"What is striking about the scene of John's first encounter with Madeline is the way in which she is presented to the audience and to John: by means of an explicit profile, which makes her appear like a work of art. Later on, the profile shot will gain significance, when it is explicitly related to Carlotta Valdes' portrait in the museum that Madeline visits during her vagaries. The equation of Madeline to a work of art also reveals her true nature. As a work of art Madeline is on the one
hand easily accessible, because she is passive and an object of the male gaze, on the other hand, she is completely inaccessible as a human being. (Wood: 384) One cannot have a love affair with a work of art, unless a very perverse one."

(from: Vertigo. A vertiginous gap in reality and a woman who doesn't exist
		Author: Joyce Huntjens Published: January 2003