Perception of Perspective Pictorial Space from Different Viewing Points

After referring briefly to the topological transformations perceived when paintings are viewed from positions other than the orthogonal, the author investigates a problem specific to pictures that are based on central perspective.

Central perspective prescribes the distance at which a pictorial construction is projected correctly. But apart from distance, is there also a particular viewing point required for optically correct viewing? A problem arises because paintings are composed with the central vertical of the canvas as the base of reference. That center of the frontal plane coincides rarely with the vanishing point of one-point perspective; in two-point perspective no such coincidence is possible. The author shows that no particular viewing point is demanded by central perspective, and describes the optical and perceptual consequences of various viewing points. A work by Tintoretto is used to illustrate stylistic effects derived from the relation between the center of the composition and the focus of the perspective. The author concludes by referring to the difference between viewers conforming to the spatial experience suggested by a perspective construction and others perceiving the pictorial world ‘from the outside’.