[MUSIC PLAYING]
DR. STEVEN ZUCKER: According to Filippo Brunelleschi's
biographer, he stood just inside the main doors
of the Cathedral of Florence when
he conducted his first perspectile experiment.
And that's where we're standing right now.
DR. BETH HARRIS: We're very close to it.
Brunelleschi's experiment demonstrated
that linear perspective could produce an incredibly realistic
illusion of three-dimensional space
on a two-dimensional surface.
DR. STEVEN ZUCKER: So this notion
that we can actually develop a system that would be relatively
easy to follow, but highly accurate,
that could translate the volumetric world that we move
through, through time, onto a frozen two-dimensional surface
is really an extraordinary achievement.
There is some discussion among scholars
as to whether or not there was linear perspective
in the Ancient World.
But if there was, it was lost.
And linear perspective was created,
at least for us in the Modern World,
by Brunelleschi in the 15th century, around 1420.
DR. BETH HARRIS: Right.
And so some people would say that Brunelleschi rediscovered
linear perspective in case the Ancient Greeks and Romans
had had it before him.
DR. STEVEN ZUCKER: Brunelleschi had gone to Rome
and had studied antiquity.
And some have hypothesized that he developed the basis
for linear perspective in an attempt
to be able to accurately portray the buildings that he was
looking at, that he was sketching, that he was drawing.
DR. BETH HARRIS: It's certainly something
that artists, beginning, really, in the 1300s,
were creating forums.
They were creating human figures that were three-dimensional
by using modeling and making the figures bulky and monumental.
Then you have the challenge of putting those figures
within a believable space.
Giotto and Duccio had approximated that space
and began to create a kind of earthly setting
for their figures, but had not achieved a perfect illusion
of space for their figures to inhabit.
DR. STEVEN ZUCKER: As the culture becomes increasingly
analytical, mathematical-- it's a trade-based culture--
this is a culture that, in some ways,
may have demanded of its artists a kind of precision,
a kind of mathematical accuracy, in its representation.
And Brunelleschi delivers that.
So what does he do?
DR. BETH HARRIS: Brunelleschi creates
a perspectively accurate image of the baptistery
and its surround.
DR. STEVEN ZUCKER: Right.
So Brunelleschi develops a system
with just a few essential elements
and, through these elements, is able to construct
accurate, scientific, one-point perspective.
They include a vanishing point, which
is at the viewer's horizon line, as well
as a series of orthogonals, or illusionistically receding
diagonals.
What Brunelleschi then does is he
paints or draws an image of the baptistery
with linear perspective and puts a small hole
in the center of it.
He takes that small drawing or painting, puts a handle on it,
and holds it in front of his face--
but facing away from him.
He then takes a mirror and holds it in back of that.
Now remember, his painting has a small hole in it.
So he can see through it straight to the vanishing
point.
DR. BETH HARRIS: So he's holding the mirror at arm's length
and the actual painting with the hole in it
right in front of him for his eye to look through.
DR. STEVEN ZUCKER: Right.
So he can see the painting's reflection in the mirror.
And if he pulls the mirror away, he
can see the actual baptistery.
And he can bring the mirror back to see the painting,
move the mirror away to see the actual baptistery,
and see if, in fact, those lines are well coordinated.
And it was a very convincing experiment.
DR. BETH HARRIS: What Brunelleschi
saw in the reflection of the painting
looked exactly like the reality that was in front of him.
DR. STEVEN ZUCKER: This would have the most profound effect
on the history of Western art.
Virtually every painting in the Western tradition,
after the 15th century, is responding
to linear perspective-- either adopting it
or very consciously rejecting it for some reason.
DR. BETH HARRIS: And within a couple
of decades after Brunelleschi's discovery,
Alberti, the brilliant architect and theoretician,
writes a book called "On Painting," in which he
codifies Brunelleschi's discovery
and creates a manual for artists of how
to use linear perspective and how to make great paintings.
[MUSIC PLAYING]