Themes > Arts > Painting > Painting Principles and Techniques > Depth or Distance Cues > Interposition



Madonna of the Magnificat by Sandro Botticelli

Notice the foreground figures, which are all that are important for our present purposes. Here relative size and even relative height play little role in giving the depth order of the various figures (all the figures are roughly the same level and same size). Shadowing plays an important role in giving each of the figures their sense of three-dimensionality, but to tell who is in what position relative to another, the principle cue is interposition.


copyrightkrantzj@hanover.edu    John H. Krantz, Ph.D.
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