The first thing in painting is that the objects it represents should
appear in relief, and that the grounds surrounding them at different
distances shall appear within the vertical plane of the foreground
of the picture by means of the 3 branches of Perspective, which are:
the diminution in the distinctness of the forms of the objects, the
diminution in their magnitude; and the diminution in their colour.
And of these 3 classes of Perspective the first results from [the
structure of] the eye, while the other two are caused by the
atmosphere which intervenes between the eye and the objects seen by
it.

Quote taken from page 17 of The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci. Delivered daily by RSS thanks to Matt Webb and Project Gutenberg.

Image taken from one of my old sketchbooks.