SOLVING THE RIDDLE OF SPHERICAL PERSPECTIVE OF THE PAINTERS OF THE RENAISSANCE IN NORTHERN EUROPE

Abstract

A method has been proposed for constructing spherical perspective using the simplest drawing tools, namely a compass and a ruler. The method is based on the notion that spherical perspective is nothing more than a reflection in a round convex mirror. The clue to the mystery of spherical perspective was the round convex mirror depicted in many portraits in the interior by Jan van Eyck, Robert Campin, Hieronymus Bosch, Pieter Bruegel and other outstanding painters of the Renaissance in Northern Europe. Moreover, it has been suggested that they knew a way to construct a reflection of a geometric figure in a round convex mirror using those drawing tools that were known to painters of the 15th-16th centuries, namely a compass and a ruler, and were able to apply the acquired knowledge to construct the spherical perspective.

Therefore, the proposed method of constructing spherical perspective can be considered as a reconstruction of the geometric constructions with which the artists of the Renaissance in Northern Europe reproduced the visually perceived space on the plane of the picture.

What’s more, thanks to the study of the geometry of paintings by the painters of the Renaissance in Northern Europe, it was given the definition of spherical perspective. Let’s call spherical perspective the parallel projection of a three-dimensional image of a geometric figure, which is its reflection relative to the sphere, onto a plane tangent to it.

Thus, in this work we have given an outline of the theory of spherical perspective that corresponds to the features of natural human visual perception. In addition to its theoretical value, our research also has practical significance, which consists in the fact that spherical perspective, represented as a reflection in a spherical mirror, can be applied in ‘virtual reality’ technology. This will allow the picture of a three-dimensional scene to be brought closer to natural visual perception and to convey objects in its foreground without the monstrous distortions inherent in linear perspective.

Key words: spherical perspective, geometric constructions using a compass and ruler, art of the Renaissance in Northern Europe.