In this paper, I go back to Bas van Fraassen’s seminal discussion of perspectivity in the context of scientific representation. I distinguish between two possible ways of locating the perspectival nature of the representation by drawing an analogy between art and science. I highlight a tension between what I call the representationalist assumption and the perspectivalist assumption and I discuss the role of indexicality in mitigating the tension. The perspectival nature of the representation challenges some deep assumptions about how scientific models represent reality; and, ultimately, it points to the need of rethinking traditional ways of asking questions about realism in science.