Cinema’s Perspective, or, Why Should Renaissance Painting Matter for Cinema?

A persistent way of thinking about cinema relies on the formative influence of linear perspective. Renaissance perspective, the story goes, was incorporated into the technology of photography, then carried over into motion picture cameras where it shapes the image on screen. This presentation sets out a different approach. Ranging across cinematic theories and practices, as well as camera technologies, it recasts the relation of painting to cinema—and, ultimately, the way we experience moving images.