During this period, we see continued development of perspective methods and systems, especially as applied to new instruments such as the telescope, microscope, and projector.
Galileo’s [1564-1642] 1610 telescopic observations revolutionised optics, building on a century of belief that perspectival instruments were vital to overcome the limitations of the naked eye, making optics a science of visual aids much like perspective did for painting.
The 18th-century rise of descriptive geometry claimed to provide universal principles for representation, leading to the idea that representation and human vision must align. Yet in the 19th century, physiologists like Hermann von Helmholtz [1821-1894] noted analogies between the eye and a camera. Helmholtz also recognised that (to the human eye) nearby curved lines appear straight, distinguishing Euclidean physical space from non-Euclidean visual space.
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