Perception of Space in Painting


Slavik Jablan, Ljiljana Radović




During the history, perception of space in painting is changed from one- and two-dimensional geometric patterns, that dominate in Paleolithic and Neolithic art, through "hierarchical perspective" and orthogonal axonometry used in Egyptian painting, Byzantine counter-perspective, Renaissance linear perspective, cubistic polycentrism, perceptive perspective, to the non-orientable space of abstract painting. Trying to explain 3D-vision as the reconstruction of 3D-image from its 2D-projection, that is in general not unique, we will consider different extreme forms of perspective (e.g., anamorphoses), or the formation of ambiguous reconstructions of 2D-projections resulting in visual illusions and impossible figures.