The Santiago Cross/ The History of Art Vol I: The Window as World

Vol I: The Window as World

In his treatise on painting, the 15th century architect, sculptor, painter, and theorist Leon Battista Alberti described painting as the construction of an image that resembles a window.  His simile of the window emphasized the illusionistic representation of a three-dimensional object on a two-dimensional surface, in effect denying the material surface of the canvas. In this configuration, the painting as a window becomes a transparent surface through which the viewer can glimpse an ordered, one-point linear perspective of the world.  A perspective that privileges a particular viewpoint.