Perspective Projection - Transformations and Projections in Computer Graphics - page 75

Piazza del Duomo, he clearly saw, about 115 feet away, the Baptistery of San Giovanni,
one of Florence's most well-known landmarks. This structure was a good choice for the
study of perspective because it is shaped like an octagon, so someone standing in front of
it sees its three front walls in two-point perspective. (It also features left-right symmetry,
so reflecting it horizontally does not change its shape.) Brunelleschi then painted what
he saw through the doorframe—the Baptistery and some of the surrounding streets—in
perspective on a small panel about 12 inches wide. Finally, he drilled a small hole in
the panel at the center of the Baptistery's door (Figure 3.12a) because this point of
the Baptistery would be directly opposite the eye of a viewer standing at the specified
viewing point.

The world having so long been without artists of lofty soul or inspired talent, heaven
ordained that it should receive from the hand of Filippo the greatest, the tallest, and
the finest edifice of ancient and modern times, demonstrating that Tuscan genius,
although moribund, was not yet dead.
—Giorgio Vasari, The Lives of the Artists (1567)

Painting Mirror

Hole

(a) (b)

53 0

(c) (d)

Figure 3.12: Brunelleschi's Experiment in Perspective.