linear perspective

American  

noun

1. a mathematical system for representing three-dimensional objects and space on a two-dimensional surface by means of intersecting lines that are drawn vertically and horizontally and that radiate from one point one-point perspective, two points two-point perspective, or several points on a horizon line as perceived by a viewer imagined in an arbitrarily fixed position.

---

linear perspective British  

noun

1. the branch of perspective in which the apparent size and shape of objects and their position with respect to foreground and background are established by actual or suggested lines converging on the horizon

---

Etymology

Origin of linear perspective

First recorded in 1835–45

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

linear perspective

The use of linear perspective had been a “secret” known to the ancient Greeks and Romans but lost and then “rediscovered” by the Florentine architect Filippo Brunelleschi, whose drawings inspired Masaccio.

From Textbooks ● Apr. 19, 2023

They furnished avenging angels with modern rifles and Incan textiles, crowned Madonnas with ostrich feathers and flattened linear perspective to produce intensely colored, swirling visions of a cosmos in crisis.

From New York Times ● Aug. 25, 2022

Avery composed with large areas of flat color, creating depth with color contrasts and harmonies instead of shifts in scale and linear perspective.

From Washington Post ● Mar. 16, 2022

The artist, Lorenzo Monaco, painted during the Renaissance period, but the work was created before linear perspective had replaced the “two-dimensional” style of Gothic painting.

From Textbooks ● Jan. 1, 2020

In the meantime, he had studied architecture and aerial and linear perspective, and had made innumerable pen and pencil drawings from nature.

From Artists Past and Present Random Studies by Cary, Elisabeth Luther