We explain what perspective is in the visual arts, its types and the elements that make it up.
What is perspective?
In the world of visual arts, perspective is known as method of representing three-dimensional objects and spaces on a plane two-dimensional (like a canvas or paper), to produce an effect of three-dimensionality, depth or volume.
This technique is based on the intersection of an imaginary plane with a set of straight lines (rays or visuals) that start from a fixed point (point of view) and pass through the points of the represented object. By projecting these rays onto the plane, a three-dimensional image of the object is obtained, as it is perceived in physical reality. Thus, the perspective operates as a representation of the rectilinear shape of spread of the light in the drawn or painted scene .
The development of perspective It was a milestone in the history of art since it made it possible to show space on the plane as it is perceived by the human eye. This contribution transformed not only the way of representing the world, but also the way of conceiving and thinking about it.
The formal study of perspective began during the Renaissance Florentine when artists like Andrea Mantegna (c. 1431-1506), Lorenzo Ghiberti (1378-1455) or Masaccio (1401-1428) dedicated themselves to discovering the mathematics behind proportions and established the basic principles to reproduce distance. All of these principles were later perfected with great mastery by artists such as Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564), Raphael Sanzio (1483-1520) and Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519).
Types of perspective
According to the relative position between the represented object and the point of view, there are two types of perspective:
1. Conical or central perspective . It is one that decreases the size of the objects represented as they move away from the viewer. In this case, the parallel lines converge at a vanishing point, and the visual lines form a conical beam, whose vertex is the point of view. It is the type of perspective that cameras produce and that both artists and architects use.
2. Axonometric perspective . It is one in which all the rays are parallel to each other and the point of view is located at infinity. The lines of the drawing do not converge into a single point of view nor do the sizes of objects that are far from the viewer reduce. It is a type of perspective developed more than 4,000 years ago for military and stonemasonry purposes. It is more linked to technical development than to art, and is used in diagrams where it is important to show the proportions of objects.
The axonometric perspective is classified into two different sets:
- Orthogonal perspective . It is one that presents the projection lines perpendicular to the plane, that is, at a right angle.
- oblique perspective . It is one in which the lines are oblique with respect to the plane of representation (that is, they do not form right angles with it), which offers a more natural sensation of depth.
In turn, the orthogonal perspectives They are divided into:
- Isometric perspective . It is one that represents three-dimensional objects by projecting their main axes (width, length and height) in such a way that they form angles of 120°, preserving the real proportions.
- Dimetric perspective . It is one in which two of the main axes form equal angles and the third, a different angle. It is very common to represent objects with greater length measurements than width and height.
- Trimetric perspective . It is one that represents objects inclined with respect to the plane of the painting, in such a way that their orthogonal axes have angles of 100°, 120° and 140°.
For their part, the oblique perspectives They can be:
- Knight's perspective . It is one in which one axis of the object is represented in its true magnitude, while the other two are reduced by half. It is useful for representing objects with bilateral symmetry.
- Military or cabinet perspective . It is one in which one axis of the object is represented in its true magnitude, while the other two are reduced to a third. Its use is frequent in disciplines such as architecture and furniture design, to present several sides of an object.
Elements of perspective
All perspectives are made up of a series of common elements, which are:
- horizon line . It is an imaginary line that is in front of the viewer's eyes and that spatially locates the content and the vanishing points. A simple way to define it is as that point where the land or sea meets the sky.
- Vanishing points . They are the points that are located on the horizon line and towards which the views tend, that is, the lines that join the viewer's vision with the observed object. In the same representation there can be one, two or three vanishing points, depending on whether it is a lateral, oblique or aerial perspective, respectively.
- Picture plan . It is the two-dimensional surface on which a three-dimensional object is represented. Leonardo da Vinci used the word “window” to refer to this element through which the artist observes the world.
- point of view . It is the imaginary point from which what is represented is observed, and is determined by how the viewer is positioned in relation to it. It is always in the same plane as the horizon line and at the same height as the vanishing point.
- ground line . It is an imaginary line on which the represented object rests and that shows the surface that supports it.
References
- Gill, R. W. (1974). Perspective. From Basic to Creative. Thames & Hudson.
- Kemp, M. (2000). The science of art. Optics in Western art from Brunelleschi to Seurat. Akal.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. (2024). Perspective. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/
