The Theory and Practice of Perspective

The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Theory and Practice of Perspective, by George Adolphus Storey

This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with

almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or

re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included

with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org

Title: The Theory and Practice of Perspective

Author: George Adolphus Storey

Release Date: December 22, 2006 [eBook #20165]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1

***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE THEORY AND PRACTICE OF PERSPECTIVE***

E-text prepared by Louise Hope, Suzanne Lybarger, Jonathan Ingram,

and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team

(http://www.pgdp.net/c/)

Lines in the sample drawings are not always parallel. In some cases this may be an artifact of the scanning process, but more often the pictures were not positioned evenly in the original book. Page numbers shown in brackets [ ] held illustrations without text. They will sometimes be out of sequence with adjoining page numbers.

A few typographical errors have been corrected. They have been marked in the text with mouse-hover popups

.

HENRY FROWDE, M.A.

PUBLISHER TO THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD

LONDON, EDINBURGH, NEW YORK

TORONTO AND MELBOURNE

THE

THEORY AND PRACTICE

OF PERSPECTIVE

BY

G. A. STOREY, A.R.A.

TEACHER OF PERSPECTIVE AT THE ROYAL ACADEMY

‘QUÎ FIT?’

OXFORD

AT THE CLARENDON PRESS

1910

OXFORD

PRINTED AT THE CLARENDON PRESS

BY HORACE HART, M.A.

PRINTER TO THE UNIVERSITY

DEDICATED

TO

SIR EDWARD J. POYNTER

BARONET

PRESIDENT OF THE ROYAL ACADEMY

IN TOKEN OF FRIENDSHIP

AND REGARD

PREFACE

It is much easier to understand and remember a thing when a reason is given for it, than when we are merely shown how to do it without being told why it is so done; for in the latter case, instead of being assisted by reason, our real help in all study, we have to rely upon memory or our power of imitation, and to do simply as we are told without thinking about it. The consequence is that at the very first difficulty we are left to flounder about in the dark, or to remain inactive till the master comes to our assistance.

Now in this book it is proposed to enlist the reasoning faculty from the very first: to let one problem grow out of another and to be dependent on the foregoing, as in geometry, and so to explain each thing we do that there shall be no doubt in the mind as to the correctness of the proceeding. The student will thus gain the power of finding out any new problem for himself, and will therefore acquire a true knowledge of perspective.

CONTENTS

BOOK FIRST

THE NECESSITY OF THE STUDY OF PERSPECTIVE TO PAINTERS, SCULPTORS, AND ARCHITECTS

Leonardo da Vinci tells us in his celebrated Treatise on Painting that the young artist should first of all learn perspective, that is to say, he should first of all learn that he has to depict on a flat surface objects which are in relief or distant one from the other; for this is the simple art of painting. Objects appear smaller at a distance than near to us, so by drawing them thus we give depth to our canvas. The outline of a ball is a mere flat circle, but with proper shading we make it appear round, and this is the perspective of light and shade.

‘The next thing to be considered is the effect of the atmosphere and light. If two figures are in the same coloured dress, and are standing one behind the other, then they should be of slightly different tone, so as to separate them. And in like manner, according to the distance of the mountains in a landscape and the greater or less density of the air, so do we depict space between them, not only making them smaller in outline, but less distinct.’¹

Sir Edwin Landseer used to say that in looking at a figure in a picture he liked to feel that he could walk round it, and this exactly expresses the impression that the true art of painting should make upon the spectator.

There is another observation of Leonardo’s that it is well I should here transcribe; he says: ‘Many are desirous of learning to draw, and are very fond of it, who are notwithstanding void of a proper disposition for it. This may be known by their want of perseverance; like boys who draw everything in a hurry, never finishing or shadowing.’ This shows they do not care for their work, and all instruction is thrown away upon them. At the present time there is too much of this ‘everything in a hurry’, and beginning in this way leads only to failure and disappointment. These observations apply equally to perspective as to drawing and painting.

Unfortunately, this study is too often neglected by our painters, some