Antoniazzo Romano's The Annunciation

From essay written Oct. 1977, freshman year at Simmons College, which is located next door to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. The paper's been kicking around my desk for the last week (ahoy), resonating with me. Turned on 17-3 this morning, caught glimpses of documentary on the evolving art of origami. Representing three-dimensionality with a two-dimensional surface - where had I just recently read that?

... All the lines in the painting systematically converge to the vanishing point, creating an illusion of three-dimensional space. The lines direct the eye through an arcaded passage in the background affording a view of a mountainous countryside in the distance. By way of this perspective, all the elements of the painting are related geometrically by size and position, and Mary and Gabriel seem to have room in which to move. Furthermore, the perspective conforms to Plato's idea of a picture: representing three-dimensionality on a two-dimensional surface...