Abstract

Panofsky and White hypothezised that « axial constructions » result from a projective system in which object’s measurements are taken on an projection circle, before being moved to the picture plane (i.e. synthetic perspective). Although this construction has been yet criticized regarding painter’s ability to apply it, the idea of using synthetic perspective regularly reappears for it never has been examined in detail. But from a mathematical point of view, this system is simply impossible because, in a synthetic perspective, three vanishing lines taken on the same side of the axis cannot be parallel nor admit a convergence point. The falsification of Panofsky-White’s conjecture puts and end to a long series of contradictory judgements on this problem, and opens the way to a radical reinterpretation of axial constructions.