Linear perspective: a visual revolution.

Abstract

Molecular biology revolutionized the way we look at other sciences related to medicine, including biochemistry. Currently, genetic testing is fast becoming a routine laboratory tool, and it is the foundation for developing personalized treatments. Revolutions, or paradigm changes, both in art and science have always been a combined result of the work of exceptional individuals, interdisciplinary interactions, and the dynamics of funding and patronage. It is interesting to recall an all-encompassing revolution in the arts, which happened around 600 years ago, at the beginning of the Italian Renaissance. Florence, one of the Italian city-states, was then a cultural microcosm with an extraordinary concentration of both artists and wealth—and also strong civic pride, which was to an important extent expressed through arts and architecture (1). It was there that the application of mathematics to painting dramatically changed the way painters represented space. At the beginning of the 15th century, 2 painting styles were predominant in Italy: one being the traditional Byzantine painting emanating from Constantinople, the other an interesting mix of the Byzantine style and northern European realism, resulting in a highly decorative International Gothic. The …