In
painting
Painting is a Visual arts, visual art, which is characterized by the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called "matrix" or "Support (art), support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with ...
,
photography
Photography is the visual arts, art, application, and practice of creating images by recording light, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. It is empl ...
,
graphical perspective and
descriptive geometry
Descriptive geometry is the branch of geometry which allows the representation of three-dimensional objects in two dimensions by using a specific set of procedures. The resulting techniques are important for engineering, architecture, design an ...
, a picture plane is an
image plane located between the "eye point" (or ''
oculus'') and the object being viewed and is usually coextensive to the material surface of the work. It is ordinarily a vertical plane
perpendicular
In geometry, two geometric objects are perpendicular if they intersect at right angles, i.e. at an angle of 90 degrees or π/2 radians. The condition of perpendicularity may be represented graphically using the '' perpendicular symbol'', � ...
to the
sightline
The line of sight, also known as visual axis or sightline (also sight line), is an imaginary line between a viewer/observation, observer/wikt:spectator, spectator's eye(s) and a subject of interest, or their relative direction (geometry), relative ...
to the object of interest.
Features
In the technique of
graphical perspective the picture plane has several features:
:Given are an eye point O (from ''
oculus''), a horizontal plane of reference called the ''ground plane'' γ and a picture plane π... The line of intersection of π and γ is called the ''ground line'' and denoted ''GR''. ... the orthogonal projection of O upon π is called the ''principal vanishing point P''...The line through ''P'' parallel to the ground line is called the ''horizon'' HZ
The
horizon
The horizon is the apparent curve that separates the surface of a celestial body from its sky when viewed from the perspective of an observer on or near the surface of the relevant body. This curve divides all viewing directions based on whethe ...
frequently features
vanishing points of lines appearing
parallel in the foreground.
Position
The orientation of the picture plane is always perpendicular of the axis that comes straight out of your eyes. For example, if you are looking to a building that is in front of you and your eyesight is entirely horizontal then the picture plane is perpendicular to the ground and to the axis of your sight.
If you are looking up or down, then the picture plane remains perpendicular to your sight and it changes the 90 degrees angle compared to the ground. When this happens a third vanishing point will appear in most cases depending on what you are seeing (or drawing).
Cut of an eject
G. B. Halsted included the picture plane in his book ''Synthetic Projective Geometry'':
"To 'project' from a fixed point ''M'' (the 'projection vertex') a figure, the 'original', composed of points ''B, C, D'' etc. and straights ''b, c, d'' etc., is to construct the 'projecting straights'
and the 'projecting planes'
Thus is obtained a new figure composed of straights and planes, all on M, and called an 'eject' of the original."
"To 'cut' by a fixed plane μ (the picture-plane) a figure, the 'subject' made up of planes β, γ, δ, etc., and straights ''b, c, d'', etc., is to construct the meets
and passes
Thus is obtained a new figure composed of straights and points, all on μ, and called a 'cut' of the subject. If the subject is an eject of an original, the cut of the subject is an 'image' of the original.
Integrity of the picture plane
A well-known phrase has accompanied many discussions of painting during the period of
modernism
Modernism was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual arts, and music that emphasized experimentation, abstraction, and Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy), subjective experience. Philosophy, politics, architecture, and soc ...
. Coined by the influential art critic
Clement Greenberg in his essay called "Modernist Painting", the phrase ''"integrity of the picture plane"'' has come to denote how the flat surface of the physical painting functions in older as opposed to more recent works. That phrase is found in the following sentence in his essay:
''"The Old Masters had sensed that it was necessary to preserve what is called the integrity of the picture plane: that is, to signify the enduring presence of flatness underneath and above the most vivid illusion of three-dimensional space."''
Greenberg seems to be referring to the way painting relates to the picture plane in both the modern period and the "Old Master" period.
Clement Greenberg, "Modernist Painting"
/ref>
See also
* Image plane
* Perspective projection
* Projection plane
References
* James C. Morehead Jr. (1911
Perspective and Projective Geometries: A Comparison
from Rice University
William Marsh Rice University, commonly referred to as Rice University, is a Private university, private research university in Houston, Houston, Texas, United States. Established in 1912, the university spans 300 acres.
Rice University comp ...
.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Picture Plane
Perspective projection
Planes (geometry)