The existence of these two 
stages of the perceptual 
processing of pictures is even 
more evident in a more complex 
example. Suppose the artist has 
represented a dish containing 
pieces of fruit resting on a 
table, as did Cezanne in the 
accompanying still life.  The 
dish is only partly visible 
because the fruit covers some of 
its edges.  Nevertheless, to 
represent the dish in proper 
perspective, Cezanne painted 
an elliptical figure on the 
canvas, as is clear in the still 
life. If we view the picture from 
a position to the side, that 
partial ellipse becomes more 
nearly circular or, possibly, an 
elliptical image whose vertical 
axis is longer than its 
horizontal one (the opposite of 
what the artist has drawn). In 
order to know the shape that 
the figure is intended to 
represent, we first must 
achieve shape constancy for 
the drawn figure by perceiving 
it as an ellipse whose 
horizontal axis is longer than 
its vertical one. Only then can 
we process the perceived shape 
to recover what it represents in 
the scene depicted. The 
perceived elliptical shape is 
now perceived as a circular 
dish. Of course, we will achieve 
constancy for the object 
represented only if the 
necessary information about 
depth is conveyed in the 
painting. Were just the dish 
outline visible, it would simply 
look like an ellipse in a 
vertical plane. We are not 
aware of these stages of 
processing and thus experience 
the dish as a circular object 
more or less immediately.