Linear perspective has to do with the organization of a painting or a picture, and was first used in the renaissance. Although not the first to use linear perspective, Leon Battista Alberti was the first to write about it.
According to Alberti looking at a painting should be like looking through a window. The painting shows a section of the visible world, and should be based on clear measurements and precise locations. This means that all objects in a painting are shown and placed as they would in reality - as when seen through a window. This also means that the observer of the painting can locate his own position in relation to the space of the scene in the painting. Thus the painting becomes a small world of its own, a "self-contained reality" which the observer has a feeling of participating in. | 
