Art Encyclopedia - Plane

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Plane
In two-dimensional art, plane refers to a flat or level surface of a material body which can also be imagined in space.

The picture plane is the extreme front edge of the imaginary space in the picture. The picture plane can be thought of as being like a plate of glass behind which pictorial devices are used to render the elements of the picture in depth.

In three-dimensional art, a plane surface is flat like the faces of a cube or pyramid, but sculptors also use the term for any area of a surface which is distinguishable as a seperate part and which faces in more or less one direction, even though it is not completely flat.

Planes of reference are imaginary planes to which the position, direction, and movement of the axes and surfaces of the forms of three-dimensional objects may be related. The three principal planes of reference are the frontal, the horizontal and the profile planes. These planes are mutually perpendicular. They provide a complete spatial frame of reference for the forms of the sculpture. Like the vertical and horizontal axes they provide fixed positions and directions from which other positions and directions are regarded as deviations and against which movement may be measured.