Italian Renaissance (pt. 12)

Filippo Brunelleschi is another important name of the Renaissance, though he lived earlier than da Vinci and the printing press (sorry—anachronistic, I know).  He considered himself more of a mathematician, architect, and engineer than an artist.  Also afraid (like da Vinci) of his ideas being stolen, he wrote all his notes in code.

You'll recall he produced his own theory of Linear Perspective after Masaccio's Holy Trinity.  In 1413 he conducted an experiment to test the look of his painting of the Baptistery of St. John in Florence.  He poked a hole in the center of the painting and stood at a window overlooking the Baptistery.  He held the painting up in front of his face, the back facing him, in one hand and a mirror, in front of the painting, in another.  By looking through the hole in the painting toward the mirror, Brunelleschi could see his painting, and when he moved the mirror, he could see the actual Baptistery.  This experiment was a breakthrough for realism technique in art.