Representing Space: An Inquiry in the Renaissance Understanding of Art

In this book I aim to get a grip on ¿how¿ a narrative is being told to a beholder of a Renaissance painting. I describe the condition in which a painting presents a story to a beholder. The condition is the representation of pictorial space. The representation of pictorial space has been characterized as naturalistic. Renaissance naturalism has to be interpreted through a theological lens, which helps us to understand the rhetoric behind Renaissance naturalism. A theological framework can explain the evaluation of the perceptions of natural sense experience and explains the function of composition, that is, to transform the beholder¿s consciousness into a religious consciousness. Specific rules of composition contribute to ¿how¿ a narrative is being told to a beholder of Renaissance art. By inquiring these rules we get a better understanding of how the Renaissance artist represents space; how the Renaissance beholder relates to the depiction of space; and how the modern viewer relates differently to the Renaissance painting.