Perspective illusion and David Nash's steps

As part of his recent retrospective exhibition at Yorkshire Sculpture Park, David Nash created a site specific piece entitled 'Seventy One Steps', which forms part of the walking route between the two sides of the valley.

"The intervention consists of seventy one oak steps, carefully charred and oiled, which follow the lie of the land up the hill. The steps are embedded in thirty tons of coal, to create a useful artwork that will gradually erode as it is walked on.

The steps are an evolution of an abiding theme within Nash's sculpture that connects up and down, root and branch, and inspired by his primary interest in wood and trees."

(taken from the information board on site)

The width of the steps gradually decrease as they rise up the hillside, with those at the top being roughly half the width of those at the bottom. This creates an accelerated perspective effect, which makes the stair appear longer and more impressive as one begins the ascent. By contrast, when viewed from above the whole stair appears to be much narrower, shorter in length and more intimately scaled.

(photos copyright © Russell Light)


Perspectival staircases have a long history, with Bernini's 'Scala Regia' in the Vatican being perhaps the most famous example. More recently, the device was also used by Venturi, Scott Brown and Associates in their 1988-91 Sainsbury Wing extension to the National Gallery in London, which was appropriately designed to house Italian renaissance art.

Bernini - Scala Regia, Vatican, 1663-66


David Nash at YSP

Perspective and Italian gardens

The renaissance idea of perspectival space was not confined to painting or architecture. As a means of expressing mathematical harmony and man's place in the natural world, it became an important concept in all of the spatial and visual arts, from marquetry to urban design.

The role of perspective in the gardens of the Italian renaissance is touched upon by Monty Don in his current BBC television series. The second episode (broadcast on 22. April 2011) looks at the gardens of Florence and begins with Cosimo Medici's villa at Castello (c.1537), one of the earliest gardens where these ideas were explored. It is currently available on BBC iPlayer. If you miss that, there is an accompanying DVD and book.

A good starting point for a more detailed spatial analysis of these gardens is:

P Van Der Ree et al (1992) - 'Italian Villas and Gardens', Prestel. Amazon link

Villa Medici at Castello lunette (source: Wikimedia Commons)


The continuing interest in perspective in the design of gardens during the Baroque period can be seen at the Giardino Barbarigo at Valsanzibio in the Veneto, which was laid out to a plan by Bernini in 1669. Here, the central avenue of hedges and trees or 'tapis vert' becomes progressively narrower as its distance from the house increases, using the accelerated perspective effect to make it appear longer when viewed from the house.

Giardino Barbarigo website

The Brothers Quay and Anamorphosis

'Dormitorium: An Exhibition of Sets of Films by the Quay Brothers' is currently running at Liverpool's Victoria Gallery and Museum, from 25. March to 28. May 2011 (free admission).

Further details are available here.

In 1991, the Brothers Quay explored perspective drawing and the issues associated with perspectival distortion in a short film entitled 'Anamorphosis, or De Artificiali Perspectiva'. This beautifully filmed animation offers a excellent introduction to the secrets of anamorphosis. The film was made in collaboration with art historians, Sir Ernst Gombrich and Roger Cardinal.

"Anamorphosis is a minor chapter in the vast and complex history of how painters have constructed images of the world. The film seeks to illuminate an artistic technique which plays mischievously yet revealingly with the relationship between the eye and what it sees."

The full film can be viewed on YouTube in 2 parts (total 13 mins)

Part 1

Part 2


Additional links:

BBC images of Liverpool exhibition

Brothers Quay at Wikipedia

Shadows in perspective

I have added an additional section to the 'How to...' page, showing a method for constructing shadows in perspective, or sciagraphical perspective, both in sunlight and for an artificial light source.

The illustrations come from Richard Brown's 'Principles of Practical Perspective' of 1815. Brown, who described himself as an architect and professor of perspective, dedicated his treatise to John Soane. The book contained 51 plates and was originally priced at two guineas.

"To enter into any laboured encomiums on the importance of Perspective, and the use of painting would be needless.  The absolute necessity of an intimate acquaintance with its principles and its practice, in order to arrive at excellence, or even mediocrity in the imitative arts, is now universally felt and acknowledged.  A practical treatise on Perspective and Painting needs, therefore, no apology."

(image copyright © Russell Light)