An historical perspective

The ancient Chinese attempted to solve the perspective problem, and in the process developed methods of isometric drawing. The Greeks made progress through their study of optics, but were handicapped by the belief that light rays travel from the eye. However, they correctly assumed that the solution to the problem was a mathematical one.

The first breakthrough came in 1425 when the architect Filippo Brunelleschi (1377 – 1446) established the first laws of linear perspective. His ideas were further developed by Leone Alberti (1404 – 1472) and applied with mastery by the painter Tomasso Masaccio (1401 – 1428).

Piero della Francesca (1416 – 1492) perfected the mathematical approach to perspective in his treatise De perspective pingendi, which not only made perspective a deductive science, but also established the principle that measurement is as important to art as drawing. Being an artist as well as a mathematician, Piero put his theory into practice with stunning effect. Further important treatises were written by Leonardo da Vinci (1452 – 1519), and the German artist Albrecht Dürer (1471 – 1528), who produced an illustrated manual for his artist-countrymen.