Abstract
The changes in the visual arts associated with the Renaissance, specifically the use of perspective to give a sense of depth, have sometimes been linked with the changes in natural philosophy that led to the emergence of a recognisably modern style in the study of nature. These latter changes are associated with the use of mathematics, but mathematicians had a long tradition of relying upon words not images in the transmission of ideas. In the mathematical sciences we find important changes in content but striking conservatism in visual style. For instance in explaining his perspective construction (c. 1465–70), Piero della Francesca uses non-perspectival pictorial conventions in his diagrams. Leonardo da Vinci's perspective drawings of polyhedra (c. 1498) were apparently conceived as substitutes for actual models. Nevertheless, the period from about 1500 to 1650 saw a notable increase in the provision of decorative illustrations.
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