Peder Sveen - The Introduction of Linear Perspective in Quattrocento Florence.

The Introduction of Linear Perspective in Quattrocento Florence During the renaissance in Florence a myriad of disciplines were reinvented or improved. Among them were: philosophy, mathematics, sculpting, painting, building, business and government.

Some of these subjects were developed by a fresh, unprecedented approach. Building is one such example, with the dome of the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore being the epitome of new engineering feats. The dome was designed by Filippo di Ser Brunelleschi, a true renaissance man with a hand in drawing, sculpture, engineering and building. One of his most, if not the most, impactful contribution was his reintroduction of linear perspective. He introduced it to Quattrocento Florence by creating two “picture perfect” panels, one of the Florence Baptistery and one of the Palazzio Vecchio.1 They both showcased linear perspective, which amazed his contemporaries. His exact technique is not known, and unfortunately the panels are lost to the tolls of time. Malcolm Park argues that he used a camera obscura to create the panels2 - the technique of projecting a scene through a small hole, into a dark room, creating a reversed and inverted image on the back wall of that room. Park also argues that the paintings were created simply to showcase the power of the technology of a camera obscura, but that “the translation of that image into the painting (retroactively) revealed perspective’s basic ‘rule’.” 3 This ‘rule’ was later discussed by Alberti in his Treatise on painting, but he was not the first one to write about it.

Edgerton, Samuel Y., The Renaissance Rediscovery of Linear Perspective.

(New York, NY: Harper & Row, 1976), xvii.

1

Malcolm Park. Brunelleschi’s Discovery of Perspective “Rule”.

Leonardo 46 (2013): 265.

2

3

Ibid.

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It had first been discovered almost two thousand years earlier by the Ancient Greeks.

From Vitruvius’ De Architectura, we know they utilized it to build antique stage designs4 .

However, the knowledge of the underlying principles completely disappeared from Europe during medieval times. Even though several of the other great cultures - Chinese, Persian, Indian, Arab and Byzantine - were influenced by the classical learnings, and most likely aware of these principles, none of them “[…] seem to have been interested in this geometric-optical way of picture making.” 5 They had the theoretical geometric knowledge needed, but never applied it. So what facilitated its breakthrough in Quattrocento Florence? Why did perspective’s ‘rule’ resurface there and how was it introduced by the likes of Brunelleschi and Alberti?

We should clarify the distinction between perspective ‘rule’, ‘linear perspective’ and the word ‘perspective’ itself, and even though it is not discussed in this essay, it is also important to have an understanding of ‘optical perspective’. We’ll start with the latter: ‘Optical perspective’ is an abstract concept describing the properties of human vision. One should see this as a deductive term, referring to something we cannot scientifically quantify because of its inherently subjective nature. Even though we cannot exactly describe it, recreate it or pin it down, every human being has optical perspective - or more precisely, optical perspective is what every human being has.

Perspective ‘rule’ is an umbrella term for the underlying geometrical principles of ‘optical perspective’. This is what the Ancient Greeks were the first to figure out, and they considered it a branch of mathematics6. ‘Linear perspective’ is the translation of these geometric principles into a drawing technique. The successful application of these principles makes the distance between

Edgerton, Samuel Y., The Renaissance Rediscovery of Linear Perspective.

(New York, NY: Harper & Row, 1976), 71.

4

Edgerton, Samuel Y., The Renaissance Rediscovery of Linear Perspective.

(New York, NY: Harper & Row, 1976), 5.

5

Edgerton, Samuel Y., The Renaissance Rediscovery of Linear Perspective.

(New York, NY: Harper & Row, 1976), 60.

6

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Drawing showing how Brunelleschi’s panels could be compared to the real subject using a mirror.

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objects and their size calculable, instead of approximated 7. ‘Linear perspective’ is only successful to the degree it approaches the precision of our 'optical perspective’. ‘Perspective’ is simply an emulation of the visual properties of ‘linear perspective’ - it is what we do when we quickly sketch something which’ form recedes into the distance.

Imagine ‘optical perspective’ as a true story. Perspective ‘rule’ would be the grammar and language we use to write this story down in a book - our interpretation of the truth. The application of ‘linear perspective’ would be like reading the book out loud - our best attempt at reciting the truth. ‘Perspective' would be like listening to someone tell the story and then try to recite it from memory - a secondhand attempt at conveying the truth. The distinction might seem overly technical, but it all ties in with the reintroduction of the linear perspective.

Quattrocento Florence had recently faced major changes throughout all layers of society.

The Medici family were just coming into power after the turn of the fourteenth century, and in 1434, when Cosimo de Medici seized the reigns of government, he allowed all previously exiled ‘enemies’ of the state to return8. One of them were Leon Battista Alberti. Prior to the exile, his family had been the richest and one of the most powerful in Florence. Because of this he still “managed to gain an education par excellence.”9 However, education was no longer reserved purely for the rich and the powerful. Education in Italy at the time had developed substantially from the last hundred years of religious dogma. Normally, education was reserved for the children of upper class families, but because of the rising need for store clerks and accountants in

Pier Vittorio Aureli. Do You Remember Counterrevolution?: The Politics of Filippo Brunelleschi’s Syntactic Architecture. AA Files 71 (2015): 156.

7

Edgerton, Samuel Y., The Renaissance Rediscovery of Linear Perspective.

(New York, NY: Harper & Row, 1976), 35.

8

9

Ibid.

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the booming business of Florence, “[…] there was a wider opportunity than in feudal times for children of lesser families to obtain schooling.” 10 These schools were called abbachi, and there

were more than six of these schools in Florence at the time, where more than a thousand students were studying the Italian language and applied arithmetics11. Paolo dell’ Abbaco was a teacher at one of these schools whose book on arithmetics has been republished in modern times. The book provides firsthand insight into the teachings of his time. It was written in 1360 and concerned “[…] money being exchanged at bank counters, goods being weighed in the market, towers being measured and land being surveyed. Indeed the whole thrust of the book is toward the practical application of arithmetic and geometry and simple algebra.”12 This was 76 years before Alberti wrote his Treatise on painting. He was thirty years old upon his return in 1434 and was therefore part of the second generation of a Florentine society that had a broader understanding of numbers and language than previous generations. This was a paradigm shift from feudal times were the masses remained uneducated (it is important to note that education was not provided en masse, but to the few children of lesser families who showed exceptional promise).

Simultaneously, Florence was coming out of a tumultuous political period. Wars with the neighboring states of Milan and Naples had “[…] threatened their liberta,” 13 but were now coming to an end. Like in all disaster-stricken societies, the people craved stability and order.

Cosimo de Medici, the head of the Medici family, was the man to provide it. His successors were going to rule Florence for the next 300 years14. Politically, his success was owed to his “[…]

Edgerton, Samuel Y., The Renaissance Rediscovery of Linear Perspective.

(New York, NY: Harper & Row, 1976), 37.

10

11

Ibid.

Edgerton, Samuel Y., The Renaissance Rediscovery of Linear Perspective.

(New York, NY: Harper & Row, 1976), 38.

12

Edgerton, Samuel Y., The Renaissance Rediscovery of Linear Perspective.

(New York, NY: Harper & Row, 1976), 33.

13

14

Ibid.

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Aerial view of the dome of the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore, designed by Filippo Brunelleschi and finished in 1436.

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appeal to the ethical code of the still feudal family structure of Florentine society, and on his gift for assimilating this with the new humanist interest in Ciceronian civic service and with the traditional modes of Christian piety.”15 This merger of humanism and christian piety was the overarching mode of the time, comprised in part by the ongoing trend of seeing geometry and arithmetic as virtues of God. “Mathematics was becoming a kind of social lingua franca, linking upper and lower classes […]” 16 and it manifested in the art sought after by the elite of Florence.

The rich patrons who had previously favored the ostentatious late Gothic art, now favored art “[…] compelling the viewer to a more intellectual contemplation of the picture’s holy subject.” 17 This is where Brunelleschi’s device and Alberti’s treatise comes in.

What Brunelleschi did was not to ‘invent’ perspective or linear perspective. He invented a device that allowed for the creation of images that corresponded to reality. It can be compared to tracing an image on top of a mirror. From the panels he created with his device, Brunelleschi deduced techniques that allowed him to make paintings using linear perspective. What Alberti did was to write down the process and link it to geometrical principles (perspective ‘rule’). Even though Brunelleschi’s panels were created in 1425 and Alberti’s treatise was finished in 1436, we do not have conclusive evidence to prove that Alberti’s conclusions were derived from Brunelleschi’s panels18. We do know they became friends after Albertis arrival in the city, and Alberti’s Treatise on painting was in fact dedicated to Brunelleschi (among others), but we cannot prove that Alberti discovered the geometric principles in an intellectual vacuum. On the contrary, we do know that both of them were well versed in the Ancient Greek arguments on the topic of optics.

Alberti’s Book One in his treatise solely focus on the subject of Optics, and Alberti made frequent references to the book: Lives of the Philosophers, which had recently been translated Edgerton, Samuel Y., The Renaissance Rediscovery of Linear Perspective.

(New York, NY: Harper & Row, 1976), 33.

15

Edgerton, Samuel Y., The Renaissance Rediscovery of Linear Perspective.

(New York, NY: Harper & Row, 1976), 36.

16

Edgerton, Samuel Y., The Renaissance Rediscovery of Linear Perspective.

(New York, NY: Harper & Row, 1976), 35.

17

Malcolm Park. Brunelleschi’s Discovery of Perspective “Rule”.

Leonardo 46 (2013): 257.

18

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from Greek to Latin.19 Most likely, Alberti’s treatise grew from a combination of his relationship with Brunelleschi and his knowledge of ancient greek arguments.

Alberti finished his Treatise on painting in 1936. In it, he gave step-by-step instructions on how to structure an image in order to create linear perspective, according to perspective ‘rule’. This would allow painters to abolish the flat representation often used in medieval art, and create paintings with a more realistic depth to them. It is important to note that at the time, this depth was not called ‘perspective': “Before the middle of the fifteenth century, the term perspective never referred to artistic attempts to represent illusionary space.”20 To Alberti and his contemporaries, perspective was considered what optical perspective now defines - the properties of our own vision. The term was retrofitted to describe the drawing techniques we now associate with the term. Perspective itself was considered a type of science. With that in mind, it’s easy to assume that Alberti was after perfectly realistic imagery for the philosophical sake of precision. However, in a passage from his Book one, concerning optics, Alberti writes:

“This is not the place to argue whether sight rests at the juncture of the inner nerve of the eye, or whether images are created on the surface of the eye, as it were an animate mirror. I do no think it necessary here to speak of all the functions of the eye in relation to vision.”21

Alberti wasn’t aspiring to objectively precise imagery. If he was, the pure replication of our eyesight would have been his Holy Grail, but in this passage he promptly dismisses the “necessity” of elaborating on the specifics of our vision. “He was not interested in the complexities of binocular vision, […] He was concerned chiefly with what the artists of his time

Edgerton, Samuel Y., The Renaissance Rediscovery of Linear Perspective.

(New York, NY: Harper & Row, 1976), 64.

19

Edgerton, Samuel Y., The Renaissance Rediscovery of Linear Perspective.

(New York, NY: Harper & Row, 1976), 60.

20

Edgerton, Samuel Y., The Renaissance Rediscovery of Linear Perspective.

(New York, NY: Harper & Row, 1976), 66.

21

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Diagram by Leon Battista Alberti showing how to 'verify’ that the ‘linear perspective’ grid is correctly proportioned.

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could possibly apply.”22 His aim for the treatise was to equip contemporary artists with the best tools possible, and in the cannon of his time, ‘best’ was measured in Godly aspiration. A Godly aspiration that was best achieved through precise measurement.

Even though Florence had a newfound love for arithmetics and the measurable, their religious devotion remained unfettered. One might be quick to assume that there would be conflict between scientific measurement and the church. History has shown us countless examples of that - the life of Galileo Galilei being the most prominent. However, Quattrocento Florence had no problem reconciling the two. Idiota, a book written in 1450, by Nicolaus Cusanus, who frequented Florence and the social circles of Brunelleschi and Alberti, best exemplifies the sentiment of their time: “[…] the ability to measure is God’s greatest gift to man and therefore the root to all wisdom. God’s infinite knowledge is contained in units of measurement.”23.

Arithmetics was not considered an application of ourselves onto the world, but a deduction of God’s grace. Measurement was not considered a translation of the world to our own understanding, but an alignment with the natural order of God. This was the marriage of humanism and religious piety Cosimo de Medici sought through his rule. But, its enforcement through policy was merely the crystallization of a sentiment that already flowed freely through the Florentine streets. In 1404, thirty years before the Medici family rose to power, chancellor of the Florentine Republic, Leonardo Bruni, wrote the following about Florence: “Nothing in this state is ill-proportioned, nothing improper, nothing incongruous, nothing left vague; everything occupies its proper place which is not only clearly defined, but also in the right relation to all others.”24

Edgerton, Samuel Y., The Renaissance Rediscovery of Linear Perspective.

(New York, NY: Harper & Row, 1976), 66.

22

Edgerton, Samuel Y., The Renaissance Rediscovery of Linear Perspective.

(New York, NY: Harper & Row, 1976), 37.

23

Edgerton, Samuel Y., The Renaissance Rediscovery of Linear Perspective.

(New York, NY: Harper & Row, 1976), 36.

24

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Brunelleschi and Alberti both played a major part in the reintroduction of linear perspective.

Brunelleschi first, with a device that allowed him to trace picture perfect images, and by implementing what he observed in his paintings. Alberti second, by writing down the principles of geometry Brunelleschi had (re)discovered and instructions on to achieve the same result. Still, neither of the two made their contributions in an intellectual vacuum. They were both citizens of Quattrocento Florence. A society that less than a hundred years earlier had introduced basic education to exemplary talents of its lower population. A society that fostered what was taught in these schools, arithmetics and measurement, as ideal aspirations to God’s grace. A society whose patronage and leaders adopted the newfound movement and sought to strengthen the marriage between humanistic rationale and religious piousness. In addition to the newly emerged context of their time, they were both privy to the revival of Ancient Greek philosophy through contemporary translations. It is as if Quattrocento Florence was waiting for the likes of Brunelleschi and Alberti.

They lived in a deeply devout society, that admired measurement and precision as examples of God’s grace, with a patronage that sought to embody their devotion through works of art, with a leadership that encouraged the ongoing movement.
 The degree to which each external influence played a part in their work is impossible to calculate. However, it seems reasonable to assume that the reason for their work was of an artistic intent, aspiring to satisfy the cannon of their time. Brunelleschi initiated the (re)introduction of linear perspective through the use of his mechanical device and subsequent paintings, and Alberti ensured the longevity of its application through his Treatise on painting.

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Bibliography - Edgerton, Samuel Y., The Renaissance Rediscovery of Linear Perspective.

New York, NY: Harper & Row, 1976.

- Malcolm Park. Brunelleschi’s Discovery of Perspective “Rule”.

Leonardo 46 (2013): 259-265.

- Pier Vittorio Aureli. Do You Remember Counterrevolution?: The Politics of Filippo Brunelleschi’s Syntactic Architecture.

AA Files 71 (2015): 147-165.

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