ABSTRACT

Artists have flirted with science as a model for their practice. Scientists, in turn, have entertained dreams of artistic creativity. This chapter examines the intersection of artistic activity and science practice in the Renaissance period, particularly as manifested around the issues of perspective and realistic portrayal. It describes the models of artistic research apparent in the work of artists such as Fillipo Brunelleschi, Tommaso Masaccio and Leonardo da Vinci. A hybrid analysis has sought to trace the interactions between art and visual technologies and between scientific culture and popular distractions. Artists like the optical toys collector and deceased film-maker Werner Nekes have been instrumental in bringing an awareness of the rich pre-history of cinema to a new generation of film-makers. Leon Battista Alberti draws on Brunelleschi’s insights, as he did on that of Florentine artists like Masaccio to later codify the visual system present in Renaissance art.