Graphic Design
and Illustration
Perspective:
Historical
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Definition of Perspective
 Perspective
is a graphic system
that creates the illusion of depth
and volume on a two-dimensional
surface.
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Artists use six main
techniques to give their
artworks perspective.
(1) They overlap objects, where one object
covers part of a second object, and the first
object seems to be closer to the viewer.
(2) They include differences in size, where
large objects appear to be closer to the viewer
than small objects.
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Artists use six main
techniques to give their
artworks perspective.
(3) They place objects at different levels on the
picture plane. Objects that are lower on the
picture plane appear closer to the viewer than
objects placed further up on the picture plane.
(4) They include differences in detail. Things
that are further away have less detail.
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Artists use six main
techniques to give their
artworks perspective.
(5) They alter the value and intensity of colors.
Objects further away are less vivid, duller, or
flatter in color.
(6) They incorporate converging lines to show
distance and depth.
To create the illusion of forms and depth, artists
must try to represent the way we perceive
things in real life.
http://www.glencoe.com/sec/art/art_talk/students/chapter5.php/tx
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Art Before Perspective

The system of perspective we take for granted
today is a relatively recent discovery in artistic
history. Before the 14th Century little to no
attempts were made to realistically depict the
three-dimensional world in art in the way in
which we are now accustomed to seeing it.

The art of the Byzantine, Medieval, and Gothic
periods was rich and beautiful, but the images
made no attempt to create the illusion of depth
and space.
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The Calling of the Apostles
c.1308-1311
Duccio di Buoninsegna
The Italian masters Giotto (c. 1267 – 1337) and Duccio
(c. 1255-1260 – c. 1318-1319) began to explore the
idea of depth and volume in their art and can be
credited with introducing an early form of perspective,
using shadowing to great effect to create an illusion of
depth, but it was still far from the kind of perspective
we are used to seeing in art today.
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First Perspective –
Fillipo Brunelleschi and Masaccio

The first known picture to make use of linear
perspective was created by the Florentine
architect Fillipo Brunelleshi (1377-1446). Painted
in 1415, it depicted the Baptistery in Florence
from the front gate of the unfinished cathedral.
The linear perspective system projected the
illusion of depth onto a two-dimensional plane by
use of ‘vanishing points’ to which all lines
converged at eye level, on the horizon. Soon
after Brunelleshi’s painting, the concept caught
on and many Italian artists started to use linear
perspective in their paintings.
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Masaccio (1401 – 1428) the first great painter of the
early Renaissance period, was the first artist who
demonstrated full command of the new rules of
perspective; the figures in his paintings have volume
and the buildings and landscapes realistically recede
into the distance. Masaccio is seen now as being the
initiator of the new style of Florentine Realism.
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


By the late 15th Century, artists were in total
command of perspective and were able to create in
their art a beautiful and realistic world. The great
painters of the time were using the system first
created by Brunelleschi to wonderful effect.
Underlying these changes in artistic method and the
use of perspective was a renewed desire to depict
the beauty of nature, and to unravel the axioms of
aesthetics, with the works of Leonardo,
Michelangelo, Raphael, Botticelli, Donatello, and
Titian representing artistic pinnacles that were to be
much imitated by other artists.
http://www.op-art.co.uk/history/perspective.html
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Before:
Giotto, Lamentation over Jesus, 1305
http://ftp.aa.edu/lydon/Art07/ArtProject/paige_giotto/index.htm
After:
Raphael. Marriage of the Virgin. 1504
http://www.rosanne-lester.com/projects/art400.html
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