Oftentimes, it is difficult for artists to capture a wide and distant view within the confines of a canvas or wall. The artist must decide which objects should be altered and which details should be left out. Throughout history, scenery has had varying levels importance and significance in different cultures. While the Greeks used trees and rocks merely as a setting for human figures, Chinese artists believed that the landscape was the most important aspect in their paintings because they could portray the infiniteness of God. For the Egyptians, the scene was like a map, and different shapes could be used to represent the objects in the scene. Nature in Roman paintings could be illustrations of poems and stories, and also depicted land that had been conquered. 15^th century Western European paintings began incorporating fields, mountains, and skies as background. Artists began to develop a formula to quickly draw landscapes as they grew in popularity. They would paint a dark cottage or tree in the foreground, and then alternate between light and dark areas to carry the eye to the horizon. In the early 19^th century, English men began commissioning artists to create paintings of their properties and this led to the exploration and experimentation with color in a landscape. For example, John Constable, the most famous English landscapist of the time, used fresher shades in his paintings. This detailed and colorful style of landscape was brought to the United States. Prior to the 19^th century, the landscape was relatively unimportant in paintings, but as cities became well-established and the nation gained its independence, a new patriotism allowed for a growth of interest in the countryside, resulting in paintings of the Rocky Mountains, the Hudson River, and other natural settings. Beyond showing the facts of the view, American artists took pride in portraying the enormity and plentifulness of their land. Romantic paintings depicted the magnificence of the West, which were often enjoyed by those who lived in the cities. During the mid-19^th century, artists turned to a more intimate view of the outdoors with paintings of gardens and fields, rather than immense mountain and forest scenes. Artists began to change and adjust reality to incorporate their own expression into the paintings, such as in Van Gogh’s “Starry Night” or Cezanne’s “Mont Sainte-Victoire.” Paintings have the ability to show viewers a new way of “seeing,” to refine our perception, and give us a greater understanding of the connection between man and nature.

Another challenge for artists is depicting a group of people in action. In both Mesopotamian and Egyptian wall art, people were often depicted in profile, resulting in a slight distortion of space. In some Greek artwork from the 5^th century B.C., bodies were given some three dimensional qualities and in several Italian mosaics and paintings, depict the contrast of light and dark, with shadow and depth. Perspective is often an issue for artists when trying to accurately paint something. In ancient times, artists often did not consider vanishing points and horizon lines, and although Greeks and Romans desired a realistic depiction in their art, they did not figure out a vanishing-point perspective technique. Artists started to study vision in the scientific sense in the 15^th century, and new laws were formulated on the relations of sizes and shapes in space, which challenged the preexisting concepts of Italian artists and architects. Paolo Uccello attempted to paint a room with a vanishing point exactly in the center of image, however, because of errors in his calculations and the constantly moving eyes of a human, the painting does not look accurate. Albrecht Duhrer also tried to construct a system of scientific accuracy in painting, and while it works well for smaller objects, it can be problematic for closer and larger views. Fascination with perspective and foreshortening during the Renaissance led to many experiments between spectators and paintings and by the 17^th century, perspective had been mastered, allowing for extremely well-executed depictions of figures in space. Japanese and Chinese artists use a technique known as “isometric perspective,” rather than vanishing point perspective. In the 18^th century Japanese painting “Women Airing Books,” the artist does not use shadows nor does he foreshorten. This technique has been adopted by the Western world for showing the structure of buildings because it allows one to see both the inside and outside of the building. There are variety of different ways to represent space and each system has its own advantages.