Experimentation CLIL Architecture-English during the Study Visit-LLP hosted by LAS Via di Ripetta 11-15 March 2013

1. +
THE ILLUSORY
SPACE
FROM PERSPECTIVE TO
ANAMORPHOSIS

2. +
FIRST PART:
THE ILLUSORY SPACE:
OVERVIEW AND OUTLINE OF
PERSPECTIVE REPRESENTATION

3. + 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.

4. +
 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

5. + 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).

6. +
 The orthogonal lines
converge towards a vanishing
axis
PERSPECTIVE PROGRESS IN THE MIDDLE AGES

7. +
 Notice the convergence in a
precise vanishing point of
lines and planes located
above the eye level
PERSPECTIVE PROGRESS IN THE MIDDLE AGES

8. + 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

9. +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.

10. + 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

11. + 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

12. +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

13. +THE TRINITY - SANTA MARIA NOVELLA, FLORENCE 1427
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.

14. +THE TRINITY - SANTA MARIA NOVELLA, FLORENCE 1427
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

15. + 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.

16. +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

17. +ALBRECHT DÜRER - TOOLS TO DRAW IN
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

18. +ALBRECHT DÜRER - TOOLS TO DRAW IN
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

19. + 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

20. +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‘

21. +LEONARDO DA VINCI - PERSPECTIVA NATURALIS
AND 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

22. +LEONARDO DA VINCI - PERSPECTIVA NATURALIS
AND PERSPECTIVA ARTIFICIALIS
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

23. +
SECOND PART:
THE ILLUSORY SPACE:
TWO EXAMPLES OF
ANAMORPHOSIS

24. + 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)

25. +
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

26. +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.

27. +
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.

28. +
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

29. +
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

30. +THE PROFESSED HOUSE OF JESUS - PERSPECTIVE
OPERATIONS AND METHODOLOGY OF
INVESTIGATION
architecture
design through
perspective -
slanted wall

31. +THE PROFESSED HOUSE OF JESUS - PERSPECTIVE
OPERATIONS AND METHODOLOGY OF
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.

32. +THE PROFESSED HOUSE OF JESUS - PERSPECTIVE
OPERATIONS AND METHODOLOGY OF
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.

33. + 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

34. +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.

35. +PALAZZO SPADA CAPODIFERRO AND THE SPADA
CARDINAL – ARCHITECTURE
 All this in a few months, in order to conclude an agreement with the future
owner Massari.

36. +PALAZZO SPADA CAPODIFERRO AND THE SPADA
CARDINAL – ARCHITECTURE
 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.

37. +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.

38. +
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.

39. +
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.

40. +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.

41. +
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
OPERATIONS AND METHODOLOGY OF
INVESTIGATION
virtual model created in CAAD

42. +
F. Borromini, Fake perspective of
the Gallery of Palazzo Spada in
Rome, 1652-53.
Virtual model realized in CAAD.
PALAZZO SPADA CAPODIFERRO - PERSPECTIVE
OPERATIONS AND METHODOLOGY OF
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.

43. +PALAZZO SPADA CAPODIFERRO - PERSPECTIVE
OPERATIONS AND METHODOLOGY OF
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