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+

THE ILLUSORY

SPACE

FROM PERSPECTIVE TO ANAMORPHOSIS

+ FIRST PART:

THE ILLUSORY SPACE:

OVERVIEW AND OUTLINE OF

PERSPECTIVE REPRESENTATION

+ PERSPECTIVE AND REPRESENTATION

IN GREEK AND ROMAN CULTURE

Then the curvatures of the

vision, ignored in planar

perspective, were well

known to the ancient

world.

Fragments of

decorated walls

(from Pompeii), I

century. A.C. -

National Museum of

Naples -

Reconstruction of the

perspective paths

Analysis of the eye bending applied to perspective

The classical antiquity was used to seeing in perspective but

not according to planar perspective.

+ Vitruvius uses the word Scaenographia to remember the existence of a kind of

representation that is different from Ichnographia (the plan) and Ortographia

(the elevation) specifying that it is the drawing : ...

“... of the front and sides foreshortened, with the convergence of all lines in the

center of a circle ... “

Most of the Roman wall paintings show approximate perspective solutions. In

fact, we have no certainty of a true prospective system.

PERSPECTIVE AND REPRESENTATION IN GREEK AND

ROMAN WORLD

Graphic reconstruction of the perspective paths,

tending to a vanishing area

Wall of the "Room of the Masks", house of Augustan

age on the Palatine Hill in Rome

+ PERSPECTIVE

PROGRESS IN THE

MIDDLE AGES

Giotto di Bondone,

was an Italian

painter and

architect.

At the end of thirteenth and

early fourteenth century,

painting fetches a specific

solidity of forms.

With Giotto the two-

dimensional surface is

transformed in illusory three-

dimensional environment, in

"spatial box” suitable to

contain subjects that hold

mass and volume.

Giotto, Innocent III confirms the Franciscan

rule (1299 - Upper Church of San Francesco,

Assisi).

+

The orthogonal lines

converge towards a vanishing

axis

PERSPECTIVE PROGRESS IN THE MIDDLE AGES

+

Notice the convergence in a

precise vanishing point of

lines and planes located

above the eye level

PERSPECTIVE PROGRESS IN THE MIDDLE AGES

+ THE RENAISSANCE: ART AND SCIENCE

FILIPPO BRUNELLESCHI AND ENCODING OF

PERSPECTIVE

The first experiments from which the rules were encoded

are due to the Florentine architect Filippo Brunelleschi, who,

came to the idea of getting the illusionist image of the real

through the process of "Cutting off the visual pyramid“.

Filippo Brunelleschi, conveyed the principles of

perspective to the artists of his circle and invented "the first

rule of perspective“: the process whereby, it was possible to

determine precisely the perspective image.

Thanks to this rule

we can retrace his

operative method,

which determined

the intersection of

the visual rays

proceeding from

the plan and from

the elevation.

To this method was

then given the

name of "legitimate

construction”.

The visual pyramid

was formed by the

visual rays ranging

from the eye of the

observer at

various points of

the observed

objects Filippo

Brunelleschi –

Legitimate

Construction

+ FROM PERSPECTIVE

TO OPTICAL CAMERA:

THE “BRUNELLESCHIAN

PLANKS”

Operating assumptions of the first plank:

it represented the Baptistery of Florence

seen from the door of S. Maria del Fiore.

To focus the chosen point of view with

that of the observer, a hole had been

drilled in the plank. Looking through the

hole, the viewer saw the painting

reflected in a mirror placed in front of

the painting.

Filippo Brunelleschi

devised a perspective

machine, that was lost,

to give a

demonstration of the

procedure which

portrayed the

Baptistery of Florence.

The mechanism shows

how to perform a

perspective: the

observer is located

behind the painting

and looks through a

hole at the image

reflected on a mirror

placed at the right

distance.

+ FROM PERSPECTIVE TO OPTICAL CAMERA: THE

“BRUNELLESCHIAN PLANKS”

visual effect of the first plank -

Graphic reconstruction of

Brunelleschi's perspective plank

with the Baptistery of San

Giovanni (assuming Luigi Vagnetti)

Reconstruction of the first

plank of Brunelleschi,

Florence, Institute and

Museum of History of

Science

+ PERSPECTIVE OF THE

FIFTEENTH CENTURY – THE

DISCIPLES OF NATURE

Masaccio - Trinity

in Santa Maria

Novella, Florence

1427. Detail.

Masaccio was an Italian painter.

He was one of the performers of

Renaissance in Florence, renewing

the painting according to a new

rigorous vision, revisited through

the perspective construction of

Brunelleschi.

Giorgio Vasari wrote that, besides

other things, Masaccio should be

remembered as the inventor of

perspective

In a note Leonardo calls him and

Giotto "disciples of Nature". The

message is clear: the imitation of

teachers leads to decay, while the

study of nature is the very lifeblood

of artistic creation.

Between 1426 and 1428 Masaccio painted

the fresco of the Trinity in Santa Maria

Novella

Detail of

Resurrezione del

figlio di Teofilo e san

Pietro in cattedra ,

Brancacci Chapel, S.

Maria del Carmine,

Florence. Presumed

self-portrait

+ THE TRINITY - SANTA MARIA NOVELLA, FLORENCE 1427

The work represents

the Trinitarian

dogma, set in an

illusionary painted

chapel, which stands

the impressive barrel

vault with coffers.

The painting, not

only reproduced the

reality according to

the visual

appearance, but took

the place of reality

itself, replicating in

real scale what the

observer would see

if in that place had

been a real chapel.

Masaccio's Trinity in Santa Maria Novella,

Florence 1427 - detail of the barrel vault with

lacunars, and of the coffin


The Trinity marks a

turning point in

history of

representation:

the painting is based

on the assumption

that space is an

infinite, continuous

and homogeneous

element,

and we see things

uniformly, with a

single and immobile

eye.

The vanishing point of the whole

representation is located on the feet

of Christ, like the point of view.

So as to make the viewer

participant, attracted to the attention

of the sacred scene.

The fact remains that the joined visual

and conceptual articulation remains

the body of Christ.

The guidelines of architecture

necessarily head the viewer's

eye on the figure of the crucified

Christ, supported by God the

Father and the dove of the Holy

Spirit in flight between the two

Graphical depiction of the

rules of perspective used in

the drawing of the Trinity.


Graphical depiction of

the fake architectural

space painted in the

Trinity by Masaccio. The

observer is located in

the central nave, but he

can also be in the

secondary ones.

It would be an understatement

considering perspective as a simple

collection of geometric rules.

Renaissance perspective is one of those

symbolic forms through which a

particular idea of the reality of the world

is connected to a particular visible sign

+ ALBRECHT DÜRER -

TOOLS TO DRAW IN

PERSPECTIVE

Albrecht Dürer

was a German

painter, engraver,

mathematician,

and theorist.

He was the

greatest

disseminator of

perspective

science

In his Treaty on the Measures,

Dürer illustrated the use of

certain devices to draw

perspectives mechanically.

The various versions of his

“hatch”, increasingly refined, are

illustrated in his famous

engravings, which represent four

practical procedures for the

construction of perspective

images. A.Durer, illustrations from Underweysung der Messung

(treaty of measures) , Nuremberg 1525, depicting the

technique of the 'veil'.

Let us consider one of these mechanical processes,

such as the one that is composed of a transparent

glass (the “veil”) placed vertically on a table and in

front of which there is a viewfinder indicating the

position of the eye.

In this way, the

sketcher did not

have to do

anything but

follow, on the

glass, with a

pencil, the outline

of the object to be

reproduced.

+ ALBRECHT DÜRER - TOOLS TO DRAW IN

PERSPECTIVE

A.Durer, illustration from Underweysung der Messung, Nuremberg 1525, depicting the

technique of graticule

Machines reproducing the

technique of the graticule


PERSPECTIVE

A.Durer, illustration from Underweysung der Messung,

Nuremberg 1525, depicting the technique of hatch

Machine

reproducing the

technique of the

hatch

If we use the hatch in the wrong position, by placing the glass

in an oblique position with respect to the main optical ray, we

will obtain a deformed reproduction of the object itself: an

anamorphosis


PERSPECTIVE

Albrecht Dürer; two engravings of tools for drawing in perspective intended to

illustrate the "Treaty on the measures" 1525.

Machine reproducing the

technique of the pantograph

+ LEONARDO DA

VINCI -

PERSPECTIVA

NATURALIS AND

PERSPECTIVA

ARTIFICIALIS

Portrait of a man in

red chalk (circa

1510), Royal

Library, Turin

Leonardo was the first to consider the use of a

non-geometric perspective, made of color, light

and shade, gradient and distances, expressed by

decreasing of tones rather than of lines, an "aerial

perspective" that responded perfectly to the

peculiar characteristics of his paintings.

Leonardo, The Cenacolo, ca. from 1495 to 1497.

Tempera and oil on plaster, 460x880 cm, Milan, the

refectory of Santa Maria delle Grazie

+ LEONARDO DA VINCI - PERSPECTIVA NATURALIS

AND PERSPECTIVA ARTIFICIALIS

Leonardo Da Vinci

(attributed) A

prospective study for the

background of the

Adoration of the Magi,

Florence, Uffizi Gallery,

the Cabinet of Drawings

and Prints

With the figure of Leonardo da Vinci (1482-1518) we definitely leave the field

of assumptions and hypotheses to arrive at one of certainties, because both

his notes and some of his drawings show the perfect acquisition of

anamorphosis.

For Leonardo, perspective is divided into 'natural' and 'accidental'.

'Natural' perspective concerns the phenomenon of vision, that is optics, the

'perspectiva naturalis'.

'Accidental' perspective instead is the representation of the visible artifact,

namely the 'perspectiva artificialis‘



Leonardo - example of

the three circles:

sections of three

columns of equal

measure, take very

different sizes if drawn

with the natural

perspective (curved)

rather than artificial

Leonardo's words are very clear and include an acute phenomenon

of 'marginal aberrations' in the example known of the three circles

Often the notes of Leonardo were

accompanied by drawings of his intuitions; in

one of these a simple diagram shows how

equal distances differentiate in perspective

foreshortening if the position of the point of

view is too close to the surface that receives

the projection

Leonardo, demonstration of perspective aberrations



Leonardo da Vinci Codex Atlanticus (1483-1518), anamorphic sketches

Finally, as a practical demonstration of theoretical speculation, there is still a

piece of the Codex Atlanticus, 35 verso-a, in which there are two

anamorphotic drawings of Leonardo, representing the head of a child and

one eye

+ SECOND PART:

THE ILLUSORY SPACE:

TWO EXAMPLES OF

ANAMORPHOSIS

+ PERSPECTIVE

HALLWAY AT THE

PROFESSED HOUSE

OF JESUS

THE PROFESSED

HOUSE OF JESUS -

ARCHITECTURE

The Professed House, wanted by Ignazio of

Loyola, was originally made of an old house.

The Jesuits settled there in 1544.

Ignazio lived there occupying a small apartment,

where he died in July 1556.

The Professed House, reduced in poor condition

by the flood of 1598, was rebuilt thanks to the

General Brother of the Society of Jesus, Claudio

Acquaviva.

Plan of Rome by G. Cartaro (left); and by Du Perac (right)

+

the professed house today

Before Acquaviva started the building, it was

decided to save the rooms where brother Ignazio

lived.

That decision involved the construction of a

complicated system of vaults under the existing

rooms to support their weight, then the

construction of the new building around them,

and finally their union to the fabric of the new

building.

The front side was completely rebuilt by Jacopo

Barozzi from Vignola.

Of the old building only the apartment of S.

Ignazio is preserved.

Few years later, the General Brother Gian Paolo

Oliva decided to decorate the hallway running

along the four rooms and commissioned the

painter Jacques Courtois, called Borgognone. The

premature death of the artist, left the work

unfinished and so, brother Oliva called Andrea

Pozzo, whose reputation of “perspective painter”

began to expand among the Jesuits.

THE PROFESSED HOUSE OF JESUS - ARCHITECTURE

+ PERSPECTIVE HALLWAY AT THE PROFESSED

HOUSE OF JESUS

ANDREA

POZZO -

ARTISTIC

LANGUAGE

Andrea Pozzo, self-portrait.

The painting is a kind of autobiography of the author:

under the left hand the Treaties of Leon Battista

Alberti, Sebastiano Serlio and Piero della Francesca;

beside these the compass and some architectural

drawings;

Bottom left, a palette with brushes;

the position of the right hand pointing to an

anamorphic perspective.

The meaning is as follows:

Andrea Pozzo is a researcher of architectural theory;

is a professional architect;

is a recognized painter;

and has the ability to paint the anamorphosis.

+

Andrea Pozzo, fake dome

of the Mission Church in

Mondovi

ANDREA POZZO - ARTISTIC LANGUAGE

Andrea Pozzo was born in

Trento in 1642. When he was

twenty-three, he joined the

Jesuit order but continued his

work as a painter.

He was already famous when

the Jesuit brothers of the college

of Mondovi asked him to fix

some problems in their church.

Pozzo painted a fake dome and

a series of architectural

elements to complete the real

architecture.

Among the Jesuits his work

aroused great interest, so

Andrea was called to Rome by

brother Oliva to entrust the

work left unfinished by

Borgognone: the Hallway of the

Professed House of Jesus.

+ PERSPECTIVE HALLWAY

AT THE PROFESSED

HOUSE OF JESUS

PICTORIAL AND

ARCHITECTURAL

WORKS IN THE

PERSPECTIVE

HALLWAY

The space where Andrea had to work is a barrel-

vaulted corridor with a slanting bottom wall, so it

has a very long trapezoidal plan: in fact, the left

side is 15.60 m long and the right is 18 m.

The main customer's request was to decorate the

environment in such a way that its irregularities

proved less evident.

So he prepared a project to enrich the bare side

walls, to break through the slanting wall and to

deform the space upwards, so as to make the

curvature of the vault indistinguishable.

Entrance wall and ceiling of

architecture designed by Pozzo

+ PERSPECTIVE HALLWAY

AT THE PROFESSED

HOUSE OF JESUS

PERSPECTIVE

OPERATIONS AND

METHODOLOGY

OF

INVESTIGATION

AN ANAMORPHIC VIRTUOSITY.

So far we have limited ourselves to a brief

description of the work.

The whole perspective building must have a

unique point of view, in perfect harmony with what

Pozzo wrote a few years later in his famous treatise.

This also applies to the shapes of angels and

cherubs, which are extended to appear perfect to

the observer, located at the precise point chosen

for the construction of the perspective.

anamorphosis of

angels and

cherubs

+ THE PROFESSED HOUSE OF JESUS - PERSPECTIVE

OPERATIONS AND METHODOLOGY OF

INVESTIGATION

architecture

design through

perspective -

slanted wall



INVESTIGATION

A.Pozzo,

exemplification of the

projection system of

'grate' on the vault,

from Perspectiva

Pictorum et

Architectorum, 1693

In Perspectiva pictorum et architectorum he explains his method:

He tends a grid of strings across the opening of the barrel vault, and, working

at night, he places a torch in the position of the observer’s eye, so that the

shadow of the strings is projected on the barrel vault.

Then he tracks with charcoal the lines defined by the shadows, so as to have a

grid in perspective which is adapted to the design previously prepared.



INVESTIGATION

operations as described by Pozzo in the treatise

This method is mostly valid in

theory because in practical

terms the operation is carried

out using a wire which assumes

the function of a single light

beam of a hypothetical torch.

The result is amazing.

+ PERSPECTIVE

GALLERY IN

PALAZZO SPADA

CAPODIFERRO

PALAZZO SPADA

CAPODIFERRO

AND THE SPADA

CARDINAL –

ARCHITECTURE

Cardinal Bernardino Spada purchased Palazzo

Capodiferro, which was restored and embellished

by mandating Francesco Borromini also for some

decorative work.

In 1636 the Cardinal got to incorporate in its

properties the adjacent vicolo dell'Arcaccio,

which was closed to transit by Capodiferro

square, and used as a coach house to via Giulia.

Plan of Rome by Du Perac

+ PALAZZO SPADA CAPODIFERRO AND THE SPADA

CARDINAL – ARCHITECTURE

The fact that led Bernardino Spada to

change his mind on the appearance of

his garden, leaving the painting, was the

offering for sale in January-February

1652, of the remaining contiguous

property Capodiferro.

He agreed with the future owner, giving

up the jus praelationis, to acquire a

piece of property, charging immediately

Borromini to draw the desired project.



All this in a few months, in order to conclude an agreement with the future

owner Massari.



The detailed design of the prospective gallery made it possible to identify

with certainty the area and allowed the transaction with the Cardinal

(November 27nth, 1652).

Just a week later, on December 4th, he started work

on the perspective colonnade.

+ PERSPECTIVE GALLERY IN PALAZZO SPADA

CAPODIFERRO

FRANCESCO

BORROMINI :

ARTISTIC

LANGUAGE

Francesco Borromini, self-portrait.

One of the most important and original Italian

architects of the seventeenth century.

The buildings designed by Borromini

transformed Rome into a Baroque city.

In its buildings the combination of full and empty

masses gave rise to a dynamic movement and a

theatricality unique in the Baroque style.

More than his contemporaries, he managed to

create in his architecture an effect more fantastic

than rational.

The first real architectural task was the design of

the church of San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane,

Soon after, he realized Saint Ivo alla Sapienza,

His last major projects were the College of

Propaganda Fide and the Filippini’s Oratory.

+

San Carlo alle 4 Fontane

FRANCESCO BORROMINI - ARTISTIC LANGUAGE

The characteristics of his technique are:

the attention to details,

the taste of small as opposed to big,

the use of common materials, such as plaster

and brick,

the research and construction of spaces

capable of expanding illusionistically,

the curved line,

the ability to lead and direct the light.

+

Sant’Ivo alla Sapienza

FRANCESCO BORROMINI - ARTISTIC LANGUAGE

Bruno Zevi wrote: “The case Borromini is specific and unique: it consists in

the heroiceffort, almost superhuman, to make an architectural revolution in a

social context closed and unavailable despite the new address of science”. in

"Attualità di Borromini" (L'architettura cronache e storia 519, gennaio 1999)

The classical world is destroyed: a new

language is born, in which each

preceding element is desacralized;

It has been four centuries since his

birth. Nowadays we can say that

Borromini won.

The dream has now become reality:

architecture emancipated from rules,

precepts, universal laws, principles,

harmonic and proportional taboo,

geometric and stereometric

constraints. Architecture is now

democratic and popular, marked by

the needs of individuals and groups.

This goal would be unthinkable

without the revolutionary contribution

of Borromini.

+ PERSPECTIVE GALLERY

IN PALAZZO SPADA

CAPODIFERRO

PERSPECTIVE

OPERATIONS AND

METHODOLOGY

OF INVESTIGATION

F. Borromini, Fake

perspective of the

Gallery of Palazzo

Spada in Rome,

1652-53.

+

When the viewer reaches the statue on the bottom

he is surprised to discover it is only 80 cm high. After the immediate

visual wonder, however,

it remains a curiosity to

understand.

How was the Gallery

built ?

Which rules does it

respond to?

How should it be

walked down, to

recreate the clear

correspondence with a

regular gallery?

And which regular

gallery?

PALAZZO SPADA CAPODIFERRO - PERSPECTIVE


INVESTIGATION

virtual model created in CAAD

+

F. Borromini, Fake perspective of

the Gallery of Palazzo Spada in

Rome, 1652-53.

Virtual model realized in CAAD.

PALAZZO SPADA CAPODIFERRO - PERSPECTIVE


INVESTIGATION

On the basis of an

accurate survey and

thorough analysis of the

scope and measures of

distances and squares

of the original flooring

we are led to the

conclusion that a rule

exists and is defined by

a geometric series.

+ PALAZZO SPADA CAPODIFERRO - PERSPECTIVE


INVESTIGATION

Who walked at that

time through the

gallery, in fact, came

to be in a sort of faux

garden, which

according to the

customer, Cardinal

Bernardino Spada,

was meant to restore

the image of an

illusory world that

showed the

apparently great

things so small when

they are reached.

For the deformation the two mechanisms outlined above, always apply combined

together. Courtesy of Superintendence for the Historical, Artistic and Ethno-

anthropological Heritage and Museums of the City of Rome

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