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| Art
Essay
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The development of art was marked by the constant invention
and implementation of new techniques resulting from experiments
and artistic search for perfection. As a rule all of them
contributed to the progress of art, but some were practically
revolutionary as it was in the case of the discovery of the
linear perspective. In fact, the formidable insight of Filippo
Brunelleschi and his discovery of the linear perspective had
change the visual art dramatically.
Naturally, this discovery could be viewed as a kind of incident
and, probably, the linear perspective was discovered occasionally
but, nevertheless, it is obvious that it was the result of
the great changes that took place in the society, science
and art of the epoch. To put it more precisely, the discovery
of linear perspective is closely related to the epoch of the
Renaissance and it should be said that it was quite logical
that artists eventually managed to overcome medieval biases.
It is necessary to underline that until the Renaissance the
art was significantly influenced by the dominating religious
views, ideas and, naturally, works of art were basically focused
on religious themes.
However, the development of new ideas that symbolized the
start of the new epoch, the Renaissance, affected dramatically
the art as well. As a result, artists became more concerned
on the realism of art and vividness of painting. In fact,
they did not want and need to sacrifice objectivity and realism
for the sake of the necessity to convey some divine or spiritual
message. In such a way, the attempts to make art closer to
real life eventually led to the discovery of the linear perspective
which changed art dramatically creating the borderline between
the Medieval epoch and the Renaissance art.
In actuality, with the discovery of the linear perspective
the artists found the technique which helped them make their
paintings more realistic since the linear perspective could
reproduce the exact look of the things to the human eye by
means of the creation of the illusion of three-dimensional
space on a two-dimensional surface. And again it is worthy
to mention that the discovery of the linear perspective could
be hardly possible without the progress of science, especially
mathematics, in the epoch of the Renaissance.
At first glance, the practical implementation of the linear
perspective is quite simple for the linear perspective involves
the use of receding parallels that appear to coverage on a
point on the horizon known as the vanishing point. At the
same time, this discovery had made paintings more realistic
and close to real life.
Actually, it is possible to compare some paintings created
before and after the discovery of the linear perspective in
order to better understand its advantages and assess the progress
of art. In this respect, it is worthy of mention the works
by Jan van Eyck in which it is possible to trace the evolution
of the artist’s technique and significant change due
to the use of the linear perspective. For instance, his painting
known as “The Arnolfini Wedding” (1434) was created
in a traditional style without any hint at the linear perspective.
Obviously, the artist did not understand perspective and the
faces and fabrics seem to be unrealistic while parallel lines
of the floor, window, bad, and ceiling did not ‘line
up’ since there is no vanishing point that made the
painting totally unrealistic and extremely plain. No wonder
that the author paid much attention to symbolism of his painting
since the domestic interior, bride and groom and other details
are Christian symbols.
In stark contrast to this painting, his “Man in a Red
Turban” strikes the viewer with its realism, basically
due to the use of different techniques that give the illusion
of three dimensions on the two-dimensional surface. For instance,
he posed the figure in a thee-quarters view and made the nose
overlap the right cheek and thus appear in front of it. However,
this paint was not so perfect in terms of the use of the linear
perspective as “The Last Supper” by Leonardo da
Vinci did. This painting is considered to be composed as an
ideal perspective space where even slightest details were
carefully depicted that contributes to its vividness and realism.
Thus, taking into account all above mentioned, it is possible
to conclude that the discovery of the linear perspective contributed
to the further progress of visual art and symbolized the great
achievements of the Renaissance period, though, this discovery
was just one in succession since it was the result of the
profound scientific knowledge of artists, especially in the
field of mathematics. Anyway, the discovery of the linear
perspective gave birth to numerous masterpieces of the world
art.
Bibliography:
1. Cuelar, J. The Mystery of Leonardo da Vinci. New York:
Lynne Rienner Pub, 1999.
2. Sayre, Henry. M. A World of Art. New York: Touchstone,
1999.
3. Vasari, Giorgio. The Lives of the Artists. New York: Penguin
Books, 1965.
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