Perspective Resources: Chronology

A chronological time-line of the key events in the development of perspective drawing.

Chariot rounding the turning post, black amphora c.550-540BC (source: Wikimedia Commons) - note the foreshortened chariot wheels.

c.500BC - Foreshortening on Greek vases.

c.300BC - Euclid - 'Optics'

80-30BC - Second style Roman wall painting.

c.55BC - Lucretius - 'De Rerum Natura', describes colonnade vanishing to a point.

c.46-30BC - Vitruvius - Ten Books on Architecture

c.965-1038 - Alhazen - Optics (Kitab al-Manazir), c.1011-21

c.1235 - De Honnecourt

c.1280 - Cavallini - vertical axis perspective.

c.1300 - Giotto - Assisi

1306 - Giotto - Padua

1311 - Duccio - 'Temptation of Jesus in the Temple', convincing depth to floor (illus. in White).

c.1344 - Ambrogio Lorenzetti, 'Annunciation', first example of floor drawn to central vanishing point (illus. in Eyewitness).

1400 - Cennini - 'Book of Painting'

c.1413-25 - Brunelleschi's perspective experiments.

1427 - Masaccio - 'Trinity' (Santa Maria Novella), first extant painting based on Brunelleschi's exp.

1435 - Jan van Eyck - 'Arnolfini Marriage'

1436 - Alberti - 'On Painting', describes Construzione Legittima.

1461-? - Filarete - 'Tratto', suggests use of mirror for examining convergence.

c.1480 - Piero Della Francesco - treatise

1495-97 - Leonardo da Vinci - 'Last Supper'

1505 - Viator - distant point construction

c.1500-18 - Leonardo's 'notebooks', describes Leonardo's paradox and synthetic perspective (viz. White).

1525 - Durer's treatise combines Alberti's and Viator's method (+ 4 engravings).

1600 - M. Guidobaldo - 'Punctum Concursus' (antecedent of vanishing point)

c.1600 - the term 'camera obscura' invented by Kepler (1571-1630)

1611 - First English trans. of Serlio's 'Tutte l'Opera d'Architectura et Prospettiva', by Robert Peake

1636-39 - Desargues' theorum - geometric proofs for vanishing points.

1638 - Niceron - anamorphosis (Perez Gomez, p178)

1643 - Aléaume and Migon - introduced measuring point system.

1655-60 - Samuel van Hoogstraten - perspective cabinet

1693 - Pozzo - architectural illusion

1711 - Ferdinando Galli-Bibiena - "Arch. Civile', 'Veduta per Angolo'.

1715 - Brook Taylor - 'Linear Persp.', coins English term 'vanishing point' (first original English persp. treatise?)

1726 - First English trans. of Alberti's 'Della Pittura' by Giacomo Leoni

fl.1732-86 (c.1760s) - Le Geay - popularised aerial perspectives (viz. Ledoux) (Perez Gomez, p154)

1806-07 - Camera lucida invented by W. H. Wollaston

c.1826 - Joseph Niepce - the first photograph

1838 - Charles Wheatstone - scientifically describes binocular vision and creates stereographic drawings.

Glossary

accelerated perspective - the use of exaggerated perspective effects in architecture to give an enhanced sense of spatial depth.

aerial perspective - the impression of depth created by the reduction in contrast of objects in the distance, which is caused by atmospheric haze.

anamorphosis - an image that has been distorted, so that it can only be seen correctly when viewed from a specific point.

artificial perspective - a term for perspective drawings that are based on Albertian principles (in contrast to 'synthetic perspective').

centre line - the line leading from the viewpoint to the point on the picture plane that is directly in front of the viewer's eye.

cone of vision - the cone of visual rays that converge at the eye or 'viewing position'.

Construzione Legittima - the term used by Alberti to describe his method of perspective construction.

crate - a notional orthogonal box placed around a complex object to make it easier to draw.

curved picture plane - a cylindrical or spherical picture plane, used in an attempt to more accurately depict an image as it would appear to the eye, or to emulate a fish-eye camera lens.

cylinder anamorphosis - an image that has been distorted, so that it can only be seen correctly when viewed reflected in a cylindrical mirror.

diagonal perspective - a perspective view that looks diagonally towards the principal surfaces of an object.

diagonal vanishing point (DVP) - the point on the horizon towards which any diagonal lines in the object will converge.

distance point - another term for a diagonal vanishing point.

distortion - a term used to describe the 'unnatural' appearance of objects when drawn in perspective, particularly when wide angles of view are used.

eye point - the point on the picture plane that is directly in front of the viewer's eye. The eye point is always on the horizon.

horizon - the notional horizontal line in the far distance, dividing the earth from the sky.

horizon line - in a perspective drawing, this is a horizontal line at eye level. Vanishing points for all horizontal edges will be on the horizon line.

linear perspective - an alternative term for 'artificial perspective'.

natural perspective - an alternative term for 'synthetic perspective'.

non-parallel perspective - an alternative term for 'diagonal perspective'.

object centred - a drawing system based on representing an object without reference to a specific experiential viewpoint. Plans, sections, elevations and axonometrics are all form of object centred drawings.

one-point perspective - a common term for 'parallel perspective', (although the drawing may in fact include more than one vanishing points).

parallel perspective - a perspective view that is aligned in parallel with the principal surfaces of an object.

perspective 'window' - an alternative term for the 'picture plane'.

picture plane - the notional intersection of the visual cone on which the position of the visual rays are plotted.

retinal image - a notional description of how a view may appear on the retina of the eye.

sciagraphical perspective - the projection of shadows in perspective.

spectator point - see 'viewing position'.

synthetic perspective - drawings based on a curved picture plane.

two-point perspective - a common term for diagonal perspective (although the drawing may in fact include more than two vanishing points).

vanishing point (VP) - a point on the horizon towards which a set of parallel lines will converge.

vertical datum - an intersection of the object with the picture plane at which a vertical scale can easily be determined.

viewer centred - a drawing system, based on a spectator's viewpoint. A perspective drawing is one type of viewer centred system.

viewing distance - the distance between the spectator and the object depicted or picture plane.

viewing position - the fixed view point from which a perspective view is constructed.

viewpoint - see 'viewing position'.

visual pyramid - the cone of visual rays that converge at the eye or 'viewing position'.

visual rays - a straight line, running from a point on an object to the eye.

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Chronology