Linear perspective is a science that represents objects in space upon a plane, projecting them from a point of view. This concept was known in classical antiquity. In this book, Rocco Sinisgalli investigates theories of linear perspective in the classical era. Departing from the received understanding of perspective in the ancient world, he argues that ancient theories of perspective were primarily based on the study of objects in mirrors, rather than the study of optics and the workings of the human eye. In support of this argument, Sinisgalli analyzes, and offers new insights into, some of the key classical texts on this topic, including Euclid's De speculis, Lucretius' De rerum natura, Vitruvius' De architectura, and Ptolemy's De opticis. Key concepts throughout the book are clarified and enhanced by detailed illustrations.

Leon Battista Alberti was one of the most important humanist scholars of the Italian Renaissance. Active in mid-fifteenth-century Florence, he was an architect, theorist, and author of texts on perspective and painting. Leon Battista Alberti: On Painting is a cardinal work that revolutionized Western art. In this volume Rocco Sinisgalli presents a new English translation and critical examination of Alberti's seminal text. Dr Sinisgalli reverses the received understanding of the relationship between the Italian and Latin versions of Alberti's treatise by demonstrating that Alberti wrote it first in Italian and then translated it into a polished Latin over the course of several decades. This volume is richly illustrated to help demonstrate how Alberti understood optics and art.