Perspective

[boatman]

Why does art before the Renaissance look so unrealisitic?

[incitatus]

Before Giotto, perspective wasn't used, so if an item was more important it was painted larger. This led to a very distorted world view. In perspective things are painted larger if they are closer, which is much closer to how the brain sees it.

[sgs]

For more on perspective go to the answerbank article at article 2179