The Last Supper "The School of Athens,"
Raphael Sanzio

This great artwork is based on a one-point linear perspective system. All the major receding "lines" of the subject are actually parallel, yet visually they appear to converge at a single vanishing point on the horizon line, at the end of the hall. Can you see the power of lines?

 

Sun Beams Physical models of lines: sun beams

Straight Lines

What is a line? Suspending a heavy object on a string demonstrates a straight line. In geometry, the path of a point, moving in opposite directions infinitely, forms a straight line. A line has neither width nor thickness but length.

A line is often named by a lowercase letter, such as line m.

Image

If the line contains points A and B, then the line can be denoted as Image or Image. Arrows are drawn on each end of the line to suggest that it continues forever. A line can be drawn using a straightedge.

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