InordertounderstandDeleuze'sTheFold:LeibnizandtheBaroque,oneneedstotake as point of departure the world of painting of the protoRenaissance.

If one compares backwards, as one is usually wont to do, the depiction of pictorial space in art, say between 1750and1300,itwouldbeaneasythingtosay(thoughnotcompletelytrue)thatuptotheend oftheMiddleAgesthedepictionofpictorialspacewasfraughtwithdisunity,discontinuityand incoherence until the introduction of perspective in the 1400s. As early as Roman times, around540CE,examplesofcoherentfullyperspectivalpictorialrenderingshadbeencreated wherethevariouselementsinacompositionarepresentedusingwhatwewouldnowcalllines of perspective to points of convergence1 but these pictorial techniques were lost during the DarkAges.Intheensuingcenturies,empiricalmethodsweredevisedbypainterstodepictthe realisticdepictionoftheworldbutnonedemonstratedasystematicapproach:allfellshortof beingabletoprovidealogicaltwoway,orreciprocal,correspondencebetweenthepictorial representationsofobjectsandthelocationsofthoseobjectsinspace.(IvinsRationalization9) Heading into the 15th century, none of the empirical, journeyman methods had managed to rationalizepictorialspaceintoacoherentwholeinaccordancewithopticalgeometry. InDavidHockneysepistolaryexchangewithMartinKempinSecretKnowledge(2001), there is discussion as to how the first half of the 15th century served as hinge in the paradigmaticshiftinthehistoryofpictorialrepresentation.Hiscomparisonofpaintingsbefore and after those years reveals a quantum leap in the abilities of artists in two European art centres,FlorenceandFlanders.Andkeytotheemergenceofthesenewfoundabilitiesappears
1

ThereareRomanwallpaintingswithperfectgeometricalperspective.SeeBattisti,1981,p.102.

to be the use of optical devices in art, i.e. mirrors. The use of mirrors resulted in techniques whichrevolutionizedthewaythatarchitectsandpainterswouldpictoriallydepicttheworld:it resultedinFilippoBrunelleschisputativerediscoveryofperspectivein1412inFlorence,and JanvanEyckspainterlynaturalismwhichemulatedthephotographicinFlanders2. Although the use of mirrors likely provided both Florentine and Flemish painters with similardeparturepoints,thetworegionalconcernsprovidedmarkedlydifferentoutcomes.In Florence, it was primarily with perspective as a depiction of coherent pictorial geometry, a visuallyrationaldepictionofdepthandtherelativepositionofobjectsnotonlytooneanother butprojectivelyinrelationtotheworldandthespectator.InFlanders,thoughthedepictionof depthandtherelativepositionofobjectswasimportant,theemphasiswasonconveyingthe realityofthescenenotasobjectsoutlinedrelativetotheviewerbutwhatonecoulddescribe as the painterly effect on the eye. In terms of the rationalization of pictorial space as a depiction of space,3 these two techniques have been conflated as the emergence of a naturalistic pictorial perspective by the backgridding of history. However, they need to be considered separately since the pictorial results emerging from these two techniques have profoundly different metaphoric implications as to the type of intuitions one is capable of derivingfromthem.Ifwesubscribetotheusualhistoricalpresentation,thefirsthalfofthe15th centurygaveus:
Whenwerefertolensesinthe15thcentury,wearereferringtotheuseofconcavemirrorsinacameraobscura to project their subject onto a canvas. Prior to this there was the pinhole camera obscura, where an inverted imagewouldappearasaprojectiononawallinadarkroomasaresultofasmallholeoppositeconnectingtoa brightlylitexterior.Inthelate16thandintothe17thcenturies,painterswillmovetowardstheuseofglasslenses asthetechnologyemergesforthefabricationofmicroscopesandtelescopes.Inthe19thcentury,artistswillmove towardstheuseofthecameralucida. 3 WeoughttokeepinmindthatspacequaspacewouldnotbeunderstoodassuchuntilthelateRenaissance.
2

(1)therediscoveryofperspectivein1412asasystematicpictorialrenderingtechnique asdemonstratedbyFlorentinearchitectFilippoBrunelleschi(13771446). (2) the geometrical rationalization of perspective as presented by Florentine painter LeonBattistaAlberti(14041472)inhisDellapitturaof143536. (3) the use of mirrors as a tool for naturalistic painterly pictorial rendering first by Flemish painters in the 1430's and later by Italians but not specifically for the geometric renderingofspace.