The World Of 3D Street Art: Renaissance Roots
The penchant for putting chalk to sidewalk was practiced widely by Italian vagabond artists. Known as the Madonnari because of their copious reproductions of Madonna, the artists would travel between festivals, creating religious works from brick, charcoal, colored stones and chalk. Giving credence to the ‘starving artist’ stereotype, the Madonnari lived solely off the coins passers-by tossed at them for their skill.This practice continued for centuries until the hardships of WW2 significantly reduced the numbers of the Madonnari. However, the art form was revitalized thanks to the International Street Painting Festival in Northern Italy, and the tradition has morphed and continued to date
3D street art — alternatively known as pavement, chalk or sidewalk
art — is a form of anamorphic art pioneered by American Kurt Wenner.
Sprawling over sidewalks, walls, and public spaces, artists use chalk or
pastels to render pictures that use mathematical continuation of
perspective to give the illusion of three-dimensionality. Though the
medium is widely regarded as a modern art, street art traces its origins
back to the Renaissance.
