Art Before Perspective

Before the 14th Century there were not many people who knew or had learnt what three dimensional art is.






WHY NO PERSPECTIVE?
When people attempted to create perspective, they could imagine what they wanted to create in their mind but found it difficult to translate this onto paper.  People found it difficult to create the illusion of depth and space.
When the artists were attempting the perspective, they struggled with the lack of mathematical understanding. This comes from a lack of understanding about mathematical angles which affects the whole piece. It will effect lighting, positioning and how the concept works.
There were no learning aids like books, photography or the internet to show people how to create perspective or that it could be achieved.








WHERE WAS THERE PERSPECTIVE?

The artists who tried to attempt the early forms of perspective were Giotto (1267 - 1337) and Duccio (1255 - 1260 - 1318 - 1319). They began to explore the idea of depth and volume in their art and introduced an early form of perspective. There was no dimensional perspective and no liner perspective which is why they didn't know where to do the horizontal line, which they could of then done the background. The eye level was incorrect and gives the look of trying to see too much perspective. It gives no proper perspective from the head line.
The artist of the painting below had some understanding of the rock face appearing to come towards you. The eye level of the two fishermen is also on a horizontal which means that they are beginning to understand space. He would need to place the eye line on the horizon to agree perspective. Which I have done in my sketch pad.