1. Leonardo’s Perspective
Kristina Anthony, NSF Scholar,

2. Leonardo’s Perspective
Artist
Scientist
Mathematician
Inventor
Architect

3. Leonardo’s Perspective
Leonardo believed “The eye was the perfect instrument for learning the laws of nature and perspective, and the artist is the perfect person to illustrate them.”

4. Leonardo’s Perspective
Linear Perspective
Linear Perspective can be defined as the illusion of creating dimensions and distances on a flat surface such as a canvas or a wall.

5. Leonardo’s Perspective
Annunciation – completed by Leonardo at the age of 21

6. Leonardo’s Perspective Vocabulary
Horizon Line – The line across the canvas that represents the line where the sky meets the ground.
Vanishing Point – A point located on the horizon line (usually the center). A point where all lines run toward the horizon. Usually you think of train tracks disappearing into the horizon or what we call the vanishing point.
Orthogonal lines – Lines that help the viewer connect points on the canvas to the vanishing points. It helps the artist to put objects into perspective.

7. Leonardo’s Perspective
Vanishing Point
Horizon
Orthogonal Lines

8. Leonardo’s Perspective
Madonna of the Rocks
Can you locate the horizon line, vanishing point, and orthogonal lines?
Be careful. They do not always have to be directly in view.

9. Leonardo’s Perspective
To have a complete understanding of linear perspective, Leonardo had to have an understanding of proportionality of objects.
Objects do not appear to be the same at different distances.
Using orthogonal lines, Leonardo was able to recreate the proportionality of objects at different distances.
We will recreate Leonardo’s perspective.

10. Leonardo’s Perspective
Sketches of a horse by
Leonardo
These were to be used to make a statue 4 times the height of a normal horse