Sometime in the late 80s or early 90s, the BBC ran a documentary by David Hockney in which he analysed a famous Chinese scroll with the catchy title 'The Kangxi Emperor's Southern Inspection Tour (1691-1698), scroll seven', about 72 feet long.

'David Hockney looked at this Chinese canvas, and you're not going to believe what he saw'. Much better title.

I saw it when it aired and was very impressed. Hockney's fascination with perspective would return years later with the Hockney-Falco Thesis.

The lack of Renaissance perspective was shown to be not a 'lack' as a westerner might assume. The absense of depth allows a god's-eye view of the scene, and Hockney spends a great amount of time navigating over the scroll, showing the possibilities of the different visual scheme.

Milestone films has released a re-mastered DVD of the documentary, in 1080p!

You can see a short clip below, to get the gist: