[ovi256]

The intellectual rights on the painting (can anyone reproduce it, in say, print, without the rightholder's agreement) are quite separate from the property rights on the physical embodiment of the painting.

Literature is closer to music in this aspect, as neither has any physical property. Copyright on both is limited.

[sjwright]

And if someone invents a way of creating nominally perfect three dimensional reproductions of paintings, such copies would be legal.