Peter Weibel

EVENT

presentation

art history / constructivism / image / mathematics / movement / perspective / postmodernism / space / symbol / theory / viewpoint

1999-07-03

German

From a technical point of view, perspective can be described as a geometric equation which can assist in the transcription of three-dimensional objects to the two-dimensional surface of a canvas. The roots of perspective lead us back to the 15th century. Until this time, traditional optics was called "perspectiva naturalis", as opposed to the novel perspective that painters applied and which was bore the name "perspectiva artificialis". Perspective, defined according to the principle of "constuzione legittima", introduced the principle of construction to art, and it further smuggled in other principles, hence: the issues of proportion, movement and infinity. In the history of art, the rise and fall of perspective is parallel to the problem of movement, the theory of proportion, infinity and the development of artistic techniques. (...) (P.W.)

Perspective on Perspective