Robert G. Calkins

Many of the elements of perspective are common in medieval art, in particular understanding that images in the distance should be smaller than images in the foreground etc. The thing about perspective is that it can mean many different things. For medieval artists, perspective meant hierarchical perspective – the things that were most important were larger than things that were less important. What you’re talking about is what might be called realist perspective, where you’re using vanishing point etc. in order to create an image that is recognizably true to what we see when we look at reality. It’s not clear that this was a version of perspective that medieval artist were particularly engaged with.

Check out the following painting of Adam and Eve. There’s a lot of perspective work here, things in the distance are unquestionably smaller, and the walls of the garden are drawn smaller in the back and larger closer to us to give us a sense of receding distance. However, Adam and Eve and the tree, which are in the center (the point of the picture), are much larger than any of the other people or trees, because it’s a painting of Adam and Eve. Also, it’s an unfolding story – Adam and Eve are being tempted in the center, but if you look to the left there they are being driven out of the garden, and if you look to the back there they are making their living by the sweat of their brow, and here in the foreground to the right they are old people having a really rough time. This is an entire story about what happens to Adam and Eve once they give in to creepy man-headed Satan. It certainly uses perspective, but it’s in no way supposed to be realistic.

I have the impression from an article I saw in the Journal Of Shit Talked At The Local Pub or something that medieval artists were prone to borrow the faces of the people around them to get realistic and varied faces for their usually historical or stereotypical (is that the word?) I mean, imagine an image full of Vikings; I would a medieval artist draw them? Easy: First Viking, Second Viking, Viking Who Has Eaten Some Dodgy Fish, Unimpressed Viking, Worried Viking etc as the credits would say if this were a movie) subjects...… (more)