9 - Painting
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 October 2013
Summary
Among all the studies of natural causes and reasoning Light chiefly delights the beholder; and among the great features of mathematics the certainty of its demonstrations is what preeminently tends to elevate the mind of the investigator. Perspective, therefore, must be preferred to all the discourses and systems of human learning.
Leonardo da Vinci (1497–9)Humans invented picture making in order to manipulate light, line, and area for purposes of intellectual and emotional satisfaction, economic gain, and political, social, and religious intent. As these incentives changed, so did the perception of light, extension, space, and proper representation of three-dimensional scenes on two-dimensional surfaces. In fourteenth century France portraits that actually looked like specific people, rather than generalized types, became fashionable as book illustrations, and we have a number of such of Charles V, the king who ordered Paris to accept the dictates of one clock (his) and who patronized ars nova. The manuscripts of Machaut included depictions of the composer himself as well as such innovations as differentiated foregrounds and backgrounds, landscapes, and naturalistic details (Figure 5). These illustrations were sparks of a revolutionary development in picture making, possibly blown over the Alps from Italy, where an aristocracy of wealth was rising that craved aesthetic glorification for their God, their cities, and themselves.
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- Information
- The Measure of RealityQuantification in Western Europe, 1250–1600, pp. 165 - 198Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1996