Single point perspective

Realistic drawing relies heavily on the principle that parallel lines receding into a picture appear to converge on the horizon at a single spot, known as the vanishing point.

Single-point perspective is one of the simplest ways of representing a realistic space and was the main system practised by artists from the Renaissance up to the early 20th century. Paintings and drawings based on the single-point system have an impact of their own. Placing objects in key positions near the vanishing point ensures that the eye is drawn to them by the Raphael attracted the viewer’s gaze to a single point in what is quite a complex grouping of figures by making all the receding lines converge at the single vanishing point, where Plato holds a book in his left hand.