Perspective is called the method of depicting objects on a certain plane, taking into account visual reductions in their values, as well as changes in borders, shapes and other relationships that are seen in nature. Thus, this is a distortion of the proportions of bodies in their visual perception. However, there are many types of perspectives in the visual arts, developed in accordance with different points of view on the world and space.
Story
This technique arose during the Renaissance, when the realistic direction reached its peak. In the heyday of art, people faced new problems in painting and architecture that required new solutions. The prospect helped solve the tasks facing the creators of that time. At first, people used the device with glass to better understand the perspective - it was easier to circle the correct image of objects on it to depict them on a plane in accordance with the laws of perspective. Later, other devices appeared to facilitate this task - various pinhole cameras and a variety of lenses for these purposes.
The linear perspective familiar to man appeared later. Interestingly, scientists note that initially the reverse perspective became clearer to a person. Pay attention to painting workshops. What are they? Here, as a rule, illuminate the linear and reverse perspective, only casually affecting the rest of the species.
Kinds
Over time, people have discovered new types of images in perspective. Some were later recognized as false, others only became stronger in their concepts, and still others merged into a new subspecies. In the visual arts, perspective types are divided into several groups. It depends on their purpose. Currently displayed:
- direct linear perspective;
- inverse linear;
- panoramic;
- spherical;
- tonal;
- air;
- perceptual.
Each of the types of perspectives in the visual arts is significantly different from each other both visually and in terms of meaning and purpose, so it deserves to be considered in more detail.
Direct perspective
This type is designed for a point of view with a single vanishing point on the horizon: that is, all objects decrease with the distance from the observer. Ambrogio Lorenzetti was the first to express a linear perspective in the fourteenth century. This theory was only mentioned in the Renaissance. Alberti, Brunelleschi and other researchers relied on the elementary laws of optics, which were easily confirmed in practice.
Direct perspective has long been considered the only true image of the world on a flat surface. While the linear perspective is essentially an image on a plane, it can be oriented both vertically and horizontally, or at an angle in accordance with the purpose of the image. For example, a vertical surface, as a rule, was used in easel painting or creating wall panels. The surface, located at an angle, was usually used when painting: for example, when painting interior rooms. In easel painting on an inclined surface, artists built perspective images of large buildings. Perspective in the horizontal plane was mainly used for painting ceilings.
In modern times, the appeal to a direct linear perspective prevails, mainly due to the special realism of the resulting paintings. And also due to the use of this projection in computer games. To this day, at master classes in painting, it is about the direct perspective that they are told first of all.
To obtain a projection in images that looks like a real linear perspective, photographers resort to special photo lenses with special focal lengths, approximately equal to the diagonal of the desired frame. For even greater effect, they can use wide-angle lenses that visually make the image convex - so the perspective is sharpened even more. For softening effect, on the contrary, telephoto lenses are used, which can equalize the difference between the values ​​of the nearest and distant objects.
Reverse perspective
This type was used in painting: in this technique, the images look increasing with distance from the point of view of the observer. The picture in this case will have several horizon lines and points of view. Thus, when creating an inverse linear perspective on the plane, the center of the vanishing of the lines is not located on the horizon, but in the observer.
This type arose during the formation of medieval art, when such types of visual activity as icons and murals were especially popular. Such an image emphasized a religious theme that was especially popular in the visual arts at that time. The reverse perspective emphasized the complete insignificance of the viewer before the divine image, exalting the latter not only visually with the help of perspective, but also with the use of other visual effects. This method creates a special thrill in the soul of the viewer, which was especially important during the Middle Ages, when the role of religion was given great importance, and art also did not pass him by.
Moreover, the opposite perspective during this period was noticed in different areas - both in the Byzantine countries and in Western Europe. Scientists explain this phenomenon by the fact that the artists still clumsily displayed the world around them as the viewer saw it. Such a method was considered a false method, as was the prospect in general. According to the researcher P. A. Florensky, the reverse perspective is clearly mathematically justified: in fact, it is equal to the direct perspective, while creating a symbolic space facing the observer. This technique involves the connection of the observer with the world of symbolic and sometimes religious images. It helps to translate the supersensible content into a visible form, however devoid of material concreteness. L. F. Zhegin believed that the reverse perspective is transferred to any visual surface of the sum of the visual perceptions of the viewer, which, thereby, becomes a “vanishing point”. According to him, this perspective cannot be the only true spatial system in painting. B.V. Rauschenbach also protested the view of the reverse perspective as the only true one. Evidence was given to that. He demonstrated that vision under certain conditions sees objects not in a direct but in the reverse perspective. According to Zhegin, the phenomenon of the phenomenon is in the human perception.
Panoramic perspective
This image is based on a cylindrical or spherical surface. The very concept of “panorama” has the meaning of “I see everything,” that is, by literal translation, a panoramic perspective implies an image on the plane of everything that the observer can see around him. When creating a drawing, the point of view will be on the axis of the cylinder. The horizon in this case will be on the circle line at the level of the viewer's gaze. Thus, ideally, when viewing panoramas, the viewer should be in the center of the round room. There are more planar images that do not require such a position of the picture, but nevertheless, each panoramic image somehow implies a display on the surface of the cylinder.
Typically, this method of depicting space in perspective is used for drawings and photographs of cities or landscapes: this method maximally covers the surrounding space, making the image more acute, interesting and effective.
Perspective in the field
Spherical perspective is a separate technique that is performed using a fisheye lens. Such a lens distorts the image, making it visually more convex, elongated in a circle into a sphere. Due to the similarity of the resulting images with a convex and transparent fish eye, the lens and the effect itself received this name.
The spherical perspective differs from the panoramic one in that if, for a panoramic image, the picture is on the inner surface of a sphere or cylinder, then in a spherical image the image goes along the outer surface of the sphere.
Such distortions are in fact easy to notice on any spherical mirror surfaces. The observer's gaze remains at the center of the reflection of the ball. When creating images of objects, all lines will connect at the main point or just stay straight. The main vertical and horizontal will also be straight - the remaining lines with distance from the main point will become more and more distorted, gradually turning into a circle.
Perspective through tone
Tonal perspective is a concept from the field of monumental painting. This is such a change in the tone, color and contrast of the object that its characteristics tend to be muffled when moving further inland. For the first time, the laws of this kind of perspective were explained by Leonardo da Vinci. Human vision and perception is arranged so that the closest objects look clearer and darker for people, while the farthest ones are the most obscure and pale. It is on this property of perception of the world that the tonal perspective technique is based. It is difficult not to admit that such a display of space really makes the picture much more realistic and believable, although it does not correspond to real reality, as with any image of an object in perspective on a flat surface.
This method is not widespread, but there is a place to be in painting, and sometimes in graphics. Also, these perspective laws are applied in photography to give the pictures more realism and artistry. With the elaborated tone, the photograph is more like a real image of the surrounding space.
Aerial perspective
She is characterized by a loss of clarity of the boundaries of objects with their distance from the point of view. The distant plan lowers the brightness - the depth from this seems much darker than the near plan. The aerial perspective is also considered tonal because it causes a change in the tone of the objects. For the first time, the laws of this technique were investigated in the works of Leonardo da Vinci. He believed that objects in the distance seem doubtful, which means that they need to be depicted as obscure and vague, since at a distance the borders are not so tangible. The inventor noted that the removal of an object from the viewer is also associated with a color change of this object. That is why objects that are closest to the observer should be written in their own colors, and objects in the distance should receive a blue tint. And the most distant objects - for example, mountains on the horizon - should actually merge with the surrounding space due to the large mass of air between the subject and the viewer.
It turns out that a lot depends on the quality and purity of the air, and this is especially noticeable in fog or in the desert in windy weather, when fine sand soars into the air. In general, scientists explained this effect not only through the “fogging” of objects by air, but also based on the property of a person’s perception of the surrounding space - both on the physical and psychological levels.
Alternative perspective
Scientist B.V. Rauschenbach reflected on how people perceive depth, taking into account the binocularity of human vision, the mobility of the point of view and the permanence of forms in the human mind. As a result, he concluded: the nearest plan is perceived by people in the opposite perspective, while the shallow distant one is in a complex axonometric perspective, and the most distant one is in a direct linear one. This type, combining all these types in the visual arts, he called the perceptual perspective, thus suggesting not only the only true option, but their combination.
Ways to get perspective
In addition to many views, there are several ways to obtain perspective images on a plane. Geometric and photographic ways.
- The geometric method involves a perspective image obtained by conducting rays to the points of the image of the object from anywhere in Euclidean space - from the so-called center of perspective. Prospective images of parallel lines intersect at vanishing points, and parallel planes intersect at so-called vanishing lines.
- The photographic method allows you to create images with a wide viewing angle. Since there is no clear boundary between the “panoramic” and “wide-angle” photographs, the last one, as a rule, refers to the type of lens. The definition of panorama includes the concept that the width of the image should be at least twice the height of the frame, but the modern concept of panorama is much wider.
So, in this article, the concept, types of perspectives in the visual arts, and methods for its preparation were considered.