена ...Новый большой англо-русский словарь
  38. perspective—perspective . [pspektv] ni . перспектива linear линейная перспектива historical исторический аспект picture out of картина в которой нарушена перспектива when seen ...Новый большой англо-русский словарь II
  39. perspective—.strong pspektv n . перспектива linear линейная перспектива historical исторический аспект picture out of картина в которой нарушена перспектива when seen throu...Новый большой англо-русский словарь под общим руководством акад. Ю.Д. Апресяна
  40. perspective—Istrong adj fm отem perspectifIIstrong f перспектива perspective arienne воздушная перспектива perspective cavalire вид с птичьего полта косоугольная аксонометрическая ...Новый французско-русский словарь
  41. perspective—f перспектива перспективное отображение вид проекция ракурс построение перспективы в машинном графике perspective axonomtrique perspective cavalire perspective conique...Политехнический французско-русский словарь
  42. perspective—перспектива...Французско-русский экономический словарь