Science in Art (Martin Kemp)

Science in Art: Optical themes in western art from Brunelleschi to Seurat' by Martin Kemp, Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 1990. Softcover.  cm x cm. 375 pristine pages, 550-plus black & white photos and line diagrams, with 11 full colour plates. Condition: unused, like new. See photos. €30.

From the back cover:

'In this pathbreaking and highly illustrated book, art historian Martin Kemp examines the major optically-orientated examples of artistic theory and practice from the Renaissance to the 19th century. Kemp begins by discussing the invention of perspective by Filippo Brunelleschi and its exploitation by such artist-theorists as Piero della Francesca, Leonardo and Durer. He traces the further production of theoretical texts on vision and the increasingly complex relationship between theory and practice in works by such masters as Velázquez, Rubens, Poussin and Turner. Kemp then describes the production and use of a variety of mechanical and optical devices, including perspective of photography. He also examines the rival perceptual theories of such men as Ruskin and Helmholtz that began to erode the geometrical certainties of perspective.'