Linear perspective in renaissance art

Sara Devalet 4GB

Linear perspective

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IN RENAISSANCE ART

The school of Athens

Author

Raphael (1483-1520) was a painter and an architect of the High Renaissance. He's one of the greatest masters of the Renaissance, with Leonardo Da Vinci and Michelangelo.

Date of creation

The fresco was begun in 1509 and was finished three years later, in 1511.

Place where we can see the paintings nowadays

The fresco is kept in the Apostolic Palace, the official residence of the Pope, in Vatican, and more precisely in Raphael Rooms.The suite of rooms is famous for the fresco it contains, all made by artists working under Raphael. The School of Athens is exposed in the Stanza della Segnatura (Room of the Signature)

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The linear perspective

Vanishing point

Horizon line

Orthogonals

1. We trace the orthogonals and the horizon line

2. We take another point on the horizon line and we connect the point to the angles of the tiled floor on the painting.

How to trace The tiled floor

3. Now we connect all the dots two by two, and then we can see the horizontal lines appear. <= to have th whole square, we have to connect intersections too

The Orthogonals

The orthogonals are the invisible line, all coming from the same point (the vanishing point), the artist used to make correct proportions in his painting. They are represented in pink (tiled floor in the foreground) and in turquoise (tiled alleys in the backgroung) in the picture. Raphael also used the orthogonals to make the horizontal lines of his tiled floor in the foreground.

The horizon line

The horizon line is a straight invisible line in a painting, a horizontal line, which comes across the vanishing point. The horizon line is the black line crossing the painting in the picture. We can observe that the horizon line is at the exact same height as the two pillars of the arch.=> The painter probably used it to make sure the two pillar had the same size.

Context of the painting

The fresco was created as a part of Raphael's work to decorate the Stanze di Raffaello, in the Apostolic Palace.

Subject of the painting

It shows multiples scientists, mathematicians, philosophers from Ancient Greece. Rafael included to his painting two other masters of the Renaissance, Leonardo Da Vinci as Plato and Michelangelo as Heraclitus.The painting shows the rebirth Europe, because all the forgotten knowledge is brought back by those philosophers, scientists, etc.

The Vanishing Point

In this fresco, it was easier to find the vanishing point, because the painter used tiled floor in the foreground. The pink lines are orthogonals, and the artist had to use the vanishing point to trace them correctly. So, in order to find the vanishing point, we can retrace all these orthogonals, using the tiled floor for example, and highlight the point where they all meet.