Question

When does linear perspective develop?

Answer 1

If you mean the systematic geometric method artists use to represent three‑dimensional space on a flat picture plane (converging orthogonals to vanishing point(s)), linear perspective develops in the early Italian Renaissance, early 15th century.

Key points:
- Precursors: ancient Greek and Roman painters and some medieval artists used intuitive foreshortening and depth cues, but not a consistent mathematical system.
- Breakthroughs in Florence, c. 1410–1435: Filippo Brunelleschi demonstrated a one‑point perspective construction (often dated ca. 1413) and Leon Battista Alberti codified the rules in his treatise De Pictura (1435).
- Early examples: Masaccio’s Holy Trinity (Santa Maria Novella, c. 1425–27) is one of the first surviving paintings to apply convincing one‑point perspective.
- Further development: 15th–16th centuries — artists and theorists such as Piero della Francesca, Paolo Uccello, Leonardo da Vinci and Albrecht Dürer refined and expanded the technique (including multi‑point systems and mathematical treatments).

So, linear perspective as a systematic method originates in the early 1400s in Italy, then spreads and is developed further across Europe.