Linear perspective

Linear perspective, a system of creating an illusion of depth on a flat surface. All parallel lines (orthogonals) in a painting or drawing using this system converge in a single vanishing point on the composition’s horizon line.

Linear perspective is thought to have been devised about 1415 by Italian Renaissance architect Filippo Brunelleschi and later documented by architect and writer Leon Battista Alberti in 1435 (Della Pittura). Linear perspective was likely evident to artists and architects in the ancient Greek and Roman periods, but no records exist from that time, and the practice was thus lost until the 15th century.

The three components essential to the linear perspective system are orthogonals (parallel lines), the horizon line, and a vanishing point. So as to appear farther from the viewer, objects in the compositions are rendered increasingly smaller as they near the vanishing point. Early examples of Brunelleschi’s system can be seen in Donatello’s relief St. George Killing the Dragon (c. 1416–17) and Masaccio’s painting The Holy Trinity (1425–27), a dramatic illusionistic crucifixion. Andrea Mantegna (who also mastered the technique of foreshortening), Leonardo da Vinci, and German artist Albrecht Dürer are considered some of the early masters of linear perspective. As the limitations of linear perspective became apparent, artists invented additional devices (e.g., foreshortening and anamorphosis) to achieve the most-convincing illusion of space and distance.

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geometry: Linear perspective