with the librettist Ottavio Rinuccini, for producing the
first opera, Dafne (c. 1597). Although this work is now
lost, it is known to have been performed at the Palazzo
Pitti during the 1597 Florence carnival. Peri also collabo-
rated with Rinuccini and Giulio CACCINI on Euridice
(1600), the first opera that does survive. These early op-
eras were probably inspired by Peri’s association with
Count Giovanni BARDI’s Florentine Camerata and the ef-
forts of some of its members to reproduce the classical
Greek tragedies. The new monodic musical style associ-
ated with the Camerata, stile recitativo, was a type of
singing that balanced speech and song without obscuring
the text. A skillful singer, Peri also performed in these
early operas.
perspective The graphical representation of three-
dimensional objects on a two-dimensional surface, as de-
veloped chiefly during the Italian Renaissance. There are
generally three recognized types of perspective: visual, lin-
ear, and aerial. Visual perspective—the simple overlap-
ping of objects—was known to the ancient Greeks and
Romans, but the laws governing the use of linear perspec-
tive, in which objects are arranged along parallel lines that
apparently converge on a distant point (the “vanishing
point”) on the horizon line, were only discovered by
BRUNELLESCHIin the 15th century. These properties were
also explored by such notable artists as ALBERTI(who
wrote an early treatise on the subject) UCCELLO, PIERO
DELLA FRANCESCA, and MASACCIO. LEONARDO DA VINCIalso
used linear perspective in some of his greatest paintings,
including his LAST SUPPER, in which the parallel lines con-
verge on the vanishing point of Christ’s head. Other lead-
ing artists, such as MANTEGNA, MELOZZO DA FORLÌ,
BOTTICELLI, and Fra Filippo LIPPIrefined the Italian idea of
perspective, sometimes using more than one vanishing
point in order to intensify the illusion of depth. Consider-
able use was also made of the third type of perspective,
aerial perspective, in which distant colors are made paler
and outlines of distant objects are less clearly defined. The
perspective construction known by its Italian name sotto33668 8 ppeerrssppeeccttiivveePerspective A woodcut by Albrecht Dürer showing how to make a perspective drawing of a lute. This appears in his
Underweysung der Messung(1525), the first mathematical book to be published in German.