Abstract
Perspective inversion reverses the flow of naturalistic pictorial space, creating a disorienting, anti-naturalistic sense of space. Inverted perspective's subversive power appears limited, however, given that no art-historical examples depict fully inverted objects in systematically inverted “unlimited spaces,” such as landscapes. The author addresses this limitation through analysis of “converse” and “pseudoscopic” 3D images—Charles Wheat-stone's two paradigms for inverting binocular depth. Wheatstone's inverted imagery proves geometrically identical to 3D art-historical precedents that conceal their perspective inversion: namely, relief sculpture, set design and architecture employing three-dimensionally “forced” perspective. As hinted by depth-inverted stereograms, linear perspective employed together with reversed overlapping cues systematically inverts unlimited space in both 2D and 3D pictures.