The Renaissance Rediscovery of Linear Perspective

Description

“If one asks somewhat wearily whether there is more to be said on Renaissance perspective, this book provides an affirmative answer. Thoroughly researched and written in a lively style, it infuses a rather tired subject with new interest. Broader in scope than William Ivins’ classic essay, On the Rationalization of sight (1938), it approximates parts of John White’s The Birth and rebirth of Pictorial Space (1958) but offers new interpretations and insights, proposes new connections (as between the arrival in Florence of copies of Ptolemy’s Geographia and the ensuing development there of a pictorial system of perspective projection), and sheds new light on Brunelleschi’s famous ‘demonstrations. Not a developmental study like White’s book, but an attempt to account for and assess in a larger context the discovery of linear perspective at a particular place and moment in history.
Its large measure of success makes it a ‘must’ for undergraduate and graduate students in art history and allied disciplines.”
—Choice
“We are all looking for a usable book on perspective and its origins to assign our students. Samuel Edgerton’s new book fills this basic need. It is direct, straightforward, readable, and fascinating.”
—Frederick Hartt