Perspective is the art in which three-dimensional space can be portrayed on a two-dimensional surface. It is based on elementary laws of optics, in which distant objects appear smaller and less distinct than near objects. There are two kinds of perspectives. One is aerial perspective that applies to the atmosphere's effect on the appearance of objects, such as the change of color on distant objects like mountains or buildings. The other is linear perspective in which objects optically appear to grow smaller as they draw back in the distance; an example is railroad tracks or telephone poles receding in the distance-as this happens they seem to grow smaller and closer together till they finally come together at the horizon line.
Perspective goes back long before the famous artists Filippo Brunelleschi or Leon Battista Alberti. Some of these philosophers and painters include Euclid, Roger Bacon, and Robert Grosseteste. They all examined perspective in relation to their studies of optics, but they weren't trying to use it as a tool, but as in the way as they observe the visible world. Other examples of this kind of work on perspective started with Duccio and Giotto. They wanted their paintings to be more compelling representations of reality. Altogether these artistic approaches deal with one common goal: to describe precisely what the viewer is seeing at the given moment, and to determine, in theory or representation, to what extent the relationship would change when there was a shift in distance or in the angle of vision.
It wasn't until around 1400 when the Italian Renaissance artist, Filippo Brunelleschi, developed an instinctive understanding of perspective. He did it without the aid of a theory and without even using abstract geometry. However, he did it by using his field of vision and put it on a grid using great accuracy. An example of this is when he cut a small peephole at eye-level in the painted canvas and then positioned a mirror in front of it.
