Avail Yourself Painterly Perspective And Piety: Religious Uses Of The Vanishing Point, From The 15th To The 18th Century Originated By John F. Moffitt Readily Available As Audiobook

love this book because it supports my other reading, like rereading Frances Yates, Yates is a romp and a harshly criticised scholar from the wild and wooly sixties, albeit that she was a very elderly contributer.
I sometimes wonder if she is so critiqued because she was female and a somewhat eccentric person, but never mind,
Painterly perspective is about a change in world view, as single point perspective was embraced by the artistic establishment in response to religious contracts.
We are no longer able to see a painting in the same way because we are all accustomed to the realism of perspective, and seemingly ignorant of the fact that our vision has been manipulated by a rational structure.
The single vanishing point is the more photographic way of seeing the world, but has a controlling quality in the hands of the painter, especially in creating a vision rather than a reproduction.
Anyone interesting Alberti and the development of painting might enjoy this book, unless religion gives you a rash,
The Epilogue to this book is an antimodernist screed, Yet it makes very clear the potential problems of a post WWII geenration in trying to understand premodern preoccupations, such as the Renaissance and early modern history.
It's an imprtant work in understanding how technology makes a difference in hostorical perspective, I don't necessarily agree with the autor'sperspective but the book was publishe dposthumously, and who knows how much he would hav edited his conclusion
All said and done, I am glad I have read this book because it clarified a historical shift in perspective.
While the Renaissance is generally perceived to be a secular movement, the majority of

large artworks executed inth century Italy were from ecclesiastical commissions.
Because of the nature of primarily basilicaplan churches, a parishioner's view was directed by the diminishing parallel lines formed by the walls of the structure.
Appearing to converge upon a mutual point, this resulted in an artistic phenomenon known as the vanishing point, As applied to ecclesiastical artwork, the Catholic Vanishing Point CVP was deliberately situated upon or aligned with a given objectsuch as the Eucharist wafer or Host, the head of Christ or the womb of the Virgin Marypossessing great symbolic significance in Roman liturgy.
Masaccio's fresco painting of the Trinity circain the Florentine church of Santa Maria Novella, analyzed in physical and symbolic detail, provides the first illustration of a consistently employed linear perspective within an ecclesiastical setting.
Leonardo's Last Supper, Venaziano's St, Lucy Altarpiece, and Tome's Transparente illustrate the continuation of this use of liturgical perspective, .