Mathematics on Artists Essay

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Mathematical Perspective In The Art Of The Italian Renaissance

As a cultural phenomenon, the Renaissance period which lasted between 1450 and circa 1540 produced a cluster of extraordinary artists, such as Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Michelangelo, Brunelleschi, Donatello and Titian, all of whom were masters of the artistic styles that preceded them dating back to the Medieval period and were artists of such high magnitude that their various works of art, especially in painting, rendered everything else as obsolete. In essence, these Renaissance masters created a new profession based on individual expression and a clear understanding of the natural world and man's place within it. In addition, these giants of Western art utilized a number of new techniques which had only been revealed to them through much study and contemplation, especially related to mathematics and the use of perspective which forever changed the artistic face of Western painting.

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paper NOW! As an art term, perspective is a method used by artists to organize forms in space, whether animate or inanimate objects and shapes, and to create the illusion of depth or space on a two-dimensional surface, i.e., the surface of a canvas which has height and width. Perspective is also based on what is known as a single point of reference which was invented during the Italian Renaissance circa 1450 and can be defined as a systematic ordering of pictorial space in terms of a single point where lines converge that mark the diminishing size of forms as they recede into the distance. Under most conditions, these lines (or axis) converge in the center of the canvas and from this point, a series of equilateral, scalene or acute scalene triangles spread out across the surface with the bases of the triangles set against the sides of the canvas, thus creating symmetry which fools the eye into believing a sense of depth.

Essay on Mathematics on Artists Assignment

With the invention of true linear perspective in the early years of the Italian Renaissance, artists like da Vinci and Ghiberti were provided with a method to create the illusion of distance within the surface of a flat canvas which could only be done by studying geometry, trigonometry and the conditions of the natural world. From a mathematical viewpoint, an artist like da Vinci clearly understood the picture plane as a transparent window through which from a fixed standpoint, the observer looks into the constructed pictorial world, where all orthogonals or lines perpendicular to the picture plane meet in a single point on the horizon, i.e., a horizontal line that corresponds to the… [END OF PREVIEW] . . . READ MORE