Reverse perspective, also called inverse perspective, inverted perspective or Byzantine perspective, is a convention of perspective drawing where the further the objects are, the larger they are drawn. The lines diverge against the horizon, rather than converge as in linear perspective. Technically, the vanishing points are placed outside the painting with the illusion that they are "in front of" the painting.

The name Byzantine perspective comes from the use of this perspective in Byzantine

Byzantine art

Byzantine art is the term commonly used to describe the artistic products of the Byzantine Empire from about the 5th century until the Fall of Constantinople in 1453....

 and Russian Orthodox

Russian Orthodox Church

The Russian Orthodox Church or, alternatively, the Moscow Patriarchate The ROC is often said to be the largest of the Eastern Orthodox churches in the world; including all the autocephalous churches under its umbrella, its adherents number over 150 million worldwide—about half of the 300 million...

 icon

Icon

An icon is a religious work of art, most commonly a painting, from Eastern Christianity and in certain Eastern Catholic churches...

s; it is also found in East Asian art, and was sometimes used in Cubism

Cubism

Cubism was a 20th century avant-garde art movement, pioneered by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, that revolutionized European painting and sculpture, and inspired related movements in music, literature and architecture...

 and other movements of modern art

Modern art

Modern art includes artistic works produced during the period extending roughly from the 1860s to the 1970s, and denotes the style and philosophy of the art produced during that era. The term is usually associated with art in which the traditions of the past have been thrown aside in a spirit of...

. The reasons for the convention are still debated among art historians; since the artists concerned in forming the convention did not have access to the more realistic linear perspective convention it is not clear how deliberate the effects achieved were. The scheme shows the image content as opening up and expanding, increasing the viewer's sense of awe. One interpretation is that as the vanishing point

Vanishing point

A vanishing point is a point in a perspective drawing to which parallel lines not parallel to the image plane appear to converge. The number and placement of the vanishing points determines which perspective technique is being used...

 of the perspective scheme is near the viewer, it shows God looking upon him, rather than the viewer looking upon God. It displays the spiritual rather than the physical reality.

An alternative interpretation would be that as God

God

God is the English name given to a singular being in theistic and deistic religions who is either the sole deity in monotheism, or a single deity in polytheism....

 is omnipresent

Omnipresence

Omnipresence or ubiquity is the property of being present everywhere. According to eastern theism, God is present everywhere. Divine omnipresence is thus one of the divine attributes, although in western theism it has attracted less philosophical attention than such attributes as omnipotence,...

, his view converges from everywhere, rather than scanning out from a point. According to this interpretation, the reverse perspective would be imitative of the conception and/or sensorium of God.

A practical effect of reverse perspective is that since our vision has its greatest acuity at the focus, a visual representation which enlarges things which are not at the center will tend to even out the lack of discernment of detail, thus aiding in the envisionment of the image as a gestalt.

Other uses of the term

The term reverse perspective confusingly may also be used of a rather different convention, found in the Art of Ancient Egypt

Art of Ancient Egypt

Ancient Egyptian art is the painting, sculpture, architecture and other arts produced by the civilization in the lower Nile Valley from 5000 BC to 300 AD. Ancient Egyptian art reached a high level in painting and sculpture, and was both highly stylized and symbolic...

 and other cultures, and also known as vertical perspective, where minor scenes at the bottom of a painted image or carved relief

Relief

Relief is a sculptural technique. The term relief is from the Latin verb levo, to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is thus to give the impression that the sculpted material has been raised above the background plane...

 are shown at a far smaller scale than the main figures higher up. This system should not be understood as an attempt to convey any visual reality in the connection between the sections at different scales, whose size is dictated by their relative importance.

The term reverse perspective can also refer to the work of Patrick Hughes

Patrick Hughes (artist)

Patrick Hughes is a British artist working in London. He is the creator of "reverspective", an optical illusion on a 3-dimensional surface where the parts of the picture which seem farthest away are actually physically the nearest....

. Reverse perspective in this context refers to the illusion that is created when the two dimensional perspective of a painting is reversed by the three dimensional relief on which it is painted. The effect is to confuse the brain such that a completely false image is created that appears "to move" with the viewer.

External links

• A brief video demonstrating consistent reverse perspective