Cross section of a tree

I took this photo on walk in Devon. A dead tree stands directly in front of a leafy one. The combination looks as if someone has split one tree down the middle, as Damien Hirst would his sheep and cows.

On this plate, the trees is painted in a similar way.  The branches are drawn first, and the leaves added as if they exist only in the same plane, and not in a voluminous three dimensional space.

Dish. Charles II hiding in oak tree, flanked by lion and unicorn. English. c.1680
© The Trustees of the British Museum