Of course the cylindrical canvas is necessary for panoramas; but we have, as a rule, to paint our pictures and wall-decorations on flat surfaces, and therefore must adapt our work to these conditions.
In all cases the artist must exercise his own judgement both in the arrangement of his design and the execution of the work, for there is perspective even in the touch--a painting to be looked at from a distance requires a bold and broad handling; in small cabinet pictures that we live with in our own rooms we look for the exquisite workmanship of the best masters.
There is a pretty story of two lovers which is sometimes told as the origin of art; at all events, I may tell it here as the origin of sciagraphy. A young shepherd was in love with the daughter of a potter, but it so happened that they had to part, and were passing their last evening together, when the girl, seeing the shadow of her lover's profile cast from a lamp on to some wet plaster or on the wall, took a metal point, perhaps some sort of iron needle, and traced the outline of the face she loved on to the plaster, following carefully the outline of the features, being naturally anxious to make it as like as possible. The old potter, the father of the girl, was so struck with it that he began to ornament his wares by similar devices, which gave them increased value by the novelty and beauty thus imparted to them.
Here then we have a very good illustration of our present subject and its three elements. First, the light shining on the wall; second, the wall or the plane of projection, or plane of shade; and third, the intervening object, which receives as much light on itself as it deprives the wall of. So that the dark portion thus caused on the plane of shade is the cast shadow of the intervening object.
We have to consider two sorts of shadows: those cast by a luminary a long way off, such as the sun; and those cast by artificial light, such as a lamp or candle, which is more or less close to the object. In the first case there is no perceptible divergence of rays, and the outlines of the sides of the shadows of regular objects, as cubes, posts, &c., will be parallel. In the second case, the rays diverge according to the nearness of the light, and consequently the lines of the shadows, instead of being parallel, are spread out.