The Theory and Practice of Perspective | Page 7

Vignola, who altered the plans of St. Peter's left
by Michelangelo; Serlio, whose treatise is one of the best I have seen of
these early writers; Du Cerceau, Serigati, Solomon de Cause, Marolois,
Vredemont; Guidus Ubaldus, who first introduced foreshortening; the
Sieur de Vaulizard, the Sieur Dufarges, Joshua Kirby, for whose
Method of Perspective made Easy (?) Hogarth drew the well-known
frontispiece; and lastly, the above-named Practice of Perspective by a
Jesuit of Paris, which is very clear and excellent as far as it goes, and

was the book used by Sir Joshua Reynolds.[2] But nearly all these
authors treat chiefly of parallel perspective, which they do with
clearness and simplicity, and also mathematically, as shown in the short
treatise in Latin by Christian Wolff, but they scarcely touch upon the
more difficult problems of angular and oblique perspective. Of modern
books, those to which I am most indebted are the Traité Pratique de
Perspective of M. A. Cassagne (Paris, 1873), which is thoroughly
artistic, and full of pictorial examples admirably done; and to M.
Henriet's Cours Rational de Dessin. There are many other foreign
books of excellence, notably M. Thibault's Perspective, and some
German and Swiss books, and yet, notwithstanding this imposing array
of authors, I venture to say that many new features and original
problems are presented in this book, whilst the old ones are not
neglected. As, for instance, How to draw figures at an angle without
vanishing points (see p. 141, Fig. 162, &c.), a new method of angular
perspective which dispenses with the cumbersome setting out usually
adopted, and enables us to draw figures at any angle without vanishing
lines, &c., and is almost, if not quite, as simple as parallel perspective
(see p. 133, Fig. 150, &c.). How to measure distances by the square and
diagonal, and to draw interiors thereby (p. 128, Fig. 144). How to
explain the theory of perspective by ocular demonstration, using a
vertical sheet of glass with strings, placed on a drawing-board, which I
have found of the greatest use (see p. 29, Fig. 29). Then again, I show
how all our perspective can be done inside the picture; that we can
measure any distance into the picture from a foot to a mile or twenty
miles (see p. 86, Fig. 94); how we can draw the Great Pyramid, which
stands on thirteen acres of ground, by putting it 1,600 feet off (Fig.
224), &c., &c. And while preserving the mathematical science, so that
all our operations can be proved to be correct, my chief aim has been to
make it easy of application to our work and consequently useful to the
artist.
[Footnote 2: There is another book called The Jesuit's Perspective
which I have not yet seen, but which I hear is a fine work.]
The Egyptians do not appear to have made any use of linear perspective.
Perhaps it was considered out of character with their particular kind of

decoration, which is to be looked upon as picture writing rather than
pictorial art; a table, for instance, would be represented like a
ground-plan and the objects upon it in elevation or standing up. A row
of chariots with their horses and drivers side by side were placed one
over the other, and although the Egyptians had no doubt a reason for
this kind of representation, for they were grand artists, it seems to us
very primitive; and indeed quite young beginners who have never
drawn from real objects have a tendency to do very much the same
thing as this ancient people did, or even to emulate the mathematician
and represent things not as they appear but as they are, and will make
the top of a table an almost upright square and the objects upon it as if
they would fall off.
No doubt the Greeks had correct notions of perspective, for the
paintings on vases, and at Pompeii and Herculaneum, which were
either by Greek artists or copied from Greek pictures, show some
knowledge, though not complete knowledge, of this science. Indeed, it
is difficult to conceive of any great artist making his perspective very
wrong, for if he can draw the human figure as the Greeks did, surely he
can draw an angle.
The Japanese, who are great observers of nature, seem to have got at
their perspective by copying what they saw, and, although they are not
quite correct in a few things, they convey the idea of distance and make
their horizontal planes look level, which are two important things in
perspective. Some of their landscapes are beautiful; their trees, flowers,
and foliage exquisitely drawn and arranged with the greatest taste;
whilst there is a character and go about their figures and birds, &c., that
can hardly be surpassed. All their pictures are