This isn’t even the most like birds a plant can look! This green birdbush grows in Australia and appears to make hummingbirds except, wait, there’s no hummingbirds in Australia. So what is this plant doing.
The term ‘eureka’ comes from the ancient Greek word 'heúrēka’, which literally means 'I have found it!’ It’s also closely linked to the word 'heuristic’, which refers to something that serves as an aid to learning, discovery or problem solving.
This artwork represents a true 'eureka!’ moment in art history: painted by Italian artist and mathematician Paolo Uccello, it is one of the earliest examples of the use of a vanishing point to achieve a sense of perspective in a painting. A vanishing point is the place at which receding parallel lines appear to converge.
Described as 'intoxicated’ by perspective, Uccello studied the concept carefully over many years. He applied his mathematical and analytical mind to his art in order to reconstruct objects in three-dimensional space.
This work, alongside many others that Uccello produced, became a model for other artists who sought to make their works more realistic and life-like. He inspired the likes of Leonardo da Vinci and Albrecht Dürer, and left an enduring legacy with this paintings.
See 'The Hunt in the Forest’ by Paolo Uccello (1397–1475) in our Italian Renaissance gallery.
