Central perspective resembles optical projection more closely than other methods of depth representation, but it cannot be said to offer the closest equivalent, in the two-dimensional medium, of the way space is experienced in the visual environment. On the contrary, it involves more severe distortions of shape and size, as they are commonly perceived, than any other procedure. It is for this reason that it developed so rarely and so late. Very special cultural conditions must override the constraints it imposes on the painter’s natural perception of space. Once the technique has been mastered by realistic painting or photography, observers can be induced, sometimes not without initial trouble, to treat its products as duplicates of the world at large.

Arnhiem pp. 183-184