Perspective (graphical)

Linear or point-projection perspective (from Latin perspicere 'to see through') is one of two types of graphical projection perspective in the graphic arts; the other is parallel projection. Linear perspective is an approximate representation, generally on a flat surface, of an image as it is seen by the eye. Perspective drawing is useful for representing a three-dimensional scene in a two-dimensional medium, like paper. It is based on the optical fact that for a person an object looks N times (linearly) smaller if it has been moved N times further from the eye than the original distance was.

"Perspective projection" redirects here. For a more mathematical treatment, see Perspective transform.

The most characteristic features of linear perspective are that objects appear smaller as their distance from the observer increases, and that they are subject to foreshortening, meaning that an object's dimensions parallel to the line of sight appear shorter than its dimensions perpendicular to the line of sight. All objects will recede to points in the distance, usually along the horizon line, but also above and below the horizon line depending on the view used.

Italian Renaissance painters and architects including Filippo Brunelleschi, Leon Battista Alberti, Masaccio, Paolo Uccello, Piero della Francesca and Luca Pacioli studied linear perspective, wrote treatises on it, and incorporated it into their artworks.

Chauvet cave, spatially effective grading of a group of animals through overlap (c. 31.000 BC)

Fresco from an Egyptian grave, c. 1500 BC

Fresco from the Villa of Publius Fannius Synistor in Boscoreale near Pompeii, 1st ct. BC^[6]

A Song dynasty watercolor painting of a mill in an oblique projection, 12th century

The floor tiles in Lorenzetti's Annunciation (1344) strongly anticipate modern perspective

Anamorphosis

Camera angle

Cutaway drawing

Perspective control

Trompe-l'œil

Uki-e

Zograscope

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Andersen, Kirsti

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MIT Press

Gill, Robert W (1974). Perspective From Basic to Creative. Australia: Thames & Hudson.

Hyman, Isabelle, comp (1974). Brunelleschi in Perspective. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: .{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)

Prentice-Hall

Kemp, Martin (1992). The Science of Art: Optical Themes in Western Art from Brunelleschi to Seurat. .

Yale University Press

Pérez-Gómez, Alberto; Pelletier, Louise (1997). Architectural Representation and the Perspective Hinge. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press.

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"Linear perspective in Masaccio's Trinity fresco: Demonstration or self-persuasion?"

Raynaud, Dominique (2014). Optics and the Rise of Perspective. A Study in Network Knowledge Diffusion. Oxford: Bardwell Press.

Raynaud, Dominique (2016). Studies on Binocular Vision. Archimedes. Vol. 47. :2016sbvo.book.....R. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-42721-8. ISBN 978-3-319-42720-1. S2CID 151589160.