We all heard about the inconceivable sum paid for Da Vinci's lost painting, Salvatore Mundi. Someone paid $450 million for this painting, which was sold for just $90 a few decades ago.
The link below opens an article by Walter Isaacson of the Alpen Institute, where he describes Da Vinci's genius for creating masterpieces based on the physics and optics of the human eye and the way our brains perceive physical reality.
The challenge for a painter is creating the illusion of three dimensional space on a two dimensional medium. Photographers face the same challenge, of course, and we learn to trick the eye into perceiving the illusion of depth by using techniques such as leading lines, sidelighting, and a softening of focus and atmosphere in the distance.
I plan to write more about this topic in an upcoming blog post, but for now check out Prof. Isaacson's awesome article. We can apply Da Vinci's techniques to modern art!
LINK TO ARTICLE