Pointy End Goes on the Paper: Beginning Drawing for the SCA Scribal Arts
Scribal culture in each kingdom throughout the known world is unique. As I am Trimarian, I approach things from that perspective. But my hope is that anyone interested in Medieval Illumination can find some inspiration and tidbits in this series of articles which will be helpful.
Part 5: Perspective, Or Lack Thereof
Perspective was almost never a thing in illumination! But, before we get into that, what exactly do I mean by perspective? |
- A type of perspective used by artists in which the relative size, shape, and position of objects are determined by drawn or imagined lines converging at a point on the horizon to create an illusion of depth and distance.
Wait, what?
In layman's terms, it is how you draw something so that it looks more like a three dimensional object existing in 3D space.
Essentially, It's how you get from three squares just chilling out on the same page, to three squares coexisting as cubes in a three dimensional space. You draw a horizon line, imagine how the objects relate to one point on that horizon, and viola! Depth!
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| Macclesfield Psalter, England ca. 1330-1340 Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum, MS 1-2005, fol. 76r |
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| Mira Calligraphiae Monumenta, illumination 1591–96 |
This gets a little more complicated with more complicated objects, but the principle remains the same. Behold a snail without linear perspective, and one that has linear perspective. See the difference?
Now this entire article is going to talk about single-point perspective, where all the objects in the image are oriented towards a single vanishing point on the horizon. However more advanced ways of drawing perspective use two or more vanishing points. I'm just not going to get into that here because multi-point perspective is way later period, into the 17th century, and for our purposes single point perspective will be plenty.
Why is this important?
Linear perspective as a thing(tm) in art these days is super pervasive. And we crazy modern people are so used to seeing linear perspective everywhere and in everything, that seeing a drawing or piece of art without it is... strange. And a little weird. It makes the art look half finished and poorly done to us, because we are so used to art being able to capture that 3D look in 2D form. And it's not just art, all of our media has perspective. Photographs, videos... everything.
But here's the thing, to someone from the middle ages that weirdly flat look wasn't weird at all, it was just art. The first painting with linear perspective was as mind-blowingly realistic and immersive to someone of the time period as high-end VR is to us now.
Speaking of...
It helps that he was an architect, I think. Because architecture, with it's straight lines and mathematics, is one of the easiest things to draw in perspective when you first start getting used to it. There's a reason the first example I gave above was squares. Brunelleshi came up with some experiments involving the Baptistry in Florence to prove that when viewed from a fixed point, all parallel lines disappeared to a singular point on the horizon. He also figured out the mathematical equations for applying the principle to drawing, and made a couple of pieces of art (now lost) demonstrating the concept.
It wasn't long before the concept took off, and soon everyone was doing it!
But here's the thing, to someone from the middle ages that weirdly flat look wasn't weird at all, it was just art. The first painting with linear perspective was as mind-blowingly realistic and immersive to someone of the time period as high-end VR is to us now.
Speaking of...
Fillipo Brunelleshi
This is the man, right here. Fillipo Brunelleshi was an architect in Florence at the beginning of the Renaissance, and he is widely credited with 'rediscovering' linear perspective in 1415. I say rediscover, because we know that the Romans and others had some grasp of the concept, but, like many other things, that knowledge rather disappeared from Europe during the early middle ages.It helps that he was an architect, I think. Because architecture, with it's straight lines and mathematics, is one of the easiest things to draw in perspective when you first start getting used to it. There's a reason the first example I gave above was squares. Brunelleshi came up with some experiments involving the Baptistry in Florence to prove that when viewed from a fixed point, all parallel lines disappeared to a singular point on the horizon. He also figured out the mathematical equations for applying the principle to drawing, and made a couple of pieces of art (now lost) demonstrating the concept.
It wasn't long before the concept took off, and soon everyone was doing it!
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| "Holy Trinity" by Masaccio 1425-28, Santa Maria Novella, Florence |
This fresco is one of the first Renaissance paintings to make use of linear perspective (that we still have, since Brunelleshi's are missing). It still looks a little flat, until you unhook your modern brain and realize that there is an entire room/alcove behind the crucifix. That little room with it's vaulted ceiling is like... om-gosh mindbogglingly amazing to the medieval mindset.
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| The School of Athens - Raphael - 1510-11 |
And by the early 1500's linear perspective was all the rage in what is normally considered 'high art.' This fresco by Raphael is the one most often trotted out in art history books as the best example of the 'dawn' of linear perspective. And it is a fine example. Not only is the architecture great, but the figures are all perfectly proportioned depending on how far they are from the viewer. And then there's the one guy lounging on the stairs, with one foot towards us and the rest of him leaning away... which I'm pretty sure is just Raphael showing off.
Because it is SO not.
Here's the thing...the use of perspective in art didn’t become widespread until the 1500’s, and then mostly in paintings and portraits. So we're talking frescoes on church walls and big masterwork paintings. Illumination caught on a lot slower, and it's really only really late period illumination that makes much use of perspective... and that might not even be good use.
But Wait!
You didn't think I was going through all this because perspective is something that's super important in medieval art, did you?Because it is SO not.
Here's the thing...the use of perspective in art didn’t become widespread until the 1500’s, and then mostly in paintings and portraits. So we're talking frescoes on church walls and big masterwork paintings. Illumination caught on a lot slower, and it's really only really late period illumination that makes much use of perspective... and that might not even be good use.
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| Bibliothèque nationale de France, Français 1537, detail of f. 23r. Chants royaux sur la Conception |
Remember this lady from the first post in the series? She is from 1537 and although there is some attempt at perspective, it doesn't quite hit the mark. Objects get smaller the further away they are, but there is no relation to a horizon to bring them in sync with each other. And the attempted foreshortening of her arms just seems to discard her upper arms entirely, leaving her lower arms to sprout from her rib cage.
And before the 1500's? Pretty much just throw perspective out the window. It wasn't a thing at all, and you shouldn't try to make it a thing even if your modern brain thinks you should. The lack of perspective is critical to early medieval illumination, and brings us such hits as...
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| ‘Romanzo di Alessandro’ - MS. Bodl. 264 (1338-1344) |
... piles of buildings all stacked on top of one another...
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| English Psalter, ca. 1300-1310, The Morgan Library & Museum |
... half-heads of people stacked on top of other people...
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| Morgan M.969 Bible with prologues. F. 346v-2 1275-1299, France |
...and that straight-on-from-the-front cartoony look we all know and love.
So, should you know what linear perspective is? Yes, especially if you are practicing your drawing and want to get better at it. But is it critical? Absolutely not.
If you like drawing in perspective, then have some fun with late period illumination! If you don't, almost 3/4ths of medieval illumination doesn't use it, so don't feel guilty and do some of that fun earlier period illumination.
Remember, a lack of linear perspective doesn't make your drawing bad, it just makes it more medieval.
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