A vanishing point is a point in a perspective

Perspective (graphical)

Perspective in the graphic arts, such as drawing, is an approximate representation, on a flat surface , of an image as it is seen by the eye...

 drawing to which parallel lines

Parallel lines

Parallel Lines may refer to:*Parallel , two straight lines that never touch* Parallel Lines, an album by Blondie*Driver: Parallel Lines, a video game...

 not parallel to the image plane appear to converge. The number and placement of the vanishing points determines which perspective technique is being used. The concept was first used by Renaissance artists such as Donatello

Donatello

Donato di Niccolò di Betto Bardi , also known as Donatello, was an early Renaissance Italian artist and sculptor from Florence...

, Masaccio

Masaccio

Masaccio , born Tommaso di Ser Giovanni di Simone, was the first great painter of the Quattrocento period of the Italian Renaissance. According to Vasari, Masaccio was the best painter of his generation because of his skill at recreating lifelike figures and movements as well as a convincing sense...

 and Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci was an Italian Renaissance polymath: painter, sculptor, architect, musician, scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, cartographer, botanist and writer whose genius, perhaps more than that of any other figure, epitomized the Renaissance...

.

• linear perspective
  Perspective (graphical)
  Perspective in the graphic arts, such as drawing, is an approximate representation, on a flat surface , of an image as it is seen by the eye...
  
   is a drawing with 1-3 vanishing points.
• curvilinear perspective
  Curvilinear perspective
  Curvilinear perspective is a graphical projection used to draw 3D objects on 2D surfaces. It was formally codified in 1968 by the artists and art historians André Barre and Albert Flocon in the book La Perspective curviligne, which was translated into English in 1987 as Curvilinear Perspective:...
  
   is a drawing with either 4 or 5 vanishing points, in 5 point perspective the vanishing points are mapped into a circle with 4 vanishing points at the cardinal headings N,W,S,E and one at the circle origin.
• reverse perspective
  Reverse perspective
  Reverse perspective, also called inverse perspective, inverted perspective or Byzantine perspective, is a convention of perspective drawing where the further the objects are, the larger they are drawn. The lines diverge against the horizon, rather than converge as in linear perspective...
  
   is a drawing with vanishing points that are placed outside the painting with the illusion that they are "in front of" the painting.

Vanishing points can also refer to the point in the distance where the two verges of a road

Road

A road is a thoroughfare, route, or way on land between two places, which typically has been paved or otherwise improved to allow travel by some conveyance, including a horse, cart, or motor vehicle. Roads consist of one, or sometimes two, roadways each with one or more lanes and also any...

 appear to converge. This is often used to help assess the upcoming curves in the road; to judge the radius

Radius

In classical geometry, a radius of a circle or sphere is any line segment from its center to its perimeter. By extension, the radius of a circle or sphere is the length of any such segment, which is half the diameter. If the object does not have an obvious center, the term may refer to its...

and therefore the entry speed and optimum line. If the vanishing point moves towards you or to your sides, the curve is tightening. If the vanishing point moves away from you or comes to center, the curve is straightening.

External links

• Geometry of the Vanishing Point at Convergence