Evolution of Perspective

A selection of images to show the evolution of perspective in Western Art.

• 

  10th Century Illuminated Manuscript

• 

  From an illustrated manuscript

• 

  13th Cenutry painting, Reconstruction of the temple of Jerusalem. From Guillaume de Tyr, Histoire d'Outremer.

• 

  14th Century, Giotto: Basilique Assise, Legend of St Francis, Death of the Knight of Celano

• 

  14th Century, Giotto: Annunciation to St. Anne

• 

  14th Century, Giotto: Cappella Scrovegni a Padova, Pentecost
  Close to true perspective, however the parallel lines of each side should actually converge to the same point as the roof and floor.

• 

  15th Century, Fra Angelico: Annunciation

• 

  15th Century, Fra Angelico: Annunciation

• 

  1472, Piero della Francesca: Thronende Madonna mit Heiligen und dem Stifter Federigo da Montefeltro
  Francesca, an able mathematician and draftsman, used perspective to represent more than simply straight lines.

• 

  1498, Leonardo da Vinci: The Last Supper.
  Perspective is used as a unifying element, to further the impact of the painting by having Jesus overlap the vanishing point.

• 

  16th Century, Albrecht Dürer.
  A woodcut showing a mechanical method for reproducing a correct perspective drawing. The strings placed from the viewer's eye to the lute correspond to the rays of light traveling from the same points.

• 

  1514, Albrecht Dürer: St. Jerome in his Study

See also

• Perspective