Rules and Examples of Perspective proper for Painters and Architects, etc. / In English and Latin: Containing a most easie and expeditious method to delineate in perspective all designs relating to architecture
Rules and Examples of Perspective proper for Painters and Architects is Andrea Pozzo's celebrated manual, here translated by John James of Greenwich and presented in parallel English and Latin. Drawing on his experience as a master illusionist, the Jesuit painter sets out a new and expeditious method for putting any architectural design into perspective, free from the tangle of "occult lines" that had made earlier treatises so confusing. Across 105 folio plates and concise explanatory discourses, he guides the reader from first principles to grand columns, altars, staircases, theatrical scenes, and the difficult art of painting perspective on vaulted ceilings.
The work matters as a bridge between geometry and the imagination, teaching how flat surfaces can be made to open into convincing depth. Long obscure and impractical, perspective is here rendered teachable, giving painters and architects a clear, reliable foundation for noble and magnificent design.
How it begins
Most ‘figure’ illustrations have been moved from their position in the original book: each figure is placed by the passage that describes it, for ease of reference. The figures are large and detailed, and hence displayed only as a thumbnail image inline; if your device supports it, thumbnail images with a blue border can be clicked to display a larger version. A list of changes made to the original text (to correct suspected printing errors) is given at the end. Rules and Examples of PERSPECTIVE PROPER FOR Painters and Architects , etc. In English and Latin; Containing a most easie and expeditious Method to DELINEATE in PERSPECTIVE All DESIGNS relating to ARCHITECTURE, AFTER A NEW MANNER , Wholly free from the Confusion of Occult Lines: by that GREAT MASTER thereof , ANDREA POZZO , Soc. Jes. Engraven in 105 ample folio Plates, and adorn’d with 200 Initial Letters to the Explanatory Discourses: Printed from Copper-Plates on y e best Paper By John Sturt. Done into English from the Original Printed at Rome 1693 in Lat. and Ital. By M r John James of Greenwich. LONDON: PRINTED by Benj. Motte, MDCCVII. Sold by John Sturt in Golden-Lion-Court in Aldersgate-Street. PERSPECTIVA PICTORUM ET ARCHITECTORUM, ANDREÆ PUTEI, E SOCIETATE JESU. In quâ docetur Modus expeditissimus Delineandi Opticè omnia quę pertinent ad Architecturam. LONDINI: Juxta Exemplar ROMÆ excusum, MDCXCIII.
Text from Project Gutenberg, public domain.