Abstract
We address the topic of “pictorial depth” in cases of pictures that are unlike photographic renderings. The most basic measure of “depth” is no doubt that of depth order. We establish depth order through the pairwise depth-comparison method, involving all pairs from a set of 49 fiducial points. The pictorial space for this study was evoked by a capriccio (imaginary landscape) by Francesco Guardi (1712–1793). In such a drawing pictorial space is suggested by the artist through a small set of conventional depth cues. As a result typical Western observers tend to agree largely in their visual awareness when looking at such art. We rank depths for locations that are not on a single surface and far apart in pictorial space. We find that observers resolve about 40 distinct depth layers and agree largely in this. From a previous experiment we have metrical data for the same observers. The rank correlations between the results are high. Perhaps surprisingly, we find no correlation between the number of distinct depth layers and the total metrical depth range. Thus, the relation between subjective magnitude and discrimination threshold fails to hold for pictorial depth.
Highlights
For the human observer “pictures” may give rise to a number of categorically different modes of experience (Gombrich 1960).The most basic mode is that of the awareness of the picture as a physical object (Denis 2000), such as a piece of paper, a framed painting, the screen of a laptop computer or television set, a billboard, and so forth
The method explored here allows us to address this conceptually important question. Another issue that we address is that of the very “existence” of pictorial space
We find that the observers distinguished about 38 levels of the 49 point set and had a typical standard deviation of about one-and-a-half level
Summary
The most basic mode is that of the awareness of the picture as a physical object (Denis 2000), such as a piece of paper, a framed painting, the screen of a laptop computer or television set, a billboard, and so forth. In this mode pictures may have sizes and weights; they can sometimes be attached to walls, sometimes be carried about, stored in cupboards, switched off, and more. When people discuss their holiday snapshots, they as a matter talk of what is in these pictures, not about the physical properties of them
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