ABSTRACT
Realism is relative, determined by the system of representation standard for a given culture or person at a given time. "Realism" often comes to be used as the name for a particular style or system of representation. Shifts in standard can occur rather rapidly. The very effectiveness that may attend judicious departure from a traditional system of representation sometimes inclines at least temporarily to install the newer mode as standard. Whether an object is "really fixed" or a picture is realistic depends at any time entirely upon what frame or mode is then standard. Realism is a matter not of any constant or absolute relationship between a picture and its object but of a relationship between the system of representation employed in the picture and the standard system. Representational customs, which govern realism, also tend to generate resemblance.
