ABSTRACT
An excellent way to learn about the importance of perspective in visually conveying information about depth is to stroll through the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy (Figure 7.1). The exhibits are organized chronologically, starting in the 13th century. The early paintings have an obvious twodimensional appearance to them, though there are a few examples in this pre-Renaissance period of attempts to break the perception of what was represented on the canvas from the flatness of the canvas itself. In one case, a small subcanvas protrudes from the main surface. In others, illustrations of interposition (partial occlusion) are used to create a stacking effect in which one entity is seen nearer than another, but without any clear sense of the depths involved. From there, the gallery tour progresses to the Renaissance, where the perspective-based visual cues of depth scaling, foreshortening, and convergence of parallel lines are increasingly used to give a rich sense of spaciousness to the art.1 The development of methods for incorporating mathematically correct perspective into paintings occurred
over much of the 15th century. Currently available English translations of key work from this period include Alberti (1435/1991) and da Vinci (1566/1970).
