The study of children's drawings and of the conceptions that have dominated its inquiry over the last one hundred years can be divided into two major periods. The first publications devoted to child art and its systematic exploration appeared around the turn of the century. They fostered a new appreciation of children's drawings which were now valued for their illumination of the mental life of children. Viewed within a developmental framework, the drawings provided a chronicle of the steps the human mind takes from what was seen as a primitive state to a phase of intellectual enlightenment. Thus, the collection of children's drawings became a respected endeavor, and many longitudinal and cross-sectional studies were undertaken.1 The great value of these pioneering studies lies in their description of the developmental phases in drawing, that is, in the basic information they provide about the subject matter. The so-called peculiarities of children's drawings, for example, the omission of parts and their misplacement, the so-called transparencies, the odd proportions and disregard for the relative size of figures, the schematic nature of the drawings and the absence of realism, were all seen as typical manifestations of an immature and confused mind. Although investigators might differ in their specific interpretation or theoretical formulation, a consensus emerged regarding the na-