Sculptural Seeing: Relief, Optics, and the Rise of Perspective in Medieval Italy

Medieval sculptors in Italy were employing advanced knowledge of optics, geometry, and visual theory centuries before the Renaissance, challenging the conventional narrative that perspective was a solely Renaissance innovation. Christopher R. Lakey's study demonstrates that these sculptors used relief sculptures to manipulate viewers' perspectives, enhancing religious and political messaging through carefully orchestrated points of view and architectural space. The research combines meticulous visual analysis with close textual readings of medieval works, including notable examples from the cathedrals of Modena and Ferrara, as well as the Pisano pulpits in Pisa and Pistoia. This reveals that linear perspective concepts, later codified by Renaissance painters, were already in practice among sculptors during the 12th to 14th centuries.

(Ed.). (2018). Sculptural Seeing: Relief, Optics, and the Rise of Perspective in Medieval Italy. https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00109