These lines, drawn over Durer's scene, clearly demonstrates that the artist used a consistant one-point perspective system. The (red) vertical and horizontal lines cross at the vanishing point, and all the (yellow) recessional lines go to that point. The cubic volume supporting the interior column (to the left) has its vertical and horizontal edges outlined in green. One can begin to sense its distortion at this distance from the vanishing point which is to the far right in the image space. The drawback to this one-point perspective system is the distortions that grow as objects are depicted at a diagonal remove from the vanishing point. For these objects, its one-point system induces their distortions. But there are other one-point systems that render more interesting "distortions" out of different assumptions. Click here to the next page. Back to home