In the Renaissance, painters developed and mastered line perspective and air perspective to accurately represent reality. They studied anatomy and contrast to maximize realism, and advances in technology like the camera obscura allowed them to create more sophisticated works.
The Renaissance set the tone for a shift away from a God-centered view and toward a more human-centered culture. This wasn’t just an artistic shift, but a shift in philosophy, science, and society as a whole that emphasized human possibility and dignity. During this period, there was a strong tendency to celebrate human reason and creativity, which led to innovative developments in various disciplines and artistic fields. The art world, in particular, was influenced by this trend, which led to various efforts to depict reality as it appears to the human eye. This is why art history considers the beginning of realistic art to be the Renaissance in the 15th century.
In order to reproduce reality as it is on the screen, the three-dimensional reality needs to be converted to a two-dimensional canvas, and the conversion technique is line perspective. Painters before the 15th century also used perspective, but their perspective was empirical rather than geometrically based, and they didn’t calculate exactly how small things would appear with distance, so their paintings were often awkward. This awkwardness is often observed in artwork of the time, where figures and backgrounds often appear disjointed due to a lack of spatial depth and realism. Line perspective in the 15th century, on the other hand, is a technique based on geometry and calculating precise proportions. By using line perspective, painters were able to recreate real-world space on canvas in precise proportion.
They mastered line perspective in the following way. First, a grid, a gridded transparent window, is placed between the artist and the subject, and a finder, an instrument with holes in it, is placed in front of the artist’s eye. The artist looks through the hole in the finder and draws what he can see beyond the grid onto a piece of scrap paper on his desk. The artist must not look away until the drawing is finished. This is because moving the eye changes the viewing position, making it difficult to apply line perspective. This method was an important part of art education and required a high level of concentration and patience from the artist. The grid was useful for getting an accurate image, but it was uncomfortable to use. Only after practicing for a long period of time were painters able to draw objects in line perspective without a grid. Through this process, painters maximized their visual observation and developed the ability to bring the real world to life on canvas.
Painters who worked in line perspective also noticed that the shapes and colors of objects became blurred as distance increased. This is because the air in the atmosphere, namely moisture and dust, reflects light diffusely. Understanding and applying this phenomenon was a new challenge for painters at the time, and was part of an effort to gain a deeper understanding of nature. To account for this, painters used fine brushstrokes to blur the contours of objects by rubbing them out. This is known as air perspective. This method enhanced the realism of space by making close objects appear thick and sharp, and distant objects appear blurred and thin. More than just a technical technique, air perspective also reflected the artist’s desire to capture the delicate beauty of the natural world.
In addition to line perspective and air perspective, painters of the time were required to study anatomy and contrast at specialized institutions in order to recreate reality accurately. Anatomy, in particular, was essential to understanding the precise structure and movement of the human body, which was used to great effect in portraiture and history painting. By studying the muscles and skeleton of the human body, artists were able to bring the posture and facial expressions of their subjects to life. However, this arduous situation was about to improve with the advent of the camera obscura. A camera obscura was a device that cut a hole in one part of a darkened room, allowing the view of the outside world to enter through the hole and form an image on the opposite curtain. Painters could recreate the scene outside by simply placing a piece of paper against the membrane and copying the image. The introduction of this technology was the result of the convergence of art and science, expanding the expressive possibilities of art. The device was initially too large and cumbersome to use, but later became small enough to carry around and was used by many painters. Some of the paintings of the time are incredibly sophisticated, partly due to the increasing skill of the artist, but also due to the use of the camera obscura.
