Alberti on Perspective: Calling His Bluff
Journal Title: Online Journal of Art and Design - Year 2015, Vol 3, Issue 2
Abstract
There are lacunae in the paragraphs of De Pictura in which Leon Battista Alberti describes his method of perspective construction. Although this has been a matter of considerable discussion among Alberti scholars in recent decades, none has deconstructed the text enough to state unequivocally that the theory is both defective and circular – which it is: • Alberti does not provide sufficient information to enable the construction to be drawn with any degree of mathematical precision, in spite of his basing its validity on mathematical proof; • when the construction is drawn (which can only be achieved after making certain assumptions), it does not produce an array of continuous and contiguous foreshortened squares, as Alberti maintains it does; • the ‘distance point’ of the viewer is irrelevant; and • the construction is less practically useful and less technically advanced than the method or methods used by Alberti’s great artist contemporaries - Ghiberti, Masaccio, Mantegna, Donatello and Piero della Francesca - rather than the reverse. This paper maintains that Alberti does not deserve his reputation as the originator of perspective theory and that the Western academic community stands condemned for allowing this situation to occur and to continue.
Authors and Affiliations
Donald Richardson| donaldar@ozemail.com.au
Keywords
Related Articles
- EP ID EP8209
- DOI -
- Views 436
- Downloads 26
Görsel ileti?im ö?elerinin yeni bir medya dili olarak sinemada yeniden tasar?m?
Sinema, ke?fedildi?i 1895 y?l?ndan günümüze kadar çok büyük bir yol kat etmi?tir. Özellikle D.W. Griffith’in ke?fetti?i anlat?m metotlar? S. Eisenstein ve takipçileri taraf?ndan zaman içinde mükemmelle?tirilmi?tir. Yak?n...
An Experimental Pedagogy of Concept Development in the Introductory Architectural Design Studio
The introductory architectural design studio has a significant role in design education, as the students are required to synthesize both a physical and conceptual response to variousdesign issues without any prior knowle...
THE DEVELOPMENT OF A PHOTOGRAPHIC AESTHETIC
The development of an indigenous photographic aesthetic was the result of four factors: our changing assumptions about the nature or range of subjects that could (or should) be photographed, advances in camera technology...
Contribution of Futures Studies to Industrial Design Studio Education
Designers should keep up with the pace of change and have the power of directing change to the desirable. In order to design forward product/services in a continuously changing world, designers should have “future vision...
Visual Representation within the Media: A Descriptive Analysis of Images in British Muslim Magazines
Purpose: To fashion an analytic view of representations of Muslim women in British Muslim magazines. Design/methodology/approach: Drawing on theories from within the history of Islamic art and data from the current popul...