Satire on False Perspective

Infobox Painting

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title=Satire on False Perspective
artist=William Hogarth
year=1754
type=engraving
museum=

"Satire on False Perspective" is the title of an engraving produced by William Hogarth in 1754.

The intent of the work is clearly given by the subtitle:

The work shows a scene that provides many deliberate examples of confused and misplaced perspective effects. The lower part of an inn-sign belonging to a building in the foreground is obscured by a line of trees in the distance, a woman leans out of a foreground window to light the pipe of a traveller on a distant hillside, a bird perched on a treetop whose size seems reasonable in the main picture would have to be several feet high if we compare it to the tree, and so on.

Although the individual components of the scene seem self-consistent, the scene itself can be classed as an example of an impossible object.

Partial list of "Errors"

The most immediately prominent errors are the first three or four:

* The man in the foreground's fishing rod's line passes behind that of the man behind him.
* The sign is moored to two buildings, one in front of the other, with beams that show no difference in depth
* The sign is overlapped by two distant trees.
* The man climbing the hill is lighting his pipe with the candle of the woman leaning out of the upper story window.
* The crow perched on the tree is massive in comparison to it.
* The church appears to front onto the river. Both ends of the church are viewable at the same time.
* The left horizon on the water declines precipitously.
* The man in the boat under the bridge fires at the swan on the other side, which is impossible as he's aiming straight at the bridge abutments.
* The two story building, though viewed from below shows the top of the roof. As does the church tower in the distance.
* The barrel closest to the foreground fisherman reveals both its top and bottom simultaneously.
* The tiles the foreground fisherman stands on have a vanishing point that converge towards the viewer.
* A tree is growing out of the top of the bridge.
* The vanishing point for the near side of the first building transforms midway down the wall.
* The line of trees obscuring the sign are likely representative of how objects should decrease in scale as they move further away, but in this case reversed.
* The sheep on the left-hand side increase in scale as they get further away.
* The swan behind the boat is larger than the men manning the boat.

Aside from the impossibilities of scale there are in fact approximately 10 different horizons based on the various vanishing points.