Ancient theory of perspective A while back there was a discussion about the discovery of perspective during the rennaisance. I came across an ancient architect that was specializing in the design of stage scenery for the ancient theatre using the principles of perspective. His name is Agatharchos of Samos, and lived somewhere in the 5th century BC. He is mentioned by Vitruvius. He wrote a book about the principles of perspective that unfortunately did not survive. Two more books on perspective are mentioned, by Anaxagoras and Democritus, and again neither of them survived. >From the above we can assume that the ancients used perspective, but the Byzantines dropped it. Probably because in their paintings they did not wish to portray the subject itself, but its inner beauty. After all they considered the quest of the ancients for beauty of the form, as decadent. So they probably considered the lack of perspective in their paintings as evolution from the decadent ancient forms to a more esoteric and spiritual form of expression. Just think of the evolution of modern art, where perspective is viewed usually as archaic, irrelevant, limiting, unimaginative. Just a thought to add to the discussion of a few months ago....... Rgds Dimos Dimarogonas [Submitted by: James Dimos Dimarogonas <jdd1@CEC.WUSTL.EDU> Tue, 9 Jan 1996 21:01:16 -0600] Up