picture plane

American  

noun

1. the plane of a painting, drawing, or the like, that is in the extreme foreground of a picture, is coextensive with but not the same as the material surface of the work, is the point of visual contact between the viewer and the picture, and is conceived as a major structural element in the production of abstract or illusionistic forms.

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Etymology

Origin of picture plane

First recorded in 1790–1800

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

picture plane

They seem to be lowering Christ’s corpse, which is thrust forward from the picture plane, onto the altar below the painting.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 27, 2026

They sit on the surface rather than carving into and out of the picture plane in the ways that make de Kooning’s work so spatially exciting.

From Washington Post ● Apr. 27, 2023

Gloopy 3D-printed sculptures of melted dogs and turtles, as though escaped from the picture plane, amplify the allegorical mood.

From New York Times ● Jan. 4, 2023

Taylor pumps life into the static picture plane, which creates a visual friction that can make the figures he chooses riveting to see.

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 8, 2022

The pane of glass thus constitutes the picture plane, and the image drawn on to it can then be copied on to another surface.

From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton