The brushstrokes in Vincent 
van Gogh’s Road with Cypresses 
and Stars are so noticeable that 
one is likely to have an 
awareness of the painting’s 
surface simultaneous with an 
awareness of what is 
represented.

    This last point brings us to 
the very essence of the 
perception of pictures: namely, 
a dual awareness that we have 
as we look at them. At least in 
the case of viewing 
representational art—–that is, 
art intended to represent 
objects or scenes realistically—–
we perceive the scene or object 
that is depicted, generally 
three-dimensionally, and we 
perceive the lines, markings, 
or colors of the picture itself 
and the two-dimensional 
surface on which these appear. 
The philosopher Michael 
Polanyi referred to our 
consciousness of the 
characteristics of the surface 
of a picture as "subsidiary 
awareness," in contrast to our 
"focal awareness" of the 
objects represented. One can, of 
course, reverse this state of 
affairs by focusing on the brush 
strokes and markings as such. 
It is important to keep this dual 
awareness in mind if we are to 
understand the nature of 
picture perception. In this 
chapter, I will consider some of 
the questions that arise about 
perceiving and drawing 
representational pictures: Why 
do we see some 
representational pictures as 
distorted and others not? Why 
do we see representational 
pictures as likenesses of 
reality? Why is 
representational drawing so 
difficult for most of us? In 
exploring these questions, I 
will restrict the discussion to 
Western, representational art 
such as that which 
characterizes Renaissance and 
post-Renaissance realism.