lights and a definite position of center in space and in a definite place in respect to
the observer. Each painter, endowed with his natural instinct, demonstrates this
when, in painting this plane, he places himself at a distance as if searching the point
and angle of the pyramid from which point he understands the thing painted is best
seen.^7
Through this description, Alberti establishes afixed viewpoint for the artist
complementing the point of convergence within the picture plane. He
implies that the viewer of the work will ultimately stand in the place of
the artist, an interpretationfirst written in thePerspectivae Librisex
(Pesaro, 1600) of Guidobaldo del Monte.^8 As the image becomesfixed
through this single vantage point, the subject who paints/views the image
becomes equally immobile.
Alberti later provides a pragmatic means of transferring this window
onto the picture plane as he describes the process he calls“circumscrip-
tion,”referring to the construction of the outline of the image:
Nothing can be found, so I think, which is more useful than that veil which among
my friends I call an intersection. It is a thin veil,finely woven, dyed whatever color
pleases you and with larger threads [marking out] as many parallels as you prefer.
This veil I place between the eye and the thing seen, so the visual pyramid
penetrates through the thinness of the veil. This veil can be of great use to you.
Firstly, it always presents to you the same unchanged plane. Where you have placed
certain limits, you quicklyfind the true cuspid of the pyramid. This would certainly
be difficult without the intersection. You know how difficult it is to imitate a thing
which does not continue to present the same appearance, for it is easier to copy
painting than sculpture. You know that as the distance and the position of the
center are changed, the thing you see seems greatly altered...Secondly, you will
easily be able to constitute the limits of the outline and of the planes.^9
Both Brunelleschi’s and Alberti’s demonstrations oppose the movement
inherent in our natural experience of the world by necessitating a static
position: the transparent effect of the picture plane conceived as a window
onto infinity only becomes possible through limitations established
through the restriction of the peephole, the reflection of the mirror, and
the obfuscation of the veil.
The unmediated truth offered by perspective proves illusory not only
historically, but also historiographically. Hubert Damisch (1928–2017)
points to the blurry origins of Manetti’s narrative, saying,“the position
that tradition assigns to the discovery or invention associated with
(^7) Alberti, 1966 : 51. (^8) Frangenberg, 1986 : 164. (^9) Alberti, 1966 : 68.
Perspectives on Perspective 303