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In the fifteenth century, Filippo Brunelleschis demonstrations of perspective representation were regarded as something entirely new. As Brunelleschi's panels did not survive, modern research predominantly consists of interpretations of Antonio di Tuccio Manetti's account, sometimes supplemented by commentaries on the brief reports by Filarete and Giorgio Vasari. The important function of images in the quattrocento, the representation of scenes from salvific history, of saints and God, required clear distinctions between the represented space and the space of the viewer. It is necessary to ask whether perspective representation inevitably implied profound secularisation of the previously religious image. Hardly any other iconographic theme can so clearly illustrate that the application of perspective had to be carried out very cautiously. The particular circumstances of Brunelleschis perspective demonstrations did not take into consideration some crucial questions which later painters had to address as soon as they wanted to apply linear perspective to their pictures. Keywords: Antonio di Tuccio Manetti; Filippo Brunelleschis perspective panels; iconographic theme; religious image

During his life, Goethe collected about 11,500 prints and drawings which spanned all epochs. Not limited to works by his favourite artists, his collection is remarkable for its wide scope. Goethe's practices of collecting show striking similarities to his methods of research in the field of natural science. This article proposes that these methods enabled him to define a general concept of art which exists beyond the individual, thus historically based works.

The writer discusses nine architectural drawings by Caspar David Friedrich (designs for a church with a tower), now in the Germanisches Nationalmuseum in Nuremberg, Germany. The numbered drawings, some of which are colored, are thought to date from 1805–06. They include an elliptical ground plan, interior and exterior views, and furnishing details. The writer considers evidence that casts doubt on the thesis that the drawings relate to a chapel in Vitt, Germany.