Looking at Perspective in Renaissance Paintings

Perspective

Looking at Perspective in Renaissance Paintings Year 8

Context
Lesson
Advantages
Other links
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Context

Pupils were beginning a project on the built environment adapted from Unit 8A Objects and Viewpoints of the QCA scheme of work. They would need to understand some of the codes and conventions of perspective that were used by Renaissance artists in order to develop a piece of 2-D work. This lesson introduced students to the concept of one-point perspective. They would later analyse two-point and aerial perspective, and these studies would inform their practical work as the project progressed.

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Lesson

Activity 1
The teacher began by showing the class a photograph of a London Underground escalator that had been inserted into a flipchart. Students discussed what they saw in the picture with particular reference to the viewpoint, the diagonal lines of the escalator, and the relative sizes of the travellers. She then used the line tool in a bright colour to annotate the photograph with lines of perspective, showing how they meet at a point, called the Vanishing Point, which she marked in red. She also added a yellow horizontal line through this to indicate eye-level. The pupils remarked that the VP coincides with the head of the central traveller and that this is the focal point of the composition.

Tube escalator with perspective lines

Photo: D Z Milner, Oxford Circus Underground Station, 2003. Taken with a Lomo fixed focus camera.

Activity 2:
The pupils then looked at a website that explains how Leonardo Da Vinci used perspective in his paintings. Individual pupils were invited to come to the board to experiment with the site's interactive activities. The teacher had pasted a link to the site on the page so that it was readily accessible.

Activity 3
Finally, the class studied a Renaissance painting that the teacher had inserted into a second flipchart and saved. When they had discussed the composition, the main focal point and guessed at the subject of the painting, the teacher drew a 5 x 5 grid over it with a Stock Annotation tool. Changing the colour and selecting the pen tool, she invited different pupils to come to the board to draw in the lines of perspective, starting with the vertical line through the floor tiles in the centre of the painting. As pupils added to these, they were able to identify the VP and eye-level. The class then re-examined the composition using the grid and perspective lines as a reference, which enabled them to discover the diagonal line that runs from the bottom left corner of the painting, through the Archangel's right arm and through the Virgin Mary's right arm to the top right corner. They annotated copies of another painting for homework, while the class activities were printed out for their sketchbooks.

The Annunciation with perspective lines and grid

Sandro Filipepi, known as Botticelli, The Annunciation, 1489

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Advantages

Using an interactive whiteboard for this lesson was effective in several ways:

The images could be projected large enough for the whole class to see easily

It facilitated whole class participation and made the lesson focused and engaging

It provided pupils with opportunities for active participation and practice.

The teacher could face the class.

Screenshots of the annotated images can be printed out to use in sketchbooks or used in handouts, giving pupils a sense of ownership of the resources.

The teacher could use the materials again.

Other Links

The interactive demonstrations of Leonardo’s perspective used in the lesson are from:

http://mos.org/sln/Leonardo/LeonardosPerspective.html
The home page of the site, which is called Leonardo’s Perspective, from the Museum of Science, Boston.

http://mos.org/sln/Leonardo/ExploringLinearPerspective.html
Exploring linear perspective

http://mos.org/sln/Leonardo/PlayingAroundwithSandD.html
Playing around with size and distance.

http://mos.org/sln/Leonardo/InvestigatingAerialP.html
Investigating aerial perspective.

Find two worksheets on Renaissance perspective from an Australian education site at:

http://www.internal.schools.net.au/edu/lesson_ideas/renaissance/renaissance_perspective.html

For information on the practical application of perspective method aimed at artists, the Southern Arkansas University has a series of online Studio Drawing Lessons.

http://www2.evansville.edu/studiochalkboard/draw.html

Download

Right-click on the filename and select Save Target As to download the flipchart for this lesson: one-point_perspective.flp [167KB]

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