Hubert Damisch is Emeritus Professor of the History and Theory of Art at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris. Over the course of a long and distinguished career, he has held posts at Cornell University, Columbia University, and the Center for Advanced Studies in the Visual Arts, Washington. He is the author of "The Origin of Perspective", "The Judgment of Paris", "Skyline: The Narcissistic City", and "A Theory of Cloud: Toward a History of Painting".