Leon Battista Alberti in his treatise “De pictura” describes for the first time the perspective method, which allows painters to create on a flat surface a three-dimensional space governed by precise mathematical laws. The procedure is basically the one still used in all art schools around the world. By following a precise procedure, starting with the measurement of the human arm, a geometric pattern is drawn with the lines converging at the vanishing point along the horizon, placed at human height. By means of a grid of squares measuring an arm, it is possible to place exactly each existing object in this mathematical scheme, so that its constructive lines fit it and it thus appears “in perspective.” The world thus appears represented from man’s point of view, not God’s. And indeed, Renaissance art differs from medieval art, which favored two-dimensional divine figures on gold backgrounds, because it depicts realistic, three-dimensional human figures and environments. This enfranchisement from the Middle Ages is analogous to that later effected by Copernicus and then by the scientific method introduced by Galileo’s instruments of observation. This cognitive innovation will be a stimulus for an extraordinary sequence of intellectual achievements.
Italiano