Perspective in art
About this app
Picture analysis of ten masterpieces from Masaccio to Caillebotte: measured orthogonals on the edges of the works, vanishing point, horizon as eye level, ground grid, distance points and scale of size. Plus a practice mode, spotting the errors in Hogarth’s “Satire on False Perspective” and “Step into the picture”: the Trinity and the Ideal City as 3D spaces with eye point and picture plane.
With explain mode: an AI tutor walks you through the app, points out what matters in the scene and answers your questions.
How to analyse the perspective of a painting
A picture analysis starts with edges that run parallel into depth in space: cornices, tile joints, ceiling beams. In the picture these orthogonals run towards each other and meet at the vanishing point. The horizontal through it is the horizon line, the viewer’s eye level. From this the space can be read: how deep a square is, where the painter stood and why figures of equal size get smaller towards the back. Diagonals of square tiles lead to the distance points, whose distance from the vanishing point equals the viewing distance.
What the app shows
Ten public-domain works hang on a museum wall: Masaccio’s Trinity, Perugino’s Delivery of the Keys, the Ideal City from Urbino, Leonardo’s Last Supper, Raphael’s School of Athens, a plate from Vredeman de Vries’ Perspective, Hobbema’s Avenue at Middelharnis, Canaletto’s Piazza San Marco, Hogarth’s Satire on False Perspective and Caillebotte’s Paris Street; Rainy Day. Every line is measured on a real edge of the work. Step by step orthogonals, vanishing point and horizon appear, and depending on the work a ground grid, distance points, a scale of size or the two vanishing points of the trapezium-shaped piazza.
What you can try
In practice mode you tap the horizon and the vanishing point yourself and see how far off you are. In Hogarth you look for six deliberate perspective mistakes, each with an explanation and a rule. For the Trinity and the Ideal City you step into the picture: the camera starts at the eye point, where a 3D model matches the painting exactly, and moves to the side. Then you see the eye point, the picture plane and the painted space behind it.
Frequently asked questions
- Where is the vanishing point in Leonardo’s Last Supper?
- At Christ’s right temple. Ceiling beams, tapestries and wall edges run there. A small hole was found in the wall at this spot, probably from a nail on which Leonardo stretched strings for the depth lines.
- Why does a picture sometimes have two vanishing points on one horizon?
- Every direction of parallel edges has its own vanishing point. Horizontal directions all recede to the horizon. In Canaletto’s Piazza San Marco the two rows of buildings are not parallel because the square is a trapezium, so there are two vanishing points at the same height.
- What does Hogarth’s Satire on False Perspective show?
- An engraving from 1754 full of deliberate mistakes: a man on a distant hill has his pipe lit from a nearby window, sheep grow towards the back, distant trees hide a near sign, floor joints run towards the viewer.
- What does the app “Perspective in art” do?
- It guides you through the perspective of ten masterpieces with measured lines, lets you find vanishing point and horizon yourself, spot mistakes in Hogarth and enter two works as a 3D space.
Subject: Perspective & freehand drawing
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