Have You Ever Used Two Picture Planes to Draw a Single Perspective View?

Apparently, the use of two picture planes to draw a single view has not been attempted before. Most perspective methods, after Alberti, take for granted the use of a single picture plane, disregarding its likely use in dual positions. What if two picture planes are necessary to draw a single view--for example, given a lack of spatial references at ground level to estimate the distance between two objects? This article demonstrates that to draw the interior of a building from which another building can be seen about 190 m away, where the projection of such building on the first picture plane would be imprecise, it may be wise to use a second picture plane. This leads to consideration of how objects change shape as they move away from the viewer. For example, if a cube recedes from the observer up to 100 times its side length, it takes on an axonometric view. This raises a question: Could axonometric projection be a particular case of perspective?. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Leonardo is the property of MIT Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)