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Based in Geometry

This Masaccio painting from around 1424 is titled Saint Peter Healing the Sick with His Shadow. Can you see how the parallel buildings form a set of angled lines? This is part of using geometry in perspective.

Interestingly, mathematicians — not artists — took the first steps toward figuring out perspective using geometry. Around 300 BC, the Greek mathematician Euclid wrote Optics, the earliest known written work on perspective as it relates to math. His research on how the eye perceives angles and interprets shapes was very influential for artists trying to make more realistic art.

Although the ancient Greeks started to apply mathematics to painting, it was the RenaissanceRenaissance:

An artistic movement in Europe from the 14th – 17th century. It is marked by a revival of Classical (Greek and Roman) influence with an emphasis on art, literature, and science.
painters who really figured it out.

Since the Renaissance was based on a renewed interest in all kinds of learning, from math to literature to art, people dedicated themselves to a variety of studies. So, many artists were also mathematicians, scientists, architects, or writers as well.

The Renaissance artist who is credited as the first to intentionally use mathematics in painting is Filippo Brunelleschi. His paintings unfortunately did not survive to present day, but his techniques did. Masaccio, his contemporary, used the same techniques, and there are many surviving works to prove it. (For said proof, see above.)


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