Finding the depth in art We function in a multidimensional
universe and have to funnel our creativity into only two or
three of those dimensions. In sculpture and related fields of
art we are concerned with three dimensions. In drawing and
painting however, we have to convert our 3 dimensional (3D)
visual experience into 2 dimensional (2D) symbols. Perspective,
in it's various forms, aids us in taking a 3D view and evoking
the same visual sensation within the limits of two dimensions.
The basic rules are simple and based on the visual reality we
view through our stereoscopic vision. The mechanics of
perspective have been learned and lost a few times throughout
history. Plato and his contemporaries wrote of 5th Century Greek
painters who used optical perspective to create realistic
backdrop scenes for plays. In the murals revealed in the ruins
of Pompeii (79 A.D.) an intuitive understanding of linear
perspective is revealed in their colorful efforts of rendering
art in a realistic manner. With the fall of civi