A New Perspective on Science and Art


A view of Vermeer's

Introduction


What comes to mind when you think of 3-D glasses, holograms, and virtual images? Ordinary objects coming alive? Looking at things in new, exciting ways? Just as these modern-day 3-D innovations have caused a sensation in our time, the use of perspective in art caused a visual/sensual response in the 15th, 16th, and 17th centuries. Before that time, art was flat; perspective art made artwork so life-like that viewers wanted to reach out and touch it.

Now you can reach out and touch 15th, 16th, and 17th century perspective art samples with the click of a mouse in our virtual art gallery web pages. The chosen pieces reflect the development of perspective techniques and the scientific/ technological advances which made them possible.

Features

Guided Tour and Quiz

Here you can take a tour of our collections. Each painting includes a caption that tells you about the history and significance of the painting. The tour is customizable. Simply choose which pictures you wish to see and hit the "Go!" button. During the tour, click on the pictures to bring up larger pictures or surprises! At the end of the tour there is a short quiz to determine what you've learned.

Artists' Lives

This page contains short biographies of the artists featured in the Virtual Gallery. Some of the featured artists include:
Leonardo da Vinci
Samuel van Hoogstraaten
Hans Holbein the Younger

Scientific Principles

Here is a list of scientific principles used by the 15th, 16th, and 17th century artists. Click on the heading to see a master list of principles, or select a topic from below:
Optics
Illusions
Technique

Follow Up Activities


Credits

Amanda Grace and Eric Hoffmann would like to thank Dr. Debra Miller, Assistant Professor of Art History for the MALS program at the University of Delaware, and Elizabeth Schultheis, Director of Technology at Sanford School, for their help and guidance in this project.

Bibliography