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0700811844
\. him-nun, Ir.
.\I>n by Samuel
‘. )
sh! and k mnmul I “yummy”
.
. _
Press.
First published 1991 by Cornell University
Second printing 1993.
first printing, Cornell Paperbacks, 1995.
Acxxowuocmxrs ix
lNTRODUCTION
Geometry, Renaissance Art, and “'eslcrn (‘ulturc 1
288
EPILOGUE
BIBLIOGRAPHY 291
INDEX 315
vii
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
i .t‘
Acknuwlulgmcms
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‘
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.
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.
Ulnlor,
.
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Such a
l‘rniccl crucially d" lu‘ndml,
us this one
thunk» llu-ru-
research gram: and h-lluwslup Uppnfll”"“““' l mw many
1hr
{011‘ m the lnhn Simun (iuggcnlwlm l-‘nLIndaIin 11 “977—19720;
ll“. ”V .»
Williamsmwn, Mussm‘llusvus
The Heritage of Giotto's Geometry
lNTROl‘l’Cl'lON
Why was
capitalist Europe after 1500 the first of all civ-
ilizations in the world to
develop what is commonly understood as
modem science,
moving rapidly ahead of the previously more sophis-
ticated cultures of the East?1
Why were some of the most spectacular
achievements of both the Western artistic and scientific revolutions
conceived in the very same place, the Tuscan
city of Florence.72 Was it
only coincidence that Giotto, the founder of Renaissance art, and Galileo,
the founder of modern science, were native Tuscans?
At least one answer to all these questions lies in the difference be—
tween the pictorial arts of Renaissance Europe and those of its Oriental
contemporaries. One need only compare an
ordinary Western Re-
naissance-style scientific illustration with examples from traditional China
and Islam. Let us contrast, for instance. the engraving of a blue fly
Thanks to Kim Veltman for his good advice concerning the ideas in this Introduction
(as well as in following chapters), 1
especially grateful to him for allowing me to
am
share his unpublished manuscripts. see Bll‘lllmhlph)“ \'eltman 1:) and it] If I have not
nted them suifictently here. it is because I await their imminent publication. and to
agree and disagree in later rent-us.
t. Seeking a variety of ideas concerning: the unexpected rise of modern stience in the
West, 1 have consulted and found the opinions of the following authors
especially helpful
(among many others!’ Bum. liutterheld, Sarton. A R. Hall lll, I‘rice, l’, Russi, lloyrup
1:1, and esp ('ronihte I5).
2, To some eytent this comparison is made in Wiehiman and (itildstein. (ioldstetn's
F1, :2.
~~rg£=5:173
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‘
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‘1‘ 1' I'uundcrs Sonny l'un‘th‘,
(jcm‘ral Mumbcnhlp and
g a‘
.
_
"v
'
f
Dunauuns Fund,
We 500 immediately how the Chinese painter sought wnh ran: sen-
"u
The Heritage of Giotto's Geometry
flight.
gave no indication how they actually ”WW in
”k" 'I
“fulfil iii" if
for hm“ ‘ we
inorganic
understand the structure of an organic
(ltardin stiI”
.
are to ‘ p
‘ '
subiect, first .
‘
enti
.
we must
Slam {gt-mm.“
lifel,“1 with all constituent parts translated into
impartial],l , remark“!
ric relationships. in such pictures, as
coffee—pot are both
Al'thTIW‘m‘yll": '21.
uprlfllll cy __”“ ‘4
n masses " " 1”
“Pontius Pilate and a
is both scientifically am l‘
the traditional Chinese this approach
aesthetically absurd. to a mere
didactic
How dare I relate a masterpiece by a great artist
.
_” L‘m Western
After all, many
diagram by journeyman engraver?
a
van Huysum,
are .l bc-tiuiful
Painters, such as lacopo Ligozzi and Jan
here bccaum I b to paintcc ‘WH‘ ‘
conventions of European
roscuro (light~and-shadow rendering) en—
aissance art, whether or not aesthetically styled, have proved extra-
we write on the top of the painting, and they write on the bottom.
6. On this B. Hall (1), Rose-lnness, and Tufte.
point, see Ferguson,
7. See esp. Bryson; also Goodman; T. Mitchell. For counterarguments,
see see (iib~
son (1); Pirenne (2); Gombrich l1]; and Kubovy.
Geometi)‘. Renaissance Art. and Western (’nlittre
,
.
lAhtle
.
.
it is
certainly true that the visual arts iii the WW are “N "5
prone to chauvtnistic e
xploitatiou as those of ativ other culture I mutt-rid
that the European Re
natssance pictorial
system. based on tlte Plilhll‘ll‘t-
0 f Endld'a" ”I‘d ,
_
8. For
a review of the
”perceptual" theory of artistic development, see Blatt/Blati,
pp. 1—56; also Nadine/Fisher, pp. 57-215.
9. To be as precise about this as possible, I quote from the eminent optical physiolo-
gist M. H. Pirenne (1). p. 15 (Pirenne’s italics):
. the picture in perspective of a scene or set of objects is not a replica of the retinal
. .
image produced by the objects in the artist's eye. It is rather a substitute of the actual
objects themselves, so constructed that it sends to the eye a distribution of light
similar to that which would be set by the actual objects, with the result that, for any
given eye, the picture produces retinal images similar in shape and dimension to those
which would be produced in the same eye by the actual objects.
I shall be careful in thefollowing chapters not to confuse this clear description of the op»
tical phenomenon with more psychoanalytic aspects of human vision. After all, as the
currently fashionable Jacques Lacan makes us aware, "geometral perspective is simply
the mapping of space, not sight.” Nevertheless, I sidestep the Cultural and psychoanalyt-
ical implications of what he calls the “gaze,” separate from the subject “eye." The
”gaze” Lacan defines as a kind of subconscious perspective inversion, in which the sub-
ject imagines himself ”seeing himself," or, better, being ”looked at front all sides" by
the world. His fascinating analysis of Western perspectivized vision may be found in
Lacan, pp. 67-123.
lhe Heritage of (Liottu's Geometrv
a hint e number
of similar units away.
mind's eye and positioned
the eye, focused on such
”‘0" demonstrated to everyone how, optically,
will perceive the upper receding
an from this mid—level viewpoint,
object
to point downward and the lower
horizontal as seeming iilwa ys
edges ”horizon" (the actual eye
upward, converging toward
a common
ones ,
l
that all human b cmg:
\\
on which it
t h 0 n at ground
.
own profile—on
.
,
stands.
this mind’s-
draw :1 scale picture of
Each seminar member should now
t hat a pencxl line ruled
that eve ryone also knows
eye image." Assuming
on paper can signify an edge
of a s olid object in three-dimensional Space
for shade or shadow, the
and that a dark pencil smudge may stand
In fact, if
or less alike (figure 1.3).
resultant drawings will all look more
of just such an object taken
' the group be shOWn a good color phorograph
will automatically judge the
from the same viewpoint, each member
manual
in relation. Whatever the
”quality" of his/her own sketch in any
dexterity exhibited in each of these simple drawings, nothing
familiar cartoon-style illustrations. The reason that some African "primitives” have
scored poorly on this test, however, has nothing to do with innate lack of ability to per-
ceive depth. Margaret l'lagen has demonstrated, these particular subjects simply did
As
not understand the Western drawing conventions. When shown the same perspective
scenes in colored photographs, for instance. they had no trouble estimating size and dis-
th at the urge
Anthropologists might argue over the mysteries. of
‘ert magic power
from the universal tribal need to
e.
example, drew personified
nature. Ancient Baby lonians
and Greeks, for lessen the
in order to
inditat k - -
cts Hi demonstrating
)l’hlllg')
'
mdlcmmii “PM“ and minute in one below artists krillk' tinder the m
nifier); see Kennedy (1), [2), (3], and Kennedy/Gabias. Interestingly enough, the
Denis Diderot claimed have made the obser-
eighteenth-century encyclopédistc to same
To up: while it
is true that Bef’mmm
sum
I stand with Gombrich
symemj encoding
become culturally prejudiced
a
‘l y culture-bou m, l .
drawrpg towing,“
~
Chinese
ambient light array,” Since traditional
' '
C
examp e,
Ch ten Hsuan, for
‘ "
g
structure of
have used his skills to reveal the physical
way as Leonardo da Vinci.
'
historians of art
18. Bryson.
advo-
19. Among optical physiologists and perceptual psychologists, the staunchest
forma»
cates of the argument that Renaissance—style linear perspective replicates image
tion within the eye are Mr H. Pirenne (1), [z], (3); and James ]. Gibson (1), (2), (3).
For
10
Geometry. RL‘HJBNHR‘ Art and \‘Vestern Culture
happened to
European science alter lbt‘t', The expression too otten
conveys the notion that modern menu- is solely a Western LTL‘JIIU",
seeded in classical
anttquuy, piertiaturely dehydrated durmi: llW DJ’l‘
A305." and revttalued only In the warmth and moistute t-l Renaissance
hyln‘lm‘fim‘
dllltms,
Tl‘WRh Renaissance att did remain true to Western tra-
Islam?
No historian of science has been more troubled by these questions
than Joseph Needham himsell. An ardent sinopliile, he has devoted much
of his life to compiling a massive inventory ol scientific and technological
achievements in the traditional Orient belore Western influence arrived,
In page after page ol his multivolume Science and Civilisation in China.
he reveals that the Chinese making important advances in astron-
were
control
ideological religious
the decline of Islamic science only to increasing
Needham lists five fundamentals distin-
21. Needham (6), pp. 16, 51, 191; [12), p. 9.
11
The Heritage of Giotto’s Geometry
lnve “no“
of gunpowder, printinp
Francis 83601 1——the
,,
one
sctence.--
of modern
the genesis
.
'
conducive
of Europta n hislor y
to
especially
,
cxtraor» 1 so
.
even
What makes Needham's analysis .' vho have tried in u '
\. | I, “5‘ m spccialists
.
.
he '5 able
to
511011.]; Cir-I
I
therefore unique in at least some respect.
di erencc betwe‘ cn ,
inese
far about the obvious
that he has said little so
own comments,
.
tlons followed by my
2. An ethical concept of
a
priori, fixed master plan.
as finite,
mechanistic, and . .
_ .
of natural order
3. A philosophical picture Euclidean geometryJS
.
demonstration by deductive
susceptible to
12
Geometry, Renaissance Art. and Western Culture
grand public posture as supporters of modern science was but a political act to
dukes’
further this goal.
1
3
Th? Heritage of (harm's Geometry
Sallustt Du Bart“ 5
‘
.
,
ll I. 1' It ‘0!“ b flllCl‘
”In lull I H (' JV ,JI I
n H L ‘
i III
Jnd Shall-s
lbthlh
'
i
L' 5
l .) M15. LAI UllC
»
r
and eventual
alert In l‘l‘""“”
earthly exoneratmn.’
(ltlllcse scientist-t had no such missionary obsession Whateter their
'n’l’lmlon, however much they might wrsh to reveal truth and bench!
tivity, call Euclidean geometry one of the two greatest all—time scientific
achievements?“ Notwithstanding, the science historian Michael Ma-
honey has argued that algebra was more important, at least for the fun-
damental science of mechanics. He notes that while geometry can
of
produce a perfect picture an immobilized machine, only an algebraic
formulation can explain how it works}5
Mahoney is certainly right insofar as the application of algebra to ge-
ometry in the seventeenth century was "the greatest single step ever
The other being the true experimental method; see l:instetn’s letter to l. E.
34,
Switzer, Apr. 23, 1953, as reproduced in Price, p, is.
35. Mahoney.
15
The Heritage of Giotto's Geometry
-
iiidelei'-
L: )“l
..
NMdrhiltlji ns
..
his
,
c k th“ A Q ..
‘"
Tht l}:
‘
stress).
~‘
to
Chinese mathematics, hastens con
‘ Ll'lt
‘.
nicus Galileo Newton: and
Kepler
Einstein
' t
uniformly nablU~t
\vitliout
.
as
t of space
Linstem later
.
common conce P
'
minds~’ eyt
i.
n
t
a
8"
trization according to Eiiclid's
Euclidean
Altliou‘ try under certain cmidi-
principles.
qualified his characterization of geomzmsts still presume that n
curvature, modern sclt
tions imposed by spatial ‘-h they perform ex
in w 111L
—
world
V, accurately describes the here-and-now
t,periments and their hypotheses.
test ., ‘ ‘
its oun
. ,
‘nfluenCL’
i
in . a-bound
own Lu l tun.
. conc:
LP‘
had its
in it. in fact, evcrv medieval society
‘
16
n [-1.4:. K: "In
.
. t
e ‘
much motivated by the first printed Ptolemaic map of the world, which,
like any other Renaissance picture, showed land and sea, term incognira
17
The
HL‘I‘llagL‘ Ol GlOIIOIS GL‘OHR‘H‘)’
chanical terms.
of this rationalist
A remarkable late—lifteenth-century example
most -
bi. [01m
trend is Albrecht Diirer's widely circulated woodcut Devouring
in 1498. The
”'0 300k (fig. [.4], from his Apocalypse series, published
is recur ded in Revelations 10:11 2/
strange subject matter of John’s vision ‘
And he had in his hand little book open: and he set his
a right foot
upon the sea, and his left loot on the earth.
. . .
And i took the little book out of the angel's hand, and
ate it up. . . .
preting the words literally, as if the mystic saint were not speaking in
Why Western artists such as Diirer were stirred toexchange their tra-
18
Geometry, Renaissance Art, and Western Culture
19
”w ”alum? 0f (iitittti's (,ieomeiry
llch‘"~‘ One should keep
m
lwmnu lll‘i’lll
lhi“ “W,“ “'lm'l‘ once “"“Ud ~ll begun to littllllfL'fvl Ilbt'lf
pl‘tiplll- y
.
cocious in itsanticipation
‘
of lliiisleitiian
llL might
have suit tlte
same of (lune-5k.
.
'
rel'itivuy,l
no need to Seek
plined by Euclidean geometry. ._- mm: rs felt i
-
. .,
.t .
W ittl Hey
'
-
-
nature. ] f'lxul
. .
underlying geometry in .
,
t5 l
raticr
.
tian
. ,
bfrllbl‘ TrOkHJS
.
.
.
Vibrant
nature’s rhythmic transitoriness. u
_
.0 really.
for them the e5>tnCL
..
. ,, .. ,
lnteameitii stgntfied
and ] W lescOPL‘
the two most
In point of fact, both the microscOPc
e'.ithed
modern sci
ti: , to -
mhnology
$qu
.
1 rated in a revealing
'
‘
in China is corroio
'
'
i
invented
' '
similarly
,
“1-1 ndarin
named Feng-shen Yin-te, - .
Dynasty
r
eighteenth—century ng for
,-
rhrougil 1 Wes t e rn microscope
looking
‘
after
.
. . ,
of the
metrizes. . . .
laws lie within the power of understanding
[His]
20
(ieometry, Renaissance Art, and Western (fulture
htttttan
llts
mind; (Bod wattted
in
llti to
perceive tltent when He created us In
handicrafts.
For these reasons, as quick perusal of any illustrated modern scien-
47. As quoted in Iiolton, pp. tu- tie. See also held (it
48. lot the tnlluence oi Rertatssatue .IIL All‘n'tlll Hun-r". work in pallhulal, on
Kep-
ler's science. see Strait-er.
49. for the least pretttthted and most uprto date held H“-\‘illll\ on tin-a. whim.) per~
(eptton oi perspective picture) Hagen. lohnxon. Hagen/loam. and esp it“. rm.)- "A
see
Western
tific or
technological(in whatever language)
text t'evenls,
Rennissance~style on still provides the standard pictorial conventions fer
the teaching of modern science. The way i“ Whid‘ these Convcnfi0n5
0‘ my [“30"-
were first
developed and proliferated is the subjec‘
—fl_r-"
22
/ Sicut lzaec
1
figura docet:
Conceptualizing the Third Dimension
in Early Medieval Picture
Making
See the Bold-Shadow of Urania's
Glory.
immortal in His Race, no less Story:
in
Estate.
.
and in
age it, both in the mind's eye
. .
di—
infinitely extending
In
understood mapping conventiOns)
as
2
4
1.2‘ 5!, Marthcw, from the Lmdisfame Gospels (eighth century]. Harley MS. 2686, fol. 56‘ By
and of the Trustees of the Brinsh Museum, London.
permission of the British Library
The Herlmfie of Giotto‘s Geometry
Mr: In {black-nut
Jrur‘é fugu rupu: raw}- "2‘
chl'" 1 LL lMLlUI'I' of awn“,
fmwutrmlum nut .u .,
ill'ts'grllllll)" of .i
iylliitld,
furmur W
(ca. A H. (mm)
'm‘wam‘ri fiffl
““fl‘ mac
London.
for
of Seville [ ca. 560-636], exnmplr.
scientific illustration. St. Isidore A5 Isidore
had done for images."
tried to do for words what Euclid in his Efyliltilngfm,
meanings of and?!1t terms
cataloged the received a cylinder, I]... Con.
one paradigmatic
inst ance to explain
SHUggling in
having a semicircle
”a square figure
cluded incongruously that it was
1“,sz superins seniirirculrmiy
above" (cylindrns est figure quadrant,
a 5 John
Murdoch has shown, Was
The source of his misunderstanding,
such as t he ninth-century illustration in
PTObily some vestigial diagram the illusion of depth
Since classical schemata for illustrating
58“"? 1.3.5
had been
such crude
forgotten, people who
drew fIBUFCS to“C‘Cded to the
amend
admonishing Viewers imagine
them by adding qualifying words,
two-dimensional lines of the drawing
in solidum ("into with, In
3,5011d")
l
the case of a rounded ends angulmis (”at
cylinder, angle’
their Inability to depict
_
\JO‘U’Ié
. Murdoch, p 126.
. Murdoch, p. 114.
however, a medieval scribe might show the top and
. lbid., p. 128. In some cases.
26
Sim! Iiiiec figurtt duvet
8. See the excellent discussions ol how children‘s art develops Ill this iespett by Kel-
IJ
“W llt'timite ul (ilntlo'n (it-innetty
-.
t!
'
at» ”less
not be construed
drawing. This term, however, should cultures
mid"
Iigent," since in many highly civilized non-Western the llilivc"
.
Eastwood, p. 202. See also Evans for an excellent survey ol the various type". ul
9,
medieval scientific—illustration schemata. For an Interesting argument than this uncut-m
system was consistently rational—indeed,
well understood by mmhemutlunne- right
through to the time of Leon Battista Albertr—see Aiken.
28
Sim! llllt’t‘ figural claret
my O
._-_.-
‘JJyL Li
”#4,“; 'Iflv’u/[If/M .3 .,
”(M‘f’u/x': '{37‘5'1/‘4
:M//1’/i
31L“
0:),
1%,.”
afl’.
(w... 1571'”, /!«ZUCLL/xr
.
.H.
‘
} |.~
,
/-
:1 a 0
’
v
‘
31;”?
,- x
‘f’u filly/rxaflfy,’
.6‘1Lvh/[tz4dj‘l’j‘
' ‘
-
; .
. .
,
U 1 '
,7}:
5
.
‘t
.
"
'4 My
d
.
U”“(Want
‘
‘
/,:!
w
'EQ’J"'.“.4’Z;.,: ' ’
OWL“ 97"
'E'e‘fl :v‘fiw/Jme‘l ?
LI). Lunf l'rum Klmmfia of Nimmi. Persia, Her.” lcn. 1491), (lift of
n
of
1.7. Isidore Seville-'5 m,”
(cu. [LI]. 600].
around Which;
year, man’ ),
the triad of mundus, annus, homo (”world,
ts of elements, qualities, hllmors, and
like spokes, are the quadrifid concep for representing
seasons. two-dimensional sc hematic systems
Similar
it should be noted, developed
physical and metaphysical phenomena,
of all literate societies of that
the traditional arts
quite independently in Mesoamerica, among
time, in China, Islam, India,
and pre-Columbian
others.10
the medieval hand to
The most difficult three-dimensional figure for
the sphere. Even the articulate Roger
signify in any systematic way was make Christians
efforts to
Bacon (ca. 1200—ca. 1292), in his precocious
familiar with the geometry of Mother
Earth, had no ready schema at
could do no better than show
hand. His hapless illustrator, in any event,
it as two flat circles representing
the hemispheres and joined by an
of India and the end of Spain”
incongruous bar labeled “the beginning
(fig. 1.8).“
30
Strut liner figttm don‘t
pnwckuu l-to'AE
Snaod
nvomiuzw
S
smod
PHINcu-uuta thank.“ ant/1:9;]
.‘i.
I «
Roger Bacon s drawing
'-
.
,
of the eastern and
century].
western hemispheres [lhlfk‘t‘nlh
the spherical shapes of the various parts of the eye (ibid., 2:441): "i shall draw, there-
fore, a figure in which all of these matters are made clear as far as is possible on a sur—
face. but the full demonstration would require a body fashioned like the eye in all
particulars aforesaid. The eye of a cow, pig, and other animals can be used for illustra-
tion, if anyone wishes to experiment."
12. Haskins [1).
14, See Harley/Woodward. p. 146. It Is worth noting that this diagram is no more ac-
The Heritage of Giotto's Geometry
curate in certain respects than lsidore’s ram. In a correct linear perspective projection of
for example, both poles could not be seen on the circumference at once.
a sphere,
in Neugebauer (3), pt. 2, pp. 751—55, including an il—
15. The figure is also discussed
lustration (plate vui) from a fourteenth-century Greek manuscript, Vat. gr. 204, fol_
621-. My sincere thanks to Professor Neugebauer for his time and patience in explainin> E,
so nonvisual a diagram to me.
bunt hint fig!!!” don‘t
No mam-t how
.lbhllad ll]l'- diagram may seem to modem eyes. it
tlUL-g. Indicate .Ill mime m. the “rd“.
illt‘V [ideally] .lll'. mmfljmm “Hill"
I. I o l )-l -
Scenography also is the shading of the front and the retreating sides, and the
correspondence of all lines to the center of a circle. For to begin with. . . .
as
d! 035151 C0015?
at 99: «Eat: m
Easy-.111? W
L‘n’).
re [tummy
Andmy F Axum chi
21:3 cartographers, who
“15 a tool of Ms
perspective draw-mg 5*:de cum mo—dimemiomj maps.
{a pmyectmg Sphffiaf Pm]-
employtd x:
or ‘Trazise
on Geography."
fibréaebeszmfiigméhtfiiafmzmm
sage minormszgzczgccmcmfizniplmszfiasmmm'rr—égw H
.
. .
GMsth‘steM-ngfiaczbkxamm
“13?“. y
.
Pam
. -
.-.-»
”ng w
.
eqmumrJF=Wt smammdfiw-cv
. .
7—
,
msfihcakseeémgieb-vg 12‘.
Siczii hirer figum iiuct‘t
PP- 5—47-
21. Panofsky (1). .
U
22. For a more detailed analysis of Panofsky’s “symbolic forms, see Edgerton (2), pp.
153—67.
35
l‘he Heritage of Giotto's Geometry
1.1L
Odyssey Landscape (detail), Pompeii (first century B-C-l- MUSL’O Profane, Vatican City.
:
"
‘1
‘2'
.
r!
2: ',
l“
‘-
._—
‘4) ‘
fl
The He
ritage of Giottn’s Geometry
has tried to define the moment of this shift?" Without any referent;
1
art or science, he offers a compelling theory based ”My 0"
Philosophlu
cal and theological evidence, especially the writings of Anselm of Can.
25, See, however, and (7). Among historians of both science and techno].
Panofsky [2]
ogy, only Lynn White, Jr., has significantly probed
the relationship of art and science
during the Middle Ages. See esp. L. White (1) and (3),
26. See Cranz, i am most grateful to Professor Cranz for sharing with me
pp. 1—97.
his this subject, and especially for reviewing and
unpublished manuscripts on commem.
never reached by any sense of the body, nor did I ever see them outside
my tttind. In my memory I put away not
images of them but the think?
'
have not found your God, how can he be that which you have under—
stood him to be with such certain truth and such true certainty? If you
have found him, why is it that you do not feel or experience [semis]
what you have found? Why, Lord God, does my soul not feel or experi-
In other words, Anselm, trying like
ence you, if it has found you?"31
in his
has realized, like Anselm, that when he conceives a
I think that with the last Abelardian distinction all the main pieces of the modern
constellation that we call are in place, and we have reached a somewhat
language
fuller of the Anselmian schema with which we started. And with Abelard 1
statement
would argue that the signification of intellections or meanings is the copestone. In the
placeof the ancient with a part of the real world in the soul which is
position
somehow all we now have a human realm of meanings separated by a
things,
dichotomy from the external world of things. And in the realm of meanings we find
all the marks which we consider characteristic of ‘language‘ but which are absent in
the ancient constellation: semanticity, intentionality, concepts distinguished from
percepts, symbols, and representations.
40
Sicut lmec figure dare!
turies in western
Europe that scholastic commentators quite uncon—
sciously misinterpreted Aristotle, often translating the Peripatctic's Greek
into Latin of
contradictory meaning.“ Though Cranz does not pursue
the issue, he is
certainly aware that the novel thinking of Anselm and
Abelard ran parallel to the
great revival of antique learning going on in
the twelfth
century; that is, to the many new Latin translations after the
Arabic of classical Greek texts
heretofore unknown in the West. It would
be difficult, of course, to
prove cause and effect between the renascence of
classical scholarship and since Anselm
disjunctive cogitation, especially
and Abelard both writing before translations of the classics pro-
were
liferated in northern
Europe. Moreover, as Cranz carefully noted, the
Christian practitioners of thisnew intellection did not
simply ”reenter
the world of the ancients.”
Instead, they ”forced the ancients, sometimes
almost with violence, to enter into and the conditions of their
accept
own, new world.”35
Could it be, nonetheless, that the revival of one
particular ancient sub—
ject did contribute to the difference; if not anticipating Anselm’s and
Abelard’s innovative thinking, then
certainly exacerbating it? Is it possi-
ble that of all the
antique writings being translated and copied by the
busy scribes working in Spain and Sicily after the Arab withdrawal,
those on
geometry would most complement this increasing twelfth-
century predilection for disjoining the forms in the mind from the forms
in the external world?
34. Cranz, p. 7.
35. Cranz, p. 77.
41
”It: Heritage of (liono's Geometry
ol .iI point and a
(III-1mm,
the mathem .mml [(Ulh'l‘r‘l like
luuie p arucles
JUN”:-
kind of thing between such as
nu! nher, the painter talc“ In“ H.
whtch can be defined by
a
Clagett [1). ConcerningEuclid’s fortunes in the Middle Ages and Renaissance aft er tie1
I it Visual \Ulh' as
40. For the history of Greek optics, sec Lejeune. Actually, it was the Arab Alhazen in
the eleventh century who proved that seeing essentially responds to intromitted light
rays; see Lindberg (2), pp. 65—66.
43
j
T he .
Heritage
,
of Giorto's Geometrv
space ~‘nd
35
physical
world pass through three-dimensional finally cm”
the human eye and be the brain.
cognated in
scrence
seeing '
dence, God created hit on the first day, as the essential medium through
Which to dispatch his divine grace, according to the geometric laws of
perspectiva.“
student, however,
It is to the Franciscan Roger Bacon. Grosseteste's
that we must turn for the theoretical link between the
most interesting
of geometry and perspectiva in the twelfth century
renascence
and the
Bacon “‘35
Renaissance of art and science after the fourteenth century.
the precursor of a whole group of Oxford and Paris schoolmen who5e
Of force and
studies during the fourteenth century on the quantification
the structure of substance began inadvertently to undermine traditional
Aristotelianism and the way for wholly new conceptions, particus
open
larly geometric nature of three—dimensional space.‘12
of the
that perspectiva pros
Following his mentor, Bacon too was convinced
vides the model for understanding how God spreads his divine grace to
the world. Since classical optics taught that luminous bodies such as the
in all directions without loss 0f
sun
propagate light in rectilinear rays
substance, Bacon concluded that every physical and spiritual object in the
universe also similar force. He termed this force in Latin
gives forth a
41. For a full account of ancient Greek, medieval Arab, and early Christian theories of
light and vision, see Lindberg (2), esp, pp. 87—103; also Crombie [1).
Concerning medieval and Renaissance arguments over the
42.
nature of substance, see
44
Sicu! lmec fignm don’t
Oh, how the ineffable beauty of the divine wisdom would shine and
infinite benefit would overflow, if these matters
relating to geometry,
which contained in Scripture, should be placed before our eyes in
are
corporeal figurations! For thus the evil of the world would be destroyed by
a deluge of And with Ezekiel in the spirit of exultation we
grace. . . .
5 Plta-
‘
lolloned
,
r
church. hxs precocwus «lea of fuslnb geomet y
‘
,
"‘8 dxd In
,
. ‘
46
Geometrization of Pictorial SpaC€3
The Master of the Second Painted
Modillion Border at Assisi
47
The Heritage of Giotto's Geometry
come m
Imel‘
and
“maxim
lcctuals were GbVlOUSlY eager to havs' WIS-"ms
598
55.5“]
“WM them
again lmuM‘
once
there images that in some new] “’3! “‘llh
lallh to rclorm the church and win
back the Holy LJnd=~‘lmaBt‘S that
was urging. "-“CnSibly be.
f0
Bacon
would enable them to do just what
the
'
in any
hold what Ezekiel perceived only spiritually. went:
h)“
new
“Yo .
above the
magnificently POlSCd
on a
tiered Fraitctscan basilica, steep
the
Umbnan plain. bad suddenly. before the
end 0" tl‘mem‘lfh tentury,
become the most Visited shrine in all of Christian EuroP'3 (“8- 2.1).
less opportunity than its
Though the italian Gothic style provided
stained glass (CIPFES‘OW windows
transalpinc counterpart tor resplendent 0f sunlight), it did
to abundance
being generally smaller in Italy owing
for decoration. Thus the great
.
M~
\\\\
‘
p
D
r
I
'
.
w
\
,
. .
i
I
‘A I.
r
mn-m
.
‘
‘m
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www-W’L hW '
I
‘u ‘Vv‘t ‘
. y
x ‘
mum
nu
.:.|. Humllm ul 5am l'mnu‘mn, Ant-m llhllll't‘lHl) u-nInn-L l'llulu. Alum” .\u Ihnumua
genius ul‘ unv :ainpglv Imlhlt‘l' llmu lw llu' s-Ilnmlus. nl Ilu- \‘mllllllhhlnll
minu‘ulmm cwnls, :mvin“ and UHM'IHII)‘, lhvu' s-mmlv lwm, |llnl m. Ix'uw'l
Bacon socnu‘cl lu have lwvn 11min); lll hit. (llhtlllihllltlllh nu Ilw pnwm ul
gt‘()|llt‘ll‘_\h
y. lfin\ulhk\‘ll}
The Heritage of (harm's Geometry
‘
at
Decorative campaigns in Christian
The obvious purpose is to
altar and make their way toward the entrance.
ensure that the most sacred part
of the building will be readied first. For
some reason, the lower church at Assisi may
have been decorated other-
no documents say so, that in
wise, but there is little doubt, even though
the upper church the apse was the first interior space to be painted‘ As
early as artists are recorded at work at the site, but the first major
1236,
'
50
littorial ‘3}one
"'- -,
it
‘
‘ '
Geometrization oi
of
‘
—r=l|ul
l;—
t
|—
,3
2,3. Interior apse, upper church, Basilica of San Francesco, Assisi (late thirteenth century).
Courtesy of Sacro Convento di San Francesco.
transept walls and polygonal apse with various New Testament stories
and lives of the saints (fig. 2.3).
The and style of these oft—described
subjects paintings is not our
concern.8 What is of interest is the band of illusionisric
architectural
modillions decorating an actual cornice that runs around the wall
just
under the low clerestory
windows and about seven meters above the
floor.” Since technical considerations
required that frescoes be painted
8. For the most recent
monograph on Cimabue, see Battisti. On Cimabue's painting
in its Assisi context, ]. White (3), pp. 23—30; also (2).
see
9. For measured architectural plans, elevations, and SL‘CIIOHS of the Basilica of San
Francesco, see Rocchi. For the best set of published photographs of the architectural inte-
rior, see Poeschke. Several authors have used the word tonsole to define the illusiontstic
architectural element repeated in the fictive cornices painted beneath the Windows, but I
choose instead to call it a ntodillioir A console is really a larger bracket used either sin-
gly or in pairs to hold up a classical-style table or ledge; a niodillion is one of a series of
smaller, dentil-like supports of a full cornice, especially in the Corinthian order, just £15
F '1
‘
rhe Heritage of (liotto's Geometry
.
_
but it should
COTnlCC l0 surmount Ciinabue
's scriptural histories, aim
upper church, aesthetthm.
CXlCnd along the nave walls of the
entire
motif from
doubt derived his architectural
an
Cimabue no
antiqu0
source.“ His patrons from the start iamtzcry emphasizing
favo'rfi?
Framers and
that
the life of their founder replicated that
of Christ.
at least one
JCSus ‘Both
and in
Were born in provincial Roman
towns,
cornice
Original
5“” “God (and stands
Assisi
modillion
antique building \vith a similar
artist may well
have borrowed from it, I:
to this
day: fig. 24); the
while decoratively working to
Nevertheless, his illusion istic border,
of tht‘ building
with the painted frames. of
articulate the real architecture
long-establiSth "divergent" perspective
the pictures, also reflected a
0‘ Clmflbue's order of
careful on-stte examination
to. For an interesting, report. after
Sft‘rllilll‘, see J. White (a). .
-_
y
aic h itettural
>
.
I, For a
good study of [he relationship
3‘50 Benton
tmmmg
5'30 for
at A55isi and ancient Roman wall painting, see Benton
(il: masters may
(ll
haw Intended
a
'
'\ JV H 'vV
The Heritage of Giotto’s Geometry
"—
'.-...4.....'.___»__..a—=uL
Basilica of S.
.
.
cornice, LIPP‘r
.
2.5. Cimabue’s
illusionistic modillion 0
-
a an
century)- COUTWW
Franceseo, Assisi (late thirteenth
Francesco.
srde of the
modillions on either
tradition; that is, he drew the parallel wall, from
axis of the apse as if pointing
back toward the away center
from! “I"?
the
(fig. 2.5).13 Such forms
do seem
to
psyChOlOSicallY floatin
the wall surface
itself remains flat-looking
raised relief sculpture, while
and unrecessed.“
ed no familiarity with ”convergent”
On the other hand, Cimabue show
architecture illu-
another classical schema for representing
perspective, Roman mural
sionistically. observed in so—ca lled fourth—style
This form,
classical
perspective and its'possible and
13. For analysis of Cimabue's "divergent"
an
the A5515! employed
medieval sources, see Benton (1), pp.
mil. Furthermore, patrons
to decorate the
borders around the ceiling of their
other artists, perhaps from Rome, of ancient fresco
illusion, reminiscent again
building with images of geometric optical of some of these images (difficult to see in
and mosaic patterns. For vivid reproductions
situ), Poeschke, esp. color pl. 3,
see
has frequently been
of divergent perspective
14. This projecting, relief—like effect
Divergent perspective persisted in Ital-
noted in Byzantine art; see Demus, pp. 228—30.
nave decorations in the Church
see, e.g., the
ian fresco painting well into the trecento;
Cimabue's close follower Deodari
of San Piero a Credo near Pisa, possibly painted by
naive convention, also called “inverted PCTSPCC-
Orlandi of Lucca. For a discussion of this
and in the drawngs of
of non-Western cultures even
tive," and its prevalence in the art
children, see Amheim (i).
54
Geometrization of l’ictorlal Space
55
‘
Th“
Ht‘rit‘dge of Giotto's Geometry
accepted terminus ad qnem date, 1307, displayed prominently on a small panel clearlv
the Isabella Stewart Gardner Mu.
scene, now in
derived from an Assisi St. Francis cycle
V seum, Boston. Stubblebine argues that
this date is false for reasons that have yet to con.
historians: see esp. I. White's negative review in
vince a significant number of art
zot Discussed in Kitzinger, pp, 5o—5i. Gioselfi (1), pp. 20—24, has found a similar ex-
in the second-century ILL), frescoes in the House of
Amandione at Pompeii. See
ample
his pls. l and Hi Chinese
Interestingly enough, artists during the Tang Dynastv also '
21. Though replete with Corinthian capitals, all the framing columns painted heuwm
the St. Francis scenes are spiraled rather than fluted. The obvious reason is that the arts
ist wished to make an analogy with the supports around the altar of old St. Peter's in
Ccomctrizmion of Pictorial Space
V-l
University Gift of The American (Tommittcc fur th‘ lixmvalmn of Antmch and Vlcmilv,
1919.
'.n
The Heritage of Giulio's Geometry
Rome, once more linking the stories of St. Francis and Jesus. It should also be noted that
the thirteenth-century frescoes in the Roman church of Santa Cecilia in Trastevere, at-
tributed to Pietro Cavallini, are similarly framed by illusionistic classical columns [but
without convergent modillion cornice). These
a paintings are often recognized as
having ‘
There are at least two good reasons for believing that the entire border
was planned by a hand separate from those that laid out the stories
below. The most compelling is that this assumption helps explain why
the perspective of the border remains generally uniform while the per‘
spectives in the historiated scenes are varied and unrelated. Second is the
fact that, while the arrangements of modillions in the border may vary
59
The Heritage of Clouds Geometry
from bay to bay, they are nearly identical on the two sides of each
bay,
implying again an order of painting different from that of the stories
themselves. Whoever this mysterious personage was, we will call him
henceforth the Master of the Second Painted Modillion Border.
Let us look at the right-hand (as we face the altar) lower nave wall of
60
Geometrization of Pictorial bpacc
Cum“
-._,_—J—IIIA 91;:1 _
.:.’ “gala-‘3' F
A"
t.-
_ .—
l) ‘nmm’
r
i w?':
J
62
Geometrization of Pictorial Space
though painted ”correctly” (that is, with only the front end visible and
no
incongruously splayed sides like those Cimabue had naively painted ‘
right (fig. 2.12). Unfortunately, this focus section of the intonaco has
suffered water damage from a leak in the overhead window and is much
24. Many scholars have claimed this artist to be the anonymous Cecilia Master. so
named because of his panel depicting that saint now in the Uffizi Gallery, Florence. See
Smart (2}, pp. 25-26.
The Heritage of Giotto's Geometry
.112.
PCTSPL‘CIWQ
l reconstruction of
hay A
right wall. Dr
awing by l’
Edgerton.
there has
2
-
originally
4
,
.
toned.ZS
bay (fig. 2.11)
one sees more
On the left—hand side of the same clearl ,
for
historianstIllustrates these
volume (I). instance, Cleres.
on Iohn White's authoritative
p. 134 of the reason
tory windows as incorrectly
centered above all the Sr. Francts scenes.
has
Perhaps
the first
off-center in place something w do
with
the windows in bay A were placed this
athwart the nave in area
divideS
the fact that the original tmmeaa, or road
screen,
|
l
I
|
Let Hammett“ ’lriit
'i H U
I‘
‘ '
n, 1.,
'
I >>~7
——7——
"
114’ ‘i‘ L“ " '5
L"
t. #2131}ng
,.
i
2
_,,_A72-;,’ __>
—
|
l
|
2.13. Perspective
l reconstruction of bay A,
I left wall.
Edgerton.
Drawing by P.
either side (figs. 2.17 and 2.18). Though the clerestory windows are pre-
cisely centered within the bay proper, they become off-center in relation
to the painted walls below.” Our master therefore decided to
align his
27. I am indebted to Father Gerhard Ruf of the Sat-to L‘onvento, Assisi, for his gent-r»
ous assistance and helpful suggestions regarding these matters.
28. On the right sides of both boys B and C. the focus tnothlltons (no. I7 in each
easel lean ever so slightly to the left. ()n the left sides of the same bays, the focus
modillions lean slightly to the right.
is In error; see ]. Whtte [t].
29. Again White's diagram p. n4. Though it indicates
‘ The Heritage of Clouds Geometry
'_
finial“. ”-3. '.'
1:]_"
2.14. Bay B, right wall, upper church, Basilica of San Francesco, Assisi (late thirteenth
century). Courtesy of Sacra Convento di San Francesco.
66
Geometrizmion of Pictorial Spact‘
'.
.3:
-*
¢
-
'—:-«-
-vmlf
0‘41)“.
r
r;
“""I
. "1
L15- Bay 3' left “'3“! “PP” church, Basilica 0‘ 50“ Framcsm, Assisi Hale thirteenth ccmury).
Courtesy of Sacro Convento dI San Francesco.
The Heritage of Litotto's Geometry
‘14. t-
t l 1' f'
I: H .5 t .,
I
,
A
it sum—w
7
H
Liirtlt a W i; it?
{hf-1'
l
H.
’
J 1.16.
l’erspt’clivo
/ reconstruction of
b'ly it
right wall Dr
'
“Wu”; l]\: I)
Edgerton.
the correct position of the windows in bay D, it shows the scenes below in incorrect
rela—
tion to them.
30’ On the
right wall of bay D nur master painted 46 projeetinp7 modillinns. 2} loan.
ing left and right, with once again the focus point falling in the space between,
23
Modillion 23, however, ts aligned directly over the painted central column of the
new,
strip below. On the left side of bay l) he painted the same total number of modilltons,
with the focus this time on modillion 24, placed right over the central column
that d1»
vides the scenes.
PlLlOl‘lJl 5P“-c
V .
.
‘
(teometnmttnn 0t
1.1; Ba)" D, right wall, upper church. BJSIlICJ of San Francesco. Assisi [late thirteenth
century]. Courtesy of Sacro Com-ento di San Francesco.
disc as big as a dinner plate, which, if it were to fall. would land within a
tion that the perspective in every one is SKI” mine: that is, lacking tn
7.; Ten Docsschate, pp. (‘fi-bb uses the term I':«u.:.' 42:1; In de n'm- the amw
Flic-
nomenun.
CH)
2,18. Bay D, left wall, upper church, Basilica of San Francesco, Assisi (late thirteenth century;
Courtesy of Sacro Convento di San Francesco.
Moreover, even the varied directions of painted light within the stories
pay no heed to the uniformly frontal illumination modeling the fictive
architecture of the frame.33 in other words, there seems to have been no
correlation between the centric focus decided upon by our master for his
border in each bay and the perspectives chosen for the separate scenes of
I" the Life of St. Francis.
15 it possible, then, that what we consider today as inevitable prOgrQSS
toward the achievement of ”correct” perspective illusion was not, initially
at least, the motivation that impelled our master to
design his own con—-
vergent focus? The fact that he started by aligning his fictive cornice
70
'
l’tttotml 5|)!tCL'
'
- ,
(.eotnetrtmlion of
~ .
With the clerestory window mullions must indicate that he still con-
sidered this schema as only another means of articulating deeoratively
the vertical and horizontal architectonic elements of the ribbed bay
walls.” While he and his colleagues wanted their viewers to contemplate
the Life of 5!. Francis stories enframed in stagelike classical "niches,"
they apparently still
thought of the depicted scenes themselves as no
}4. AsBelting has noted (p. Ito]. the artist ~eeinetl implied to diaman/e “die Antag-
onismus lwisclten \N’and-l'liulien utul 'Ieil-Rauoien“ t the anhngoutuiu between the
of the wall and the spate ol the p.nt~"l.
planes
35. Around
each scene two uontllusiontstte Ilat ll‘lUH'll lumls \\‘L‘Il‘ painted lurtlter
casting Into doubt the possibility that the lutive .Inlntettuml enliaun-tnent was origi-
nally intended to produce a worthy“ eltett Un llll‘.‘ matter, .ll'vtl “l‘l""""ll\' .. deuvaoon
from ancient mural painting. see Benton (i), W ”I” H
\l
I
The Heritage of Giotto's Geometry
congruence “”1qu W
'
‘-
" s
‘vhat vu
‘
they hellod
’
when
illusion even )5, ('jmmbue’s contemporaries and im‘
sual For similar "3350'. .n the diff
- -‘
experience. t
l n
lmlay
.
. ,
-. .
Franco.
‘
.,
carly l’i‘int.
_
‘
no eVidenCL
that he ‘
,
robustne
Kubovv t 14> ‘JHLd
. .
'
”“5
,
55" of ‘
-,_
um“ rsal
Pt‘rspectwc, W phenom-
Human usual
PL mt'Plion dem
“Nd: ever
petite remains insatiable no stronger stimulation. Its ap-
matter how
formancei If a Bach chorale spectacular the trompe l'uetl
never I ails t0 per~
gazing at an
optical
0
verwhelm the
illusion, even
such at
ear, repeated
Pozzo’s celebrated ceiling in the
baroque as Andrea tour de force
Rom an church
bores the eye.” For this oi San
lgn ant). quickly
reason‘ Renatss RIHCL‘
create ever more P .nnters felt the need to
inge nious perspgmvC
as Chinese and nun-nznnn, They dared not de-
pend, Muslim artists
tried and ditl. on their
true formulas. As f or as
ability to manipulate
painted perspe- cttve was
western Renaissance painte rs were eve r
concerned,
cult for required it) be novel. It is diffi-
us
today to
appreciate how at
have reacted to the Assisi fre
scoes. I think
thirteenth-century audlence might
We
that contemporary may assume, nonetheless,
never viewers,
lusionistic as these
having 1 and eyes on any pictures as ll-
before,
would have bee n
amazed at the robustness of
their perspective, even
though the Perspective in none of the scenes
cided with the overall centric coin-
projection of the frame. Let us trace the
progress of the Master of the Second Painted
Modillion Border and ob-
serve how he began to discover
the illusionistic adv
all antages of convergent
perspective by himself.
We notice already in bay
B that our
master was
fied with architectonically becoming dissatis-
aligning his framing scheme with the symmE-
try of the church interior. For
example, as he measured the
space for
the fictive cornice on the right wall in bay B and found he needed two
fewer modillions than in bay A, he realized that the centermost modil-
lion here would be just a bit off—center in
relation to the overhead win-
dow mullion. Therefore, he compensated
by drawing this modillion as if
it were seen from a
viewpoint a couple of centimeters to the
sliver of its
right, so
that a
right side is exposed (fig. 2.16). This same
precocious
perspective scrutiny he applied again in bay C.
In bay D our master did at last decide that the
perspective illusion of
his frame should disjoin itself altogether from the decorative scheme
of
the flat architectural walls. It was as if he had
finally become
the focus point of his modillion cornice also informed the
aware
that.
where his
place
viewer should stand so that all the frescoes in the
bay could be seen to
37 “We must perceive the window in order to see the world,” Kubovy argues. See
his p. 52—103.
3:. Pirenne (3), pp. 81—84; Kubovy, pp. 43—44.
The Heritage of Giotto's Geometry
A
_.
Pb..-‘.
a
‘_.-
1k:
2.20. Entrance wall (detail),upper church, Basilica of San Francesco, Assisi (late thirteenth
century). Courtesy of Sacro Convento di San Francesco.
optimal advantage. In figures 2.17 and 2.18 we notice too that on both
sides of bay D the artist painted right over actual
projecting colonctte5,
ignoring their convex intrusion as he continued his own autonomoug
perspective illusion.
Again, when our master returned to lay out the perspective of the bot-
tom dentil row in each bay, he decided to construct its focus
uniformly
on axis with the central scene above, even
contradicting in hay A the ec
centric convergence of the modillions in the overhead cornice.
Finally, the entrance wall (fig. 2.20) posed a particular problem for the
74
"UV-”l
. H‘JH‘
*5
,
(mintettisatmn oi
Master 0’ ‘hc 5m‘Imd Modilhun Border Herc um thi- pl.“ nhcu' I‘m
talent would Hl‘\tnu~l\ l‘c trtntra~ttd to
most
that ill l‘lf' tinnituuhl‘t‘d
predt‘n'w” (intahuc durum,” t‘t‘fst‘uznt‘
2‘
“w“. mm. tutug'nuuwh
lltt‘ tlpbt'.
apposite in
‘thlt‘Hmni; ”W MN MW “I‘UM “w“. ”W m.
UL” master
"MK“ "-‘l‘w‘dt'il l‘\ designing .I lllJHt‘lltih pnltiznnal
"Wd‘lll‘m “”11"" ”WW. “W! the tlnmwn lame
supptilrul I‘ll mu
cmpirical analysis ol the actual visual phenmnennn and llltl ”(it not mpv
its effect from earlier formulas. liven ll some ancient
pnturt- had mint
nally inspired hurt, our Master 0! the Second Mothllmn Border was petu—
liarly motivated, just like Roger Bacon, to investigate the ellects ol optics
in the natural world lor himself.
Thus he emerges as the most
revolutionary of all the artists who
worked on the St. Francis cycle at Assisi. His illusionistic three-dimen—
sional painted frame is more renascent than anything depicted in the
scenes themselves. Moreover, his applied perceptual discovery quickly
translated into the Renaissance realization that geometric coninimsumtio
(as Piero della Francesca later called it) signifies nobility and moral digni-
ty in any painting. This proved in the long run to be the real pictorial
message of Assisi. It subsequently impressed Masaccio, Fra Angelico, and
Pintoricchio, three quattrocento painters who borrowed the master's
framing concept, even its perspective detachment from the enframed
scenes, for application in their own art
during the next two centuries.3g
Nevertheless, as I have insisted so far, the Master of the Second
Modillion Border initially had no inkling of what his art would endow.
from the
Hi5 inspiration derived same
perceptual-psychological wellspring
as that of Roger Bacon, exacerbated by the spreading twelfth-century
sense that the laws of Euclidian
solid geometry somehow were commen-
39. To be
observed in Masaccio’s Brancacci Chapel frescoes in Santa Maria del Car-
mine, Florence (1423—1427); Fra Agelico's Annunciation in the corridor of the San Mar-
coConvent, Florence (1440—1450); and Pintoricchio’s Piccolomini Library frescoes in the
Duomo, Siena (1503—1508).
75
The Heritage of Giotto‘s Geometry
surate
v‘
mth i
stir itual faith. Both Cimabuc
-
by ‘
. ’
I:
that the ancients originally Uncle
“mud
-
.
-
1
appllt‘d lCllgmn‘
' ‘
"
'
hese
.
(“5(0er
.
._ .
of the figumrm.
>
I 5C9] to S
.
cannot
”‘lu‘le that
g
no Fulton t0
a, .
I have
__
much ‘
single scene—that is, without
to any
called to Assrsx. If as so
gifted masters so urgently sty t e ev1 ISM]: anagsrs of far
failed to prove Giotto's presence, why not consrder ence
peg
"
?
‘
,
metr
doubt What-
in which
we see an identical display of spatial projection is—Wlth no
Assisi, here a classical dentil border painted above the grlsaille revetment
two
long Side
of virtues and vices) the
(displaying personifications on
walls of the Arena Chapel. This time, however, the illusion is organized
as if observed from a
single, stationary viewpoint in the very middle of
the chapel. The convergent system is denoted by two dentils painted
~5—
”om «RT’TTfT— ..
\ .
fijflmmm ()W W ,
‘
1“ a——~f\~— y
W: i; (mi-4:: ] ,
2.21, Right wall, Arena Chapel, Padua (1306). Courtesy of the Musei Civici di Padova‘
77
(7' unlncll‘y
The I'lcrimgc ()l' Giollo'fi
2.22. lnlcrmr Vlcw Inward apsc, Arena ( hapcl. I’.Idu.l (nub). (uurluw ml my Mum ( my
di PJdOV.L
Geometrization of Pictorial Space
41. See 1. White (3), pp. 57—71, for a good analysis of Giotto’s perspective intentions
in the Arena Chapel; also Sandstrom, pp, 21—27.
44. In 1328, in his Life of the Virgin cycle in the Baroncelli Chapel, Santa Croce, Flo-
rence, Taddeo Gaddi, Giotto’s closest follower, borrowed and updated the general com-
position of his mentor's Pudua Annunciation [by combining it with the Visitation and
switching the Virgin to the left). Nonetheless. he felt compelled to ignore Giotto's diver-
substituted the by-now more acceptable convergent convention.
gent perspective and
Here is an instructive example of how a lesser artist, by trying to be conventionally au
courant, sacrificed the very quality achieved by a greater artist when he deliberately
chose to be unconventionally retttrdatnire! See lanson—La l’alme, pp. 286—301.
\l 0
The Heritage 0! (21mm s Geometry
Alinari-Art Resouma
Arena Chapel, Padua [1306]. Photo:
2.23. GlOllO, Aminncimiim.
80
l
Geometrization of
‘ ’
‘
'
maissance
Painting. the illusion that the frame around the
-
- ~
. .
m
painting is not
only fixed in the viewer's
actual space but also integral to the imaginary
structure depicted in the
virtual spacc_-|S
virtuoso perspective
G-iotto's. slowly but surely gained favor among
Italian artists.
Only in the mid-quattrocento, however, did it evon into
a
universally acceptable of conventions for
set
depicting nl natm'nltu ”ac—
cording to nature.” Yet not until the seventeenth
century did these con-
ventions finally replace the outmoded schemata still being printed in
geometry textbooks by professional engineers and scientists.
Interestingly enough, Edward Cranz argues that the great 1"trarch
himself exhibited
t
, .
a
literary imagination remarkably compatible with
Giotto
.
.
5
unique a near contemporary
of the painter, was also an ardent
fan of the writings of Augustine, but
he found himself at odds with his ancie
nt hero. in his Secretion nienni,
written in
1342—1343 ( with revisions from 1353 to 1358], Petrarch pre-
tends that he is having a conversation with
Augustine in the presence of
personified Truth. In the First Dialogue they discuss Petrarch's fear of
death, and Augustine urges him to lift his from his senses to thoughts
the level of his mind, and then to focus its
higher purely intellectual
”eye” upon the physical details of dying. What follows, of course, has
little to do with the real saint. Augustine, had he would actually spoken,
have commented that the eye of the mind sees
only eternal intelligibles,
not vividly imagined sensibles. In his De vem
religione, for instance, he
cites with approval the well—known scriptural admonition (Rom. 1:20):
”The invisible things of God from the creation of the world are
clearly
seen as they are intellected
through what has been made.”““
Petrarch's pseudo-Augustine disjoins the eye of his mind from the in-
tellect, at least long enough for him to see with his mind what he imag-
ines with a physical intensity that never would have occurred to the real
bishop of Hippo:
member a death. One must linger longer and with fierce meditation con-
81
The Heritage of Giuttn's Geometry
made heaven and hell according to the same principles of Euclid that we
82
Ccomclrization of Pictorial Space
2.24. (310110, Last lmlgnmnl, Arena Chapel, l’adun (1306 ). tho: Alinari—Art
Resource.
8 '4)
T" Heme; of Giant: s (January
Wm“ 0"
5.3: ”mm may
“371:? Pints” r1? rc- 3:23:31 7!- '9'
(5"an
731:5.
3-3:: studio rm" 13¢. its-74 the 7:23 5711713? “I Sm???“ 37".}
at rat; at law 3:422 :E-u: :45?! salt
3‘13“???”
M’ 55‘
m
a": 7- M
a:
-
net“; 5:, so
punter at” 2:. 311:! {rs-.uramm
Cf tita- hmrter 51: demt.
of the other florid as 1'” sch as possible use 311113 so;
my; the: thugs he:
descent from the cross after his cruel crucifnuon Ifig. 2.25]. Have yo“
noticed how I painted a number of angioletti flying in the air? Yes, in
the air is the right expression, because I want you to believe that the
blue color around these figures is in fact the airy sky outside the Chapel,
like the birds, and
My little angels are winging through the sky just
wall and land in your
you’ll think they might even come through the
lap!”“
Giotto pauses. ”Ah, you smile, Ser Francesco. You think I am
insolem,
455. A remarkable piece of cvdence revaling how medieval artists before Giotto re-
the Boom in Verona showing Flight into Egypt. The artist represented the principal
the
{spires of the story as if under an architectural loggra. He wanted also to indicate a mes-
senger angel flying down to them from the sky. In order to do so convincingly, he felt
compelled to carve a porthole-lilte frame around the angel so the viewer would perteive
this figure as coming throuflt the flat stone surface!
Ceomelrization of Pictorial Space
Resource
8;
The Heritage of Gimm’s Geomt‘try
"W N
an! Iww'i“.
o
3 _‘
mums blurring and {uzzing In the air just like thc mmcl's (all in llw
nether.” Is that not appropriate?
”lmaginc us vou stand bL-lhrv: my PlCllll’L‘S that by some II‘III'Jk'lIIUlh
5”. I am Indrlvlcd In (‘wmhmn (-Ill‘l‘ll lnr lhltv must nmglulul nlnrn'nuun tllr um
of [IN Lu] 11! [hr >mr(imlm[Luntvd1n |1i<-.'\n'n.| (
ILIpv] I’M/Ilium; and tlu- U-lll
llarny
mp, garmcms of hlb “yum; ungcls
86
Geometrizotion of Pictorial 5P3“
‘
‘
as
conceive of Giotto
.
Pandora's box, flies
pulling yellowed manuscript
a
wildly
0‘ Ba-
con from under his
trarc shPcrspertiva
2
cloak and
quoting following the to Fe-
87
3 / Geometrization of the Supernatural;
Fra Lippo Lippi’s London AHHIWCiatiOH
i
so
.
~
l
bllp‘m‘num
.
,
L-eoinetrization of the
perspective, how 11
was spurred on
by the inte nlions oi
treceiito painters, and how
of Florence hr" FilippU
Brunelleschi
.
independently and in apparent ignorance of my own prior research, that Masaccio did
indeed apply the "centric point” principle, and that this in fact was Brunelleschi’s re-
"
”
discovered rule.
The Heritage of Gmtro‘s Geometry
Santa Maria
3.1. Masaccio, Trinily (ca. 1425). Church of Novella,
Florence. Photo: Gabinetto Fotografico della Soprintendenzn ai Bum
90
The
Heritage of Giotto's Geometry
II
5
Int
stunning announcement, Mary asks, ’How sha t
not a man?" The angel answers, ”The Holy ChOSt i . 31;, 5cm“;uponit DOW
S m
1
93
Ill":
Heritage- «it {jtritzo's (it—”1‘01““!
the \ ttgtn s
3 An “n“ “L“ :, druid ”a.“ painted in
garment a!
dun. :mlvn: cunt-M Nth lK‘f ih ‘
P' uJ~ ..
. v-n
-.. n-
. the -
ri’Jt-d
,,
.
body. '
'
7
“pm 3,, mm. “m“ubic (hull) mtan It is trut. oi course,
v '
. i i
_I ‘th
lum'; JllL’s’ the liar eold .cal luchgmuhd
, . -
7
.
.
quintmcenzu pump,” V
had
ll KIM‘n
wmmmd mel,0".'
.
Slldmk
'
-
1
W
V'Hflfll‘vt‘ illusion.
U
,
mat. for
,
to
E
the surfaces of
l
Jun
.
“Ppl LR
t-mhelh'hmcnt
,
ITI'THLH‘,’ oi ptcturcs.
”W“, for such armngcment of gilded dots
.‘\onethc[C55
i; m
putt-dent .m
as
We
5&1‘
l-‘l’PI’z London x'wmt.ttrtattttt: ’lht‘ft'iUYC'A why “’Wld any “m“ i
dar e
imagine the Virgin s satred lecundatton in Mac h an orna mental
-
, -
V _
“3y f’ii
WM; imihur Lippi," nutu Browning‘s Victorian
‘-
in fa ct
portraitidid
grow bored mth painting "saints and saints and
saints 888111," What
motivated hint to [non so unusual an IRICI‘PTCIJUOH.’ In the
London A”;
”mutation, one of the last oi nearly a dozen ingeniously varied
ye
of this subiect he TSlOnS
painted, he seems to have thoug.ht 0f the matte r in
terms of geometric
t)pilt‘>.
Pflhflpt> [hm idea occurred to him because his own
profession was
Com-
Int; under the influence of that principal concern of science. The
as he well knew. was to
Optics
explain geometrically how visual likene 5565 p355
uncotrupted through the medium of light and then are reproduced in
miniature in the human
eye. This concept had recently found
mediums-
uc
application In Brunellescht's perspective experiments. Geometric
thus presented an ideal model for Optics
demonstrating explicitly yet with Out
breach of decorum how the Holy
Spirit ”came upon" Mary/,5
Representative manuscripts of all the medieval perspective classics
were in common circulation in mid—quattrocento Florence. The
Lorenzo Ghibertt translated
sculptor
many excerpts, or copied them from some-
one else's Italian
translations, in Book III of his Commentarii, Written
the early 14505." We have no further record of in
what Chiberti
to do with this
intended
material, nor do we know for sure whether he shared
it
dicular contact with both surfaces, could "certify" the image clearly. All
oblique rays in the visual cone must either transmit weaker visual details
or become reflected away or refracted (fig. 3.4).” Ever since the ancients
discovered that light falling at right angles upon a transparent surface
if the surface is opaque and inflammable,
passes through unrefracted, or,
causes burning, Western this process with divine
philosophers equated
and moral power. As the German mystic Meister Eckhart (1260.7—1328?)
wrote, the soul ”sees” God just as the eye receives direct light.10
Lindberg (2).
10. Eckhart, sermon xu. Dante was also intrigued, writing in II ronviviu that the
same explains why ”looking
power
someone straight in the eye" 15 virtuous (Dante [1],
pp. 261—62). Perhaps the most popular and widely disseminated of all such applications
of optical science to moral philosophy during the Middle Ages was the tract De oculo
morali, written in the late thirteenth century by another Franciscan monk named Pierre
still and
Lacepierre de Limoges, More than a hundred manuscript copies survive, after
its first in in 1495, three more editions were published, including one
Augsburg,
printing
in Italian; see Clark, pp. 329-43.
95
'l'l'lt‘ Heritage of (imito's Geometry
of species other
explained exactly the corporeal e!
nature
Bacon never
n.
Lindbcrg (5). PP. 5’42-
. -
. l
>11‘Ptu..liu.r3-
W“
Geomezmazicn or the
Bac0n ‘s'v'ct'es
apt theory
,
-
--
“as ..
\‘8(iod-
3mm It :0
t
.
0““ 0:93er
- A
~ '
3 .
.
process. A copy
.
or .7: -‘::i.:::x:;.z-
tionv.‘ Sph‘t‘lt‘mm was
purchased for the
San Marco Librarv probablv bv ' '
13
The Medici Laurentian Librarv still _v , ..
.
possesses three '
another 0t De i~::if:::'.'::ttt:o-:c
specu’nlnl, which were probablv in
. A ‘
Florence d uring the fifteenth century
‘
The Riccardiana
Bibl‘mefil owns two more
fourteenth—centurt' editions of ‘
F’erspechm.H
NoFlorentine, howe ver, left behind more documentation of this inter-
est in Bacon than Lorenzo Ghiberti. His third
Cozitiiteiititrio is filled mth
relevant quotations, sometimes garbled, sometimes translated verbatim
from Bacon or from Bacon's chief follower,
john Pecham (ca. 12::-
1292).13 These excerpts have to do “'ltl’l the nature and material—of spe-
cies, how it carries images through the air to the and what eye. happens
within the eye itself. Ghiberti also cited many
passages from Bacon and
other perspectivists concerning the necessity for usual ravs to be perpen-
diculnri to produce clear vision. “If one “’iShES to the forms of certify
things seen," he quoted from the Arab Alhazen, “one moves [the eye] so
14. p. 40. Both of the Laurentian copies til Bacon's Pi‘YSPt‘Clli‘fl are
Lindberg (i),
cataloged under the
same rubric: 513 Hut. :9. Also in the Laurcnziana is MS. Ash.
burnham 957; copy of Dr imilti'plimiinnt- SPI'L'M'HHYL The RlCCdl'dlanLl copies of the Per»
a
mouera sicché il mczo Sia opposna a ciaschcduna partc della cnsa msa."
"El perchi: quests linea é perpendicularc ct diritto lor-
i7. Schlosscr (1), pt 78: ct
The Heritage of CionJ’s Geometry
m
During Chibern's busiest years
2.;
tic-.673“? 3767‘s “:1? ’1452, “hen
or SC? 522' ‘béffi
he designing and casting the :e: canes Famine
'
was
Maria Knox-a
his open botiega opposite the Hospita: of Santa send ‘1‘-
a
kind of meetingplace where painters and snip: :s
ga:hered to
:
50551;, lad
talk shop. We can be sure the: tie amtabje Brenner L'ppo was a fire-
.
even emitting
rays diagonally toward her?
We have good evidence that Lippi thought out this pictorial solution
within the classical and medieval framework of Bacon's “multiplicmjon of
species” theory. Surely,when the artist painted his dove facing Mary’s
womb, he was thinking, just as Ghiberti's glosses stressed, about what
'
the medieval perspectivists mlled ”certifimtion": that is, that distinct \i-
sion occurs only when, as Bacon stated, the visual object “confronts” the
tissimamente quello e." Chiberti’s statement, written in Florence about the same time
his London Annunciation, ought to offer as solid textual evi-
that Lippiwas painting
hope for to explain why the artist placed the dove in such
dence as any historian could
an unusual position before the Virgin’s womb.
18. Bacon (2), 2:56; [4), 2:475.
‘
generation multipli ed
. . a
by
of air/'19 In the lowest of these
a drawing forth
muitlplylng haloes, just before the
the Holy Spirit had at last
Virgin’s womb Lippi indicated that
materialized as the familiar dove.
LOOk carefully at
Lippi’s image of the dove cum From its Holy Spirit.
head another array 0f gilded dots
often show
seems to radiate. Painted Annuncia-
such clusters of
trons
bOhC
golden rays fanning out from the sym-
dove, commonplace a
pictorial metaphor of celestial communication.
What ‘5 unusual is that from the
Virgin’s abdomen, just opposite the
dove, HOWS an even more sharply formed
reciprocating pyramid of
clustered rays. Moreover, it
emerges from a short vertical opening delib—
erately painted in the Virgin’s garment
The rays from the dove are
depicted in long wavy lines of golden dots;
those coming from the Virgin are shorter and somewhat
straighter. Rays
from the two sides make
no contact with each other—save one
issuing
from the of the cluster around the dove’s beak and
center
reaching to-
ward another coming from the opposite direction, the center of the clus-
19. Lindberg (5), p. 15, quotes from James McEvoy, The Philosophy of Robert
Grosseteste (Oxford, 1982), PP- 65—67, 136. Though the passage refers to the specific
theories of Crosseteste, it is also relevant not only to Bacon but to Lippi’s image in the
London Annunciation:
Light streaming from a source tends to form a hierarchy of diminishing power, and
the created lights in their varying degrees of participation imitate the nature of the
source of light, each shining or reflecting upon the next light which it has itself
received from above. The generation and extension of light downwards from this
. . .
g
spiritual sun leaves it in itself unchanged, undivided, and still transcendent to the
hierarchy formed by its effusion. Since all light comes from
. . . the Father of . . .
Lights, the work of the assimilation and transmission of light within the grades of the
hierarchy, down even to the lowest, is as much the activity of the lux supreme as of
the lowest beings themselves. ,.
EJF1L"5— The Heritage of Giotto’s Geometry
B th
.
and corized !
In both De multiplicationc specierimi [’erspeciivm
aCOSn
only one the
kinddlr}?Ct10n. ifnce
in J
that species does not act upon the eye
0 counter orce 0n
exert some
m
eye is such a special organ, it must
of seen. I quote
things
the appropriate passage {mm
the incoming species
Bacon’s Perspectiva:
its force. Bur
Therefore vision must perform the act of seeing by own and
the act of seeing is the perception of a visible object
at
to the
a
distance,
therefore vision perceives what is
visible by its own force
fitted
multiplied
of the things of the world
are
not by
object. Moreover, the species because of its noblenessl
act of vision at once
nature to effect the complete
which
Hence these must be aided and
excited by the species of the eye,
and changes the medium and
travels in the locality of the visual pyramid,
itself of the
ennobles it and so prepares the passage of the species
. . .
so that it is quite
similar and
visible object, and, moreover, ennobles it,
the of the animate body which is the eye.20
nobility
analogous to
The next hint of Lippi’s debt to Bacon’s optics is the way he repre-
the Virgin. Only one ray issil-
sented species coursing from the dove
to
the actions
species must follow a ”twisting path [linen tortuosa]
. . . as
e uvea:
eye falls into the opening of the uvea and is placed directly opposite
. . .
the opening—that is, the center of the eye—and thus makes vision and
the act of seeing good and principal.23
. .
questa.
tunica si chiama uuea pero che’lla e simile alla uua, pero che’lla lascia
. . .
del ramo
nella sua parte dinanci el foro si come si lascia nella uua, quando si leua
all’occhio cade nel foro
d’apiccarla. [La] piramide perpendiculare sopra
. . .
. . .
. . .
101
The Heritage of Giotto’s Geometry
‘
\‘It mun llumnr
Opnc .
(Irysullinus
I
' 3.5. Visual rays entering
the human eye, as
understood in medieval
l optics.
his model/’25
wound so that he conforms to Christ’s sufferings through
Bacon's theory of vision as
Before going further, let us quickly review
7
I II II
the incoming species encounters the denser humoral medium of the in-
eye, which has its own potentiality. Upon the anterior surface of the
ner
actualizes the original likeness,
sensitive crystallinus, the species
'
as or
in Clark, p. 338.
25. As quoted
26. Bacon (2), 2:32—33.
102
Geometrization of the Supernatural
archbishop of Florence. Fra Antonino had been
prior of the Dominican
of San Marco when the Medici took it under their
convent
sponsorship
in In 1446 he was ecclesiastical office in
1499- appointed to the highest
the city, P0St he h81d with distinction until his death in 1459. 50 CS-
a
with
piety civic pride, were perfectly in tune
Toward the end of his life, Antonine edited his preachings in a vastv‘t.
work he called the Summa theologica—a Thomistic conceit, since the
i
archbishop intended to formulate a set of moral guidelines that would
transform his beloved Florence into Jerusalem, heaven on 1
a true New
earth in figuram.28 Two threads relevant to Lippi’s painting run through-
out the diverse subjects covered in his opus. The archbishop was fasci- 3.
Regarding light, Antonine took pleasure in the fact that he knew the
current scientific literature on the subject. He even wrote a sermon ”(511]
the Twelve Properties of Divine Grace and Their Similarity to Material E
Light” (”De duodecim proprietatibus divinae gratiae ad similitudinem lu- i
God’s grace is like a ray of sunlight at high noon, which magis directe ,
l
reverberat terram, ”strikes the earth at right angles,” thus releasing its
the principles of geometric optics?"
greatest intensity, according
to
103
The Heritage of Giotto's Geometry
Antonine was
captivated by the story of the Virgin Mary. Fully an
artist had ever tried to represent in paint. For instance, Antonine de-
scribed Gabriel as appearing in outward human form but, since he was
really composed of divine species, as having no need of either teeth or
palate. Thus he did not speak with his mouth but transcommunicated the
”voice from heaven in the air” (110:: de caelo
. . .
in aere) by means . . .
Concerning the modus of her impregnation, when the Holy Spirit Su—
pervem't in Mariam, Antonine elaborated on the traditional Dominican
analysis. Following Aquinas and Albertus Magnus, he wished to make it
explicitly clear that the divine begetting took place in utero, not in uter-
um, the ablative case underscoring Mary’s virginity both before and af—
came upon her, Mary felt no ”heat of sexual desire” (calorem concupis-
present such likenesses, which are called phantasms or imaginations to the intellect, and
in those forms it is made intelligible).
3o. 1 have analyzed elsewhere Antonine’s Annunciation remarks in vol. 4, tit. 15, cap.
8, cols. 957-85; see Edgerton (3), pp. 115—30.
col. 970.
31. Antonine, vol. 4, tit. 25, cap. 9,
32. Ibid., tit. 15, cap. 9, col. 973.
104
- -————
———\\|-\ \\m
ural
Geometrization of the
.
.
Supernat
uncontaminated An-
es
through a transparent medium. At that point
tonine tactfully dropped the subject altogether. \
surely adapted Euclid’s theorem XXI, which accounts for this phe-
optical
his similar Moreover, he cut a little
nomenon, to problem in painting.
hole in the back of the picture to convince his viewers, as they looked
front (fig.
through it in order to see a mirror reflection of the painting in
3.6), that the manner they were seeing the painting was just
in which
be-
the same as if they were looking through the pupil in the uvea and
"7%-
—
.
holding what the inner eye displays upon the surface of the glacial
brane.
mem-
'
105
The Heritage of (iitilto's Geometry
perspective picture.
35. Powerful clerics in fifteenth-century Florence often lashed out against inappropri-
ate or potentially heretical artistic representation of religious subject matter. ArchbishOp
Antonine offered a sermon on the problem; see Gilbert (3) for a cogent analysis.
106
Geometrization of the Supernatural
to
imagined in the public mind. Too often origina-
tors 0f
new, relatively abstract ideas try to force them into outmoded
schemata that fail to convince and sometimes even contradict. Unfortu-
nately for Lippi, his new baby not couldn’t sit comfortably in the
only
traditional bath but was thrown out altogether when the old water was
discarded.
Scientists need shed no tears, of course. Bacon’s Aristotelian theories
were
inherently wrong even if they were geometrically rational. In Lip-
pi’s lifetime, artists were inventing new perspective—derived conventions
the
that theoretically could have convinced quattrocento audience that
a
perspective even when they depicted the heavens. This concern made ,
them inadvertent but essential contributors to Western civilization’s ac-/
ceptance of modern science.
out to Florentine painters by
36. The problem of gold leaf had already been pointed
Leon Battista Alberti in his 1435—1436 treatise on painting; see Alberti (1), pp. 92-93:
it lends
There [painters] who make excessive use of gold, because they think
are some
107
Terrestrial Space;
4/ Ceometriz ation of
Conventions
Inventing Pict orial
the fact that as mathematics
thjng is impressive than
more
of ever greater extremes
withdrew increasingly into the upper gions
re
.
l
The perspective geo metry of Giotto and Brunelleschi had
i
. .
structure use of
without the drawings? Unlikely, yet the thought hints
that the real import of Renaissance perspective was not what it did for
se but how it conditioned the mind’s eye
to ”see” three—dimen-
art per
sional images a priori.3 Unlike his contemporary master-mason
colleagues, who tended to build upward with no clear idea when to step
until they subjectively felt their foundations would support no more,
1 1. The term artisan-engineerby Lynn White, Jr. ; see his interesting dis.
was coined
cussion of this peculiar profession in Levy, pp. 36—58. For an insightful
Renaissance
analysis of the Renaissance meaning of ingegno and genius, see Kemp (2).
2. Concerning the building of Brunelleschi’s ”dome,” see Prager/Scaglia (1); Main-
4.1. The Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence, known as the Duomo for
Brunelleschi’s cupola (finished 1436).
109
lltt‘ lletttage \ll \liNlt‘ s \lt‘olttt‘ll \'
his slllit'tltl’ e
whole from the “an,
ll““‘“ll“»‘\l\i wetns to lane imagined and tension
loteseetng and compensation hit all possible t‘ttlttpt‘essntltor not he made
l‘llt‘lm' tit‘le' Whether
l““l‘l\‘lll‘~ lit lltt‘ lowest wither. til that he c ould visualize
th e lat‘l
‘l"‘“”‘.“v‘ llk‘tt‘lete less important than
“ was I aid. lle
J m gle stone
\ast .utlntettntal loom lllll'l‘ltm'lt betore Florentine cupul“
his ne w
cleailv intended that m .h .nneter and height domed
l ‘antheon. the gr .tntlt‘st
"l‘m‘ltl “01 lost m'al but sutpass the
oi the L‘aesars.-“
loan the at :e
building to suttwc iii the West who codified
.‘\ll‘\‘l‘ll. the humanist author
w arned his "Cutlets
ltonttallv leon liatttsta
a book
lol‘ .I rchitects,
and then wrote
l“‘|’>i‘\‘\‘ll\e tales science:
ne w ptctorial
not to lie liegntlcd lw lirnnelleschi's
tietttrt. "‘
‘
to ‘
.
would not praise Filippo the architect . . .
H not was r0 i
hat oi engineumg K ‘
‘ ‘ ‘
itil_\ tqualh unknown and ummagmable among the ancients For challenging d‘p
t . . '
' ‘ "
, \ n -
H ‘ '1 ISCus—
' '
' '
see
|
l‘eldhaus. pp i—ts.
(:l, p. )4. See also the discussion of this passage in Lot? PP~ 4 5, 39—40.
6.
{albernmoving discussion of the knack of art's Lans‘h'tp and the parallels between its.
"
7. tor a
.
.
"Whom
t I?.ntottan
“I
‘
'1 l0
Geometrization of Terrestrial bpnu
;tl::l:1:‘k;:t:\th:::$j\ e.\‘t“and
wouldsbe cttpottzaestri_
.
~
then transfer their
tmenston to a notebook page was captivating t0
exact
likenesses
com-
standard; his
Pel‘Spt‘Ctive n h ot in i{ ‘1‘.“1‘ iPt‘t am:
if 1" form
~
a kilni of sym
x
‘
~b '
indicating the
risin» < tatus of ,
sultednot from trompe l'oeil illusionism per se but front clever manip-
Ul‘mon of such conventions.
By such manipulations the artisan-engineer ,
learn
would to
exPlOI‘e not just the surface but the covert interior of
-
dian concepts into tangible images. Hence he described linen as like the
hem or border of a piece of cloth, and concavims as like "the inner sur-
"
face of eggshells.”ll
Well before the Renaissance, however, Western artisan-engineers were '
I.
8. For an
econverso convexitas" fFor example, concavity is perceived when the distance to the mid-
dle is greater than that at the extremes, and convexity vice versa). I.
11. Alberti (1), pp. 38-39; see Edgerton (2), pp. 79—82.
111
1
The Heritage of (iiotlo's (ieoiiieli'y
a number of heretofon.
cover that the Arabs had as siduously copied
aes on this subject. Christian
unknown aiitiqtie (ii’eek and Latin treati
them into readable Latin, and
scholars were thereupon sent to transcribe .
as PU'J‘Jlbl‘? 1”
to disseminate manuscripts as quickly
also
Apollodfiwb,
‘
112
Geometrization of Terrestrial Space
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bou-
'
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on .
:ibliothéque
ans.
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J‘s—d Collection.
0f the HOIY Land beyond the and of the health of his body, and of
sea,
the Of his
Guido
prolongation life, together with a safeguard against poisons."
himselfodid not illustrate his original manuscript.
In fact, he em-
P19I’ed twoamStS, one for his medical section, the other for the
part on
military
machinery from which
figure 4.3 is taken.” The draftsmen who
drew thethe
PICNIC? in the Yale
version
copied without
question from the
original traditional squashed schemata. In anv
event, we are sup-
posed F0 envisage here a castellated, mobile assault chariot "driven with-
out animals”
(as the text states)
erated by a man made ’
by a complex gear-and-pinion system
‘
0?
'
I
.
19. The Yale version of Guido’s "Texaurus" does not contain a medical section. For
discussion and reproduction of this remarkable illustrated
manuscript in the Bibliotheque
Nationale, see Wickersheimer (1) and (2). Guido’s illustrator in this instance was a com-
petent manuscript illuminator working in the up-to~date manner of Franco—Flemish nat—
uralism; Panofsky (7), pp. 21—50; Edgerton (5), p. 174.
see
20. Another
good example of squashed—view technical drawing is to be found in the
twelfth-century ”Hortus deliciarum” of Abbes Herrad of Landsberg, fol. 112v.
21. As the author advised
(chap. x1, fol. xii verso): ”And all these things will be at
the discretion of the master millwright, who knows how to adjust these wheels to-
gether."
22. See al—Jazari; Hassan/Hill; Saliba.
23. The Islamic engineer’s attitude toward machine illustration is best summed up in
al-Jazari’s own words (p. 192]: ”In drawing I have not aimed for completeness.
. . .
My
purpose was to present an arrangement so it can be understood in the whole and in de-
tail. One realizes that there is obscurity in the representation of solid bodies, but in the
imagination one can fit one thing to another, view it from any angle, dissect it, and thus
”
assemble it step by step.
115
The Heritage of Giotto’s Geometry
view
ubiquitous preperspective, so-called squashed an in ever
Was the
tentional drawing device, with deliberate, comprehensible schemata for
viewers understand these
indicating complex volumes? Did contemporary
”naive” schemata in the same way read the conventions 01'
we are able to
116
Geometrization of Terrestrial Space
emers, particularly in Italy, not satisfied when they reached this stage?
Why did they seek greater geometrical precision in their pictures?
Let us trace the gradual dissemination of Giotto’s geometry north-
ward, even across the Alps. Figure 4.6, a design for another war chariot,
comes from an influential treatise called Bellifortis (literally ”Strong
118
‘
H, 5 _
a two-wheeled horse-drawn
vehicle, in the middle of which is a movable
platformSleleS.
mounted pivm and armed with projecting spears and long
0“ a
L:_—
gives no clear understanding of how one level of parts connects in depth
to another.
a
Figure illustrating a treadwheel-powered gristmill, comes from a
4.7,
second Transalpine notebook by an artisan known only as Anonymous of
the Hussite Wars, dating from the mid-fifteenth century.30 Crude as this
sketch is, we do observe that all the constituent elements of the machine,
including the size of the man turning the treadwheel, have been drawn
more or less to scale. The artist indicated this fact by cleverly adapting the
ancient principle of the geometric grid. Indeed, as we look at his picture,
we
unconsciously register the sizes and separating distances of all parts
of his gristmill in relation to the surrounding flat architectural lattice,
so sketched that it looks like the open end of a partitioned two-story
building (our artist even drew brackets nailed across the corners!). The |
Figures 4.8, 4.9, and 4.10 are from Italian manuscript composed
an
.
and illustrated about 1420 by Giovanni Fontana of Venice (ca. 1395—ca.
I’F' pears
29.
on facing fol. 2or. Gotz Quarg's (ierman
translation follows in 2:19.
30. Manuscript copy in the Staatsbibliothek, Munich, Cod. lat. 197, pt. 1, fol. zov.
(pt. includes Taccola’s "De ingeneis”). For reproductions and commentary
2
see
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4.8. Adrawing from Giovanni Fontana’s ”Bellicorum instrumentorum liber . . .
,”
fol. 67v ( ca. 1420).
Courtesy of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Munich.
121
The Heritage of Giorto’s Geometry
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fol. 7or (ca. 1420). Courtesy of the Bayerischc Staatsbiblimhek, Munich.
122
Geometrization of Terrestrial Space
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light reflection,
mirrors, and all sorts of optical tricks, many designs of
which he included among his instruments of war. In figure 4.8 we ob-
serve an animated castellum umbrarum, a ”castle of shadows” made of
folded, translucent parchment. Suspended before this mock fortress is a
The Heritage of Giotto’s Geometry
The cipher beneath the Latin text in this picture reads: ”You know what
pp. 99-100.
is constructed by my hand and my ingenuity.
”
124
Geometrization of Terrestrial Space
x theatricalcorhple
stage (a prototype of l’iranesi's
”prison”?) with interior 5 paces
separated from the exterior by a system
of convertible Windows.
.
or
.
wrth-
ou t :
In the f'irst
mode, I
-
external
the
parts in
way appear transparent. In the third mode, you do
a to
ll‘St OPPOSite, because the openings that conduct the light are now
Situated in the interior, while
those that block it are exterior.
‘Flfilly,
low Venetian and consumate master of Albertian
e
perspective (and
;m,
ather of the painters Gentile and
Giovanni, as well as father-in-law to
Andrea Mantegna). Fontana even dedicated a ”Rules for
treatise, special
the Art of
Painting,” (presumably tolinear perspective; unfor—
Bellini on
were born and raised in the very Tuscan region where Brunelleschi’s re-
finement of Giotto’s geometry had made its strongest impact. Two gen—
37. Omont; Clagett (2), 32247-50, and (1), pp. 14—17; Battisti/Battisti, pp. 35—38.
38. This is a free English
interpretation of the passage as decoded by Battisti/Battisti,
p. 91. It is clear, however, that even the Battistis’ careful epigraphy is only a loose trans- _
lation. Whoever inscribed the cryptogram in the first place (the Battistis suspect an ig-
norant assistant of Fontana) made several mistakes in letter substitution. The Battistis
have rendered the segment of the cipher that appears at just this point as per specula,
reading disagrees (especially since no other mention of
"
”mirrors” appears in the rest of the passage). I prefer instead to transliterate the symbols
as
spelling some form of perspicere, ”to see through,” the Latin verb from which, of
perspectiva derived.
course,
,.
The of Giotto’s Geometry I
Heritage
l
WIHdOW
( l “
matur Brunelleschi: the
by of a picture as
perception
a
through
i
.l which the viewer gazes from a single point of view, and the sense that
the sizes of all objects within this fictive window appear in scale, accord—
their relative distances apart.
(ingrtoaccola began his new career working on the roads and water
supply of
his native Siena. As his competence and ambitions grew, he sought a
more prestigious appointment as engineer to the holy
Roman‘emperor,
who was to visit the city in 1433. This event occasioned the completion
of the first of his two known illustrated treatises, ”De ingeneis” (”On
Engines”), begun about
1427.47- second, His sometimes called ”De
ma-
chinis” (”On Machines”) but more properly ”De rebus militaribus” (”On
Military Matters”), was composed sixteen years later.43 Taccola wrote in
stiff notarial Latin, accompanying the text in both books with nearly tw0
hundred drawings by his own hand.
42. Two manuscripts exist, Clm. 197, pt. 11, containing bks. 1 and 2, in the Bayrische
Staatsbibliothek, Munich, and Palat. 766, containing bks. 3 and 4, in the Biblioteca
Nazionale, Florence. The text of the Munich manuscript (but not all its illustrations.) ap-
pears in Degenhart/Schmitt/Eberhardt. An entire facsimile of the second has been ed-
ited by I. H. Beck; see Taccola (1). Both manuscripts and illustrations (very small) havc
been published by Prager/Scaglia (z) with an English translation. See also Rose (1).
43. The original manuscript is Clm. 28 800 in the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek. It has
been published in facsimile; see Taccola (2). Two variants, a partial
copy, Spencer 136,
New York Public Library, and Cod. lat. 7239 in the
Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, have
also been collated to the Munich manuscript and published in a
comprehensive edition
by Knobloch (2). A third partial copy is in the Biblioteca San Marco, Venice, Lat. :94].
Geometrization of Terrestrial Space
4.11. Fol. 1or of Taccola’s ”De ingeneis” (ca. 1427). Courtesy of the Biblioteca
Nazionale Centrale, Florence.
127
Q Q.
The Heritage of Giotto’s Geometry
earliest
most common drafting convention
in use today for revealing how parts
the
Brunelleschi’s perspective peculiarly allowed
the
artist Who right
to SUS~
An knew the
pend the laws of gravity in his pictorial space. artist
rules (and Taccola certainly did, even if he frequently ignored them)
could imagine solid objects such as cannonballs floating incongruously\
the laws of
as long, of course, as he rendered them
in
accordance with
in the aesthetic
a mediocre artist
geometric optics. Though Taccola was
happens psyChOIOSically the mind’s
in
sense, he was sensitive to what
eye when one looks at such a
physical anomaly in a perspective picture.
Taccola knew, for instance, that if he drew the cannonball larger than
no
less by the
the cannon and showed them both as illuminated more
or
able to
similarly into the bore at the breech of the gun
slip
magazine as
that would
barrel. In fact, he was trying to create another convention
permit one to study the functioning parts at the ends of two interlocking
both normally be
in a single seen
cylinders, though
even at once cannot
side view. Though it may appear that Taccola had simply reverted to the
old squashed manner, he was hardly naive. What we have here is a de-
liberate attempt to violate a perspective rule so that the viewer might
visualize what could not be seen in reality. This convention appears
throughout the notebook drawings of both Taccola and his follower
Francesco di Giorgio Martini, but probably because it did look old—
fashioned, later artisan-engineers disdained it. In the early sixteenth cen-
tury they achieved the same result with a variant of this convention, the
revolved or rotated section, examples of which we shall consider in due
course.
tures. Figure 4.12 illustrates a horse whim and paternoster pump. Taccola
solved his design problem, which had to do
again with the perpendicular
transmission of rotary poWer, by imagining the construction contained
128
Geometrization of Terrestrial SpaCC
drawing from Taccola’s De machinis,” fol. 96v (ca. 1443). Courtesy of the
"
4.12. A
Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Munich.
within an
open-ended room, the walls of which, as well as a column con-
veniently set in the forward part, allowed him to demonstrate how the
apparatus could be supported on four sides. This is an incipient version
of what today is called the cutaway view or, by architects, a perspective
section. Compare, for instance, Taccola’s drawing with the similar idea of
a
gear-driven gristmill in figure 4.7. That anonymous artist, too, tried to
The Heritage of Giotto’s Geometry
.—
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'-
Q
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4 13 A drawing from Taccola's "De machinis,” fol. 82v (ca. 1443). Courtesy of the
Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Munich,
tainly not as with Taccola, what holds the quirn above the gearing mech-
anism or where the man sits in relation to the treadwheel that drives it.
Figure 4.13 may be the first instance ever of what modern engineers
13o
Geometrization of Terrestrial SpaCt‘
of a hollow wood
removing
water from a mine. Such a device consisted
or metal tube thrust
the tube
vertically into the sump. Inside
a
close-fitting piston, also hollow but capped by a hinged “3P
valve, could be lowered. As the
piston descends in the water, the air in-
side is pushed out
through the open flap valve. When the piston is pulled
up, the flap valve closes,
causing
a suction and forcing the water to rise
with the piston to a
spout at the top.45
Both cutaway and
transparent view conventions
permit us to under-
internal structures look without the
stand how
dimenSional models.
need to build three-
Simply by adding a little perspective and shading,
Taccola was able to transform
. ambiguous outlines into transparent three-
dimensronal volumes,
letting see inside and rationally understand the
us
crucial hidden action of machines—as
intimately bound to their function
as God’s divine species was to the
fecundation of the Virgin Mary.
Yet a flaw in Taccola’s suction
pump design indicates that he probably
never
actually tested the deVlce.“ We notice, for instance, that the piston
in figure 4.13 is to be raised and
lowered by means of a rope tied directly
to the bend of a crank. If this
crank were then the would
turned, piston
have oscillated,
binding against the cylinder first on
on one side and then
the other at every stroke and
up down, quickly wearing the wellhead,
weakening the suction, and eventually causing the pump to fail.
Interestingly enough, it was Francesco di Giorgio Martini who discov~
ered and corrected this error. In fact, a number of Taccola’s
original
drawings were passed on to Francesco di Giorgio, who seems to have in-
herited Taccola’s practice
during the second half of the fifteenth cen-
tury.47 Francesco di Giorgio had also seen and admired manuscripts of
the "Ten Books on Architecture”
by the ancient Roman Vitruvius, rous—
ing his aspirations to be not only the second Archimedes but Vitruvius
reborn. Moreover, he was a more talented artist than Taccola; in fact, a
clear proof, only that he was the first to draw a clearly recognizable picture of the com-
plicated internal operation of the device.
47, The relationship between Taccola and Francesco di Giorgio—whether the latter
was a garzone in Taccola’s shop who worked his
way up to journeyman and then suc-
ceeded his master—has not yet been established. For evidence that Francesco di Giorgio
actually had Taccola’s notebooks in his possession, see Michelini—Tocci. Concerning
Francesco di Giorgio's engineering, see Olschki, 1:119—36; Gille, pp. 101—21.
131
The
Heritage of (hands Geometry
Pinacoteca di Siena_
4.14. Francesco di Giorgio Martini, Nfiiit‘if. (detail? 1475.lL
Photo: Alinari-Art Resource.
school of
distinguished representative of the Sienese quattrocento paint-
detail from his Nativity. Though not so graceful a
ing. Figure 4.14 is a
skilled in matters of pEI'SpeCtive and
painter as Leonardo, he just
was as
Chiaroscuro, as we can see in his rendering of the two angels' faces, Espe—
di
Giorgio's fanna-
light under their chins. Francesco
cially the reflected
halos, which he painted
tion with optics is also evident in the prominent
as if they were metallic mirrors reflecting
the hair on the back of the an~
gels' heads.
in several note-
As engineer, Francesco di Giorgio recorded his ideas
books filled with hundreds of drawings.” Unlike his mentor, Taccola, he
132
Geometrization of Terrestrial Space
his Italian and included numerous
wrote r a 1telxt
in '
precociously classical ar-
chitectu esrgns, Wthh are much studied
.
Figures 4.15 and 4.16 show pages from the handsome version of
two
Francesco di Giorgio’s treatise in the Laurentian Library, Florence, at one
time owned and annotated
by Leonardo. The drawings were originally
complete and the author’s ediiio princeps for Federigo di Montefeltro, Duke of
surely
Urbino. Concerning Francesco di Giorgio’s relation to Federigo, see Olschki, 12119—36. it
is not known for whom the incomplete versions in the Bibliotcca Nazionale and the Lau—
rentian Library
were intended, but Leonardo da Vinci owned the latter for a
originally
time and added his own marginalia. For the approximate dating of these manuscripts, see
Betts.
Laurentian Library, Florence, fol. 32v, and Cod. Saluzziano 148,
51. Cod. Ash. 361,
Duke of Genoa Library, Turin, fol. Br; published in Martini (1), 12139—40. For an anal—
ysis of this passage, Parronchi (2).
see
8 below.
52. Reti. See also chap.
733
The Heritage of Giotto’s Geometry
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137
The Heritage of Giotto’s Geometry
device but
ing. Each sketch only recorded a particular
not revealed 0th~
erwise hidden problems he then corrected in further drawings. Francesco
di Giorgio was quite aware of the power of drawing, even adViSing the
w0uld-be architect learn the skill, especially make clear the
how to
to in-
ternal details of structures in relation to the exterior parts that cover
them.34
help Francesco di
We trace a revealing instance of the
Giorgio’s "Went
conventions in
”experi, a seriesof
tive capacity received from perSpective
ments" with Taccola's original suction pump, straight COPY 0f Which he
a
have realized its inherent defect right away because on subsequent folios,
he drew alternative methods, trying with various combinations of ratchet
the piston without friction—
gears and bar chains to raise and lower
solution occurred to him, which
causing oscillation. Finally an ingenious
he then appliedto his designs in the Edith) Pri’ICC’I’S, as in
many pump
the drawing at the lower right of figure 4.17-
We notice here that he has substituted a rigid metal rod for Taccola’s
rope connecting the piston to the crank. His remarkable innovation, how—
at the top of the rod within which
ever, was to fashion an elliptical loop
the crank arm, encased in rolling sleeve, slips back and forth as it
a
turns. Thus the crank is constrained to pressure the piston only up and
down instead of making it wobble. Francesco di Giorgio added this ad-
It would be very useful and almost necessary for the architect, or anyone who Wants
to seize any fruit of my little work, to understand a bit about the art of drawing,
since without that one can’t understand the composition of the parts of
architecture,
and moreover it is this art, more than knowledge and
intelligence acquired from
books and drawings, that requires invention, without which it is not possible to be a
good architect, because many things that cannot be described or taught have to
remain at the discretion and judgment of the artisan. Moreover, those
drawings that
are set forth as
examples everywhere cannot be completely explained, because the
outside surfaces obscure the interior. Not to multiply infinite examples, either the
exterior parts truly have to remain imperfect when the interior parts are made
perlw
_
Finally, because, as I have said, invention is necessary for perfection in art, many
persons, having mentally constructed a building with all the right proportions, can-n-
get it started because they don’t know how to show it in drawing either to
themselves or to others. When these conditions are attended to,
however, it will n:
be difficult for anyone to work rationally.
be an engineer,
as is apparent from the numerous
copies of Francesco di
Giorgio’s machine designs in his own extant drawing books.57 For
our
Giuliano's most
important and original contribution to the en—
purposes,
gineering art
was his ability to fuse his au courant archaeological inter—
in ruins even in
only interpretive reconstructions, for both edifices were
almost
the early cinquecento. Nonetheless, Giuliano envisaged them
Francesco
fully reconstructed in plan, elevation, and section by adapting
condition.
di Giorgio’s transparent view convention to their collapsed
Cleverly he exposed an interior section of the Temple of
Portunus by
tumbledown wall, and the pe—
peering through a gap in its grass-covered,
on its fragmented stle-
ripteral plan of the Temple of Vesta by musing
to the otherwise
bate. Giuliano thus added some archaeological spice
his modification
bland conventions of perspective geometry. Indeed,
books of the six-
found frequent application in the printed architectural
teenth and seventeenth centuries.
Leonardo da Vinci too was privy to Francesco di Giorgio’s conventions.
Leonardo’s peculiar genius as an inventor (aided agairTi
Without slighting
ability as a draftsman), we must
his extraordinary
acknowledge that
by
contribution had to do with his system-
his most important engineering
atic geometric study of the
human body. In fact, no earlier artisan—
save Guido da Vigevano had ever been concerned with anatomi-
engineer
Francesco di Giorgio concerned with here was efficient transmission of
was
56. What was one of the
as Lynn White, Ir., has argued,
to vertical force, which,
rotary motion
in the history of technology; see L. White (2), pp. 112—16~
most crucial achievements
Francesco di Giorgio's modified pump
was frequently plagiarized; see, e. g.,
Incidentally,
in chap. 8 below.
the 1605 variant in Zonca, discussed
Cod. Barberiniano 4424, Vatican Li-
5 IV 8, Biblioteca Comunale, Siena;
57. Cod.
Facsimile editions of Giuliano’s notebooks have been pub-
brary. See Borsi, pp. 317—33.
lishedby Falb and by Huelson.
text vol., p. 54.
58. Huelson, plate vol., p. 39;
139
The Heritage of Giotto’s Geometry
;.,_ I
gr
“"15“”;
A.
'
IIIIII
«nmnl'loumunn 1 v
Ht
'nxxvnum
v
'1‘},
1:31,“;151‘. '5‘”
‘
. .
... -
_.
4.18. Drawings from Giuliano da Sangallo’s Codex Barberinianus lat. 4424, f0]. 37r (sixteenth L .1
Courtesy of the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana.
14o
Geometrization of Terrestrial Spate
'
pported like a
building and
principles.
di
ventions.60 His
Giorgio’s engineering drawing con-
impulse to
analy ze
the human skull in this remarkable
way is just as
likely to have deri ved from
Francesco di Giorgio’s tech-
niques for machine design.
.,
hls
.
icating alignments
of connecting parts in
depicted
_
0f
machlnes. We Observe well-known instance in the lower
a
left corner
figure 4.20, where he drew an
exploded view of three cer~
“cal vertebrae, ShOWing by means of four
parallel vertical lines where
the separated facets and processes of each
will join.
Though Leonardo’s lines are not dotted in the modern
engineering\
style, he did intend them to
signify special, sometimes invisible concepj
tual features of his subject.
Paradoxically, what appears to us today as al‘
precocious application of modern scientific method he in fact employed tb
solve, in the case of the lower skull drawing in figure 4.19, such medi- l
)
eval mysteries as the location of the soul.
Leonardo, ever convinced of l
the perfection of Euclidian geometry, believed he had discovered this site
at the point where a horizontal line drawn
along the optic canal is per- i
pendicular to a vertical line
dropped through its internal foramen in the : M
cranial fossa.“
Compare, finally, one of Leonardo’s famous
drawings of sickle-armed
military vehicles
(fig. 4.21) with Guido da Vigevano’s fourteenth-century
car (fig. 4.3) and Konrad Kyeser's
fighting early fifteenth-century war
chariot (fig. 4.6).“)2 Because Guido’s artist had not yet any conventions
59. Windsor 19058, 19007. The Windsor Castle collection is reproduced in facsimile
in Leonardo (2). For more detailed discussion of Leonardo’s use of engineering drawing
conventions, seeVeltman (1), pp. 202—26.
60. Pedretti, p. 23, assigns the skull drawings to 1489.
61. For discussion of Leonardo's skull drawings, see Kemp (3), pp. 114—16; Keele, p.
64. Concerning his exploded view of cervical vertebrae, see Keele, p. 260.
Leonardo's drawing (MS. B, Institut de France, Paris, fol. ror) is reproduced and
if 62.
discussed in Gibbs-Smith, p. 30.
The Heritage of Giotto’s Geometry
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The Heritage of Ciotto’s Geometry
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4.21. Leonardo da Vinci, drawings of war chariots (ca. 14905). Institut de France, Paris, MS, B
fol. 101’. Photo: Alinari—Art Resource.
in making his
design the more confusing Leonardo, however, by deftly
applying the latest engineering drawing conventions derived from Fran-
cesco di Giorgio, managed to show precisely how the wheels of
his attacl.
vehicle relate the gears, which in turn empower a set of
to
rotating
blades so positioned as not to touch the driving horses’ legs even as they i
144
tieotttettimtiou oi 'li'rrt-utriul Space
or, as
they further fancied those old
legionnaires, chivalric knights of the
”Roman di Tristan/’65 Valturio’s treatise
appealed so wonderfully to such
dreams that in the sixteenth
century it was hand-copied back onto purple
vellum and illuminated in gold leaf as a
special gift for Grand Duke Cos-
imo I de’ Medici.“
The numerous illustrations that accompany Valturio’s text are a curi-
ous mixture of
antique and modern machines. Figure 4.22, for instance,
shows how a practical cannon could be coupled with a fanciful assault
tower designed to look like a
giant dragon. Valturio seems also to have
bade his illustrator to
consciously archaize his images. Figure 4.23 depicts a
63. Valturio. Concerning the many manuscripts and printed editions of this book, see
Rodakiewicz; Campana; Toesca.
64. On Valturio’s life and times, see Massera.
65. Woods-Marsden. Luca Pacioli in particular praised Valturio for having restored in—
terest in Roman military technology; see Pacioli, p. 37.
1+5
‘l‘lw IIerituge ul (lintln'e Geometry
(:7. lIimer. Some of these reliefs have even been attributed to Francesco di Giorgio
Martini; see Rntondi et nl.
Geometrization of Terrestrial Space
from Roberto
4.23. A page
Valturio’s De re militari
(1472). Courtesy of the
Chapin Library of Rare
Books, Williams College.
147
I
1
5 / Image and Word in Sixteenth—Century
Printed Technical Books
Not until after the second decade of the sixteenth century did
the to turn out scientific and tech-
European printing industry manage
nological treatises with illustrations that approached in subtlety those of
Francesco di Giorgio and Leonardo. Engravers and wood-block cutters
simply hadn’t the requisite skills. It took nearly half a century for them
to learn the chiaroscuro and perspective conventions already common-
if
table 13001“ they published t°daY- ThOugh they were filled with
were
and
detaikd text
explanatory diagrams, their appeal for the most part
audience
was to
an
Upper-class
than actual
more interested in the idea of scientific
technology In
Its practice. Finally during the eighteenth
century “Ch undergo d‘d
b.0016 a reverse
metamorphosis (the butterfly
changing back caterpillar, as it were), and how-to handicraft
"“0 a
surrounding horizon.
circle with a stick upon the ground to represent the
On the circumference, he (or she?) set out
four marks denoting the
limits the north and south. Two
and setting sun at its solsticial
to
ri5ing
were next
the circle, one connecting each pair [the
drawn across
lines
circle our first
and Capricorn). In the middle of the
tropics of Cancer
made a dot with the stick to signify his own
Western cartographer
He marked another horizontal or ”equinoetial” line
egocentric viewpoint.
have explored this matter extensively; Edger-
people. including myself,
see
L Many
ton [6}.
.149
The Heritage of Giotto’s Geometry
"emcal' the °"81nal
through this dot and crossed it with
a pemendimlar
prime meridian.2
. .
l d omain to
their
Other civilizations have similarly
likened
but the ancient
terrestn:
5
WET"
fur-
the permanent geometry of the sky,
fact a sphere,
(life?
anot er ingenious
ther. Realizing that the earth is in
fellow, perhaps in the fourth century
SOlar diagram as eXtending around
B.c.,
the world in
began
the orm mfthmko? téhoejlmple
3 ertlcal
_
to a like number of
and p8 rpendicular
meridians converging at the poles
_
to be
Each pair of
'
”Thule,” above Scotland, and Africa just below the headwaters of the
2. For an excellent review of ancient Greek cartography, see Harley/ Woodward, pp.
130—201.
image and Word in Technical Books
Columbusa
No part of the PtOlemajc map ristopher was);
or chauvinistic significance. Its
media n point was in the cultural
territory of Greece; it was r e l ate d not even
to only the nonideological, mathemat-
determined po srtion of the
. .
.i—_l
center.
_. 'Il.
which lies near the Tropic of Cancer, more or less five hundred miles below Alexandria.
This distance and its due north—south relationship allowed another Alexandrian scholar,
Eratosthenes, in the third century B.C., to calculate with near accuracy the circumference -
151 .
H‘I—I
The Heritage of Giotto’s Geometry
(>1
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kn ‘a/ ,'
5.1. Mappnmimdi from Claudius Ptolemaeus's Cosmogmpliia (1482L Courtesy of the Charm
Library of Rare Books, Williams College.
Concerning Columbus’s thinking in this regard. and the influence that P .oiemxc
6. .
1 _
especially Florentine Ptolemaic, thought had on him iust before 149 :. see Manson. vol.
1; also Edgerton (2). pp. 91—123.
s u t‘ t
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‘l.
Reconstruction of
Ptolemy s
perspective method.
methods. The reader who attempted the third of these methods was
instructed to draw a picture of the celestial sphere as a kind of crrcular
r. stage enframing the oiltrmrcne. Ptolemy was trying to imagine what the
meridians and parallels around the celestial
sphere would look like as
M
foreshortened ellipses when they were seen from a detached single
‘ viewpoint far out in space. The
relative thickness and shape of these
ellipses were to be datermined
. .
crossed a
particular parallel (figure 53L
The geometry for this calculation depended on the
optical principle of
the centric visual ray, the “visual axis” between the center of the view-
er's eye and the of the
center
fig. 3.41 According to both
object seen [see
Euclid’s and Ptolemy's treatises on optics, the length of this axis (the
distance of the viewer from the object) established the “visual angle."
which made it possible to determine the relative diStortion of forms
according to their distance from the viewer's eye.r Ptolemy was not
interested in illustrating perspective distortion merely for the sake of art.
He devised it as one of several projection methods in order to
compensate on his flat map surface for the effects of illusion in natural
vision. He was
trying to find a
way for the viewer to recognize that _
distances between the parallels remained the same no matter how dis-
torted they appear on the curving globe. Unfortunately, later Byzantine
and Arab copyists imperfectly understood Ptolemy's third method of
showing perspective, and no correct illustration of it exists in any
153
The Heritage of Giotto’s Geometry
scale map showing the circular "horizon” around his center at the Capitoline. The cir-
cumference of the horizon was divided into equally spaced degrees, each connected to the
a meridian. The meridians in turn were marked off by evenly spaced parallels.
center by
The result was a grid of nested circles. With his transit on the Capitoline, Alberti could
site the direction of any landmark, note its location at the nearest meridian on his map,
then pace its distance from the center and mark it at the nearest parallel. He would then
have a set of cartographic coordinates for every building and street in Rome.
image and Word in Technical Books
Pyramid PaSSts
through
‘
sible it is to
.t many advantdSes. You know how impos- . . .
appears to be
position of the centric
altered. So the veil will give
ou the not
:b'm Inlclorimderable
5 ee n w l
advantage 1 have indicated,
namely that the
a
ways keep the same .,
thin the
.
of the
outlines
appearance. A further advantage is
n accurately andthethepainting
5.1 b posrthliished
boundaries of the surfaces can
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What Alberti for the first time revealed was just how powerfully this "
notion works in human perception. One could even use the vale to visu-
need only think of the room as fixed frontally before his eyes, so that ..
the grid, the near side of the room, fits flat against the surface of his
drawing. He then marks on the grid at the appropriate coordinates the
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exact points where the corners of walls, ceiling, and floor illusionistically
seem to align.
The fictive floor in Alberti’s structured space is then conceived as a
projected horizontal grid, or pavimenio (so called after the inlaid tiles
frequently found in contemporary houses) The squares of the pnvimen—
to, as they appear to recede and diminish in breadth, then provide the
module for relating the size of all objects placed on them within the
room, as in figure 5.4. Even circular objects could be projected by this
method, as Alberti described:
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not only the scaled size
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objects at
but the of foreshortening of all the
exact amount
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surfaces of
including those unexposed. Even if, Alberti stated, it
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to draw an illusion of relief by means of Chiaroscuro, th e Pier
FEFSPECtlve 8H d
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ing the keys to St. Peter on a squared piazza that seems to ”Present
sanctified space. Again, in 1504, Perugino’s pupil Raphael Sanzio of
bino adopted the same grid idea to the heavenly setting of his
U:
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.
the century, the artists who served the papacy (if not the popes them.
selves) had come to take it for granted that Alberti's Pm’imento like
'
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appropriate for
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sacred surface of paradise. I
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15. From the thirteenth century on, Europeans were mesmerized in» 1]“. I
“mm“ at
locating theoriginal ”Terrestrial Paradise.” Moreover, COnlt’Hlpuml't' images of the Plate ‘
as well as of "New Jerusalem" and other utopias that such \'lbl(‘lmt?t'~ [humN More u,
city must by definition be symmetrical and orthogonal, its ham pin. .jit; hum of a
modular grid or defined in concentric circles. The old notion t-t ~.\ ,: t. .
tut-[ween
160
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printing press in the late fif—
md" century did rm newssaril}: eneourage an immediate spread of
these new perspective conventions. After all. flat diagrams in astronomy I
tens did no: need to look .32 what one actually $65 in the sky. The
E
flamed astronomer, like the trained stonemason. didn't depend on pic-
tures to carry on his business. Perhaps it is no surprise, in new of the
consen’ativeness of the mathematical profession. that publishers of such
hallowed texts as Euclid's Elemznfa would hold steadfast to the ancient
Ratdolt’s
imaging tradition. The first formal printing of Euclid by Erhard
Venetian press in 1482 reproduced the squashed-style diagrams in the
(or granted that anyone fortunate enough to be raised in a geometncally ordered en—
of
city's inhabitants of temptation to the sin pnde.
since. theoretically. the orthogonal
Manetti, plan-
Hod: m all lmng situations look equal. On the other hand. Gianozzo
Y in the mid-fifteenth century (and speaking per—
ning an Ideal Rome for Pope Nicholas
Battista Albem). thought the central orthogonal avenue
should be
haps for Leon
the side
reserved for the rich; the laboring classes could live on streets.
163
The Heritage of Giotto’s Geometry
1\).Printed after the translation irom Arabic by Giovanni Campano da Novara (ca.
izt‘m—izgzi; discussed in Stillwell, pp. :0—51.
1n 'l'he overlapping semicircle in fig. 59 is an auxiliary construction for dete rmining
the radius of the parallels on the surrounding sphere marking the points of tangency oi
the l‘lklthk‘tl icos.ihedimi.
.‘I See Murdoch, p. i2<).
Image and Word in Technical Books
d’El‘Clld" libri quindici lUrbino: Domenico Frisolano, 1575). See Vagnetti, pp. 329-30.
Interesting bits of evidence indicate that the ancient dichotomy between graven images
and conjoined forms in figuram of the medieval mind’s eye was beginning to break
down even in far-off England, supposedly the last western European nation to feel the
”warmth and moisture” of the artistic Renaissance. The Bodleian Library at Oxford, for
example, contains a volume of Hervagius’s 1533 Greek edition of Euclid in which the
sixteenth-century owner, one Sebastian Fox Morris (his name is inscribed on the title
Xi and
page; catalog D.1.15. Art Seld), redrew with pen and ink the flat diagrams of bks.
xu. adding crosshatched chiaroscuro to make them look like three-dimensional solids!
Another Englishdevotee of Euclid, Sir Henry Billingsley, the lord mayor of London,
published English-language edition of the Elementa in 1570 (with a long pan—
the first
see H. Billingsley, ed.. Tire Elements of Geometric of the Most An-
egyric by John Dee;
cient Philosopher Ettclide of Megam (London; lohn Daye, 1570), affixed with tipped—in
paper tabs ”perpendicular to the ground plaine” of all the diagrams in bk. xi. The reader
could thus actually ”erect" the three-dimensional forms described in the propositions.
24. in his commentary on Ptolemy’s Plnnispliaerium (Federiri Canrmmidini iirbinaiis
in planisphaerium Ptolcmnei commentarius [Venice, 1558]); see Field/Cray, pp. 22—2}.
The Heritage of Clouds Geometry
.111
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Euclid’s
/ an icosahedron as published
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by Federico Commandino
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In
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1372. Courtesy of the
Chapin Library of Rare
1 Books, Williams College.
of 1543
Even Copernicus/s epochal De revolutionibus orbium coelestiimt
had only a flat planispheric diagram to illustrate what was to be the most
see, Niccolo ’I‘artaglia and Captain Agostino Ramelli, among others, not
only depended on such illustrated printed books for their own education
but managed to compose a few themselves.
The first applied geometry book that appealed specifically to lay taste
IND
Image and Word in Technical Books
mm“ P'°P“"'°"¢"
Primed in 1509.25 In Italian
“14F”
W
"W“
”the! mm
its
Latin,
chatty text was
accompanied by the earliest primed
illustrations of the live regular solids. Figure 5.12
hm,“ Pcrspc‘k'lh‘t’ a woodblock
one of tilt-‘5“ dlagmmi print of the icosahedron, the
slim“
described in Euclid's prOPOSi‘IOn 16 (fig. 5.9). In the Platonic
“me figure
as Pacioli explained,
the icosahedron signified the fourth element,
mm“,
tits instde the dodecahedron symbolizing heaven,
“In“, and
Other than the illustrations, this book contains nothing scientifically
Luca Pacioli (1445—1517), a Franciscan brother and enthusiastic
new. Fra
of mathematics at the Milanese court, was no great thinker. He
promo!“
mtg“(ted his only to advertise the practical benefits of Euclidian ge-
work
law, military science, music, painting, sculpture, ar-
ometfy {or religion,
(mature,
and even the designing of letters of the alphabet. Moreover,
how to flatter his RenaISsance audience by dropping all the
he knew well
Aristotle. Archimedes, Pliny. Livy—comparing the
fight names—Plato,
with what might similarly be done in
anaents' geometrical achievements
even praised Roberto Valturin for reviving interest in
modern times. He
and the exploits of lulius Caesar.
Roman military technology
lu't‘n M'nst' ol the impor-
More germane to our subject was l’acioli's
Visual arts in llm pnpulamatinn til mathe-
tance of the contemporary
m his
matical scrence. He was htmsell much when by artist-, boasung
text of friendship
wtth Leonardo da Vinci and Mela/m dz l'nrli Not
in whom he was must be-
mentioned was Pieto della Francesca the artist
in the Tuscan town nl Borgu Son-
holden. Luca and Ptern Were both burn
as (outliers in Uriiinn
sepolcro and had served together
View as his teacher in a pub-
To his credit. l’annlt had already praised
.lr .iritlmiriiiir murtrimi, rnlpdrllafll e!
ltcatton til 149.; called Murmur
The Hit-inn ivmtwrimir'. however. was a more
am-
propuritonnlttir.-'"
bitious protects and l‘actnli
wanted to cite the most prestigious scien-
da Vina citill burrowing lrom the
tihc iIIUstrator then Jl|\'t‘. Leonardo
deceased Piero. he had Leonardo redraw
Pieni's exercrses in
recently
\mmbi l'avninus de l‘ayntnti for an
It Unis llnl‘ (‘dlllfln hl‘ publnhul in
HM
ow ,ulw mail/4 um
W
m
pw'e'f‘”? 7/7 [,2
jiffy/{[1 ”1
1’”
”"10" m
108
image and Word in Technical Books
‘
mentioned having drawn a similar set
lumsellri‘ Unfortunate l)’ t.Or the
history of printing, the woodcuts that
from the form
emerged
nardo 5 standards?"
cutters, though legible, were hardly up to Leo-
Whatever the
Printing quality, Fra Luca's Divina proportione was in-
tended l0? an as yet untested
audience, perhaps the same clientele for
whom he had earlier written a
treatise on double-entry bookkeeping-30
He seemed be
to suggesting to these practical, opportunist readers that
knowledge ”divine proportion” in the arts gave insight into the deep-
of
of the universe, since all
est
realities natural and artificial in God’s
things
creation
uniformly obeyed
the predictable laws of Euclid. Convention or
“0" ““9“ PerSpective by 1509 had become the acceptable symbOIiC form
for picturing any manifestation of God’s
natural law both on earth and
in heaven.
Who were the Renaissance artists that caused this in visual
sea-change
thinking, eventually influencing the education of Galileo, William Har-
vey, René Descartes, and Isaac Newton? If Francesco di Giorgio Martini’s
and Leonardo da Vinci’s seminal conventions remained
drawing un-
many more north and south of the Alps to disseminate and popularize
their ideas through the medium of the
printed illustrated textbook.
27. For thorough discussion of Leonardo’s interest in the regular and irregular solids
a
and his collaboration with Pacioli on this matter, see Veltman (1), pp. 170—97.
28. Red and blue wash
drawings, each identified a classical-style cartello, possibly
by
Pacioli’s copies after Leonardo’s lost originals, are included with Pacioli’s manuscript,
MS. 170 sup., now in the Biblioteca Ambrosiana, Milan. Sgarbi reproduces several of
these drawings in color.
29. The Museo di Capodimonte in Naples possesses a puzzling portrait of Luca Pacioli
with his young patron, Duke Guidobaldo da Montefeltro, standing behind. lts signature
and date—”Iacopo de' Barbari of Venice, 1495”—have been shown by X ray to be later
additions; see Emiliani (2), p. 97. Nonetheless, the painting is clearly in the style and
Flemish-inspired oil technique popular in Venice at the end of the quattrocento, and the
obviously knowledgeable about mathematical matters. He has depicted Pacioli
artist is
pointing with his left hand to bk. xm of Euclid’s open Elemenm and with his right
drawing a diagram on a slate. Margaret Daly Davis has interpreted the meaning of this
and other mathematical references in the picture, including the shimmering crystalline
icosahexahedron suspended in the foreground at which Pacioli gazes; see Davis, pp. 67-
81. This twenty-six-sided irregular solid, as described in Euclid's apocryphal bk. XIV and
drawn by Piero della Francesca, had apparently also inspired an actual three-dimensional
model by someone else in Pacioli's circle; see Emiliani [2). He then had it redrawn by
Leonardo and published in Divina proportione.
30. See Edgerton (2), pp. 38-39.
169
The Heritage of (Bonds Geometry
of Swag
as he liked
to call himself. Born and weaned in center
its lack of enforceable copyright laws. this gifted opportunist freely ex-
landmark treatise, and the one that prompted Ryff to launch his own en-
terprise, was handsomely illustrated (with archaeological perspective
the
conventions in the manner of Giuliano da Sangallo) Italian translation of
Vitruvius’s hallowed De architectura lilm' decem by Cesare Cesariano in
Como in 1521.32 Vitruvius not only discoursed on classical building the-
ory but included a section [Book it) on machines useful for hoisting,
hauling, and pumping water. Cesariano had his cinquecento artist repre-
sent these machines by applying the conventions of Taccola, Francesco di
Giorgio, and Leonardo. figure 5.14 shows a page that includes a woodcut
of laborers moving a large object by means of levers. This picture takes
advantage of another felicitous drawing convention developed in Renais-
sance technical illustration, that of superimposing flat, abstract geometric
diagrams directly on top of otherwise illusionistic scenes to explain the
underlying mathematical principle at work. Although perspectivally in-
congruous, this convention, neatly updating the ancient notion of Pla—
tonic ”reality,” has ever since proved to be extraordinarily beneficial to
the teaching of applied science.
The most influential such architectural publication, however, was
Sebastiano Serlio’s Regole generali di architetium, first printed in Venice
170
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in 1537. Versions (with other titles) appeared again and again for the
next hundred years with new material added,
including Book II on per-
spective drawing. By the early seventeenth century, Serlio’s grid-style
woodcut illustrations, accompanied his text translated into German.
by
French. Spanish. Dutch, and English, was familiar to
nearly every gentle—
man from the Mediterranean to the
Baltic Sea (fig. 5.15; see also fig.
3-5)“
In truth,by the early sixteenth century the epicenter of revolutionary
visual thinking was already shifting northward. In Germany, Albrecht
Durer wrote, illustrated, and
cut the wood blocks himself for several
conceptual achievement was. This tool he provided was useful not only
to fellow artists in
drawing a figure but to medical anatomists in their ef-
forts to comprehend the human
body as an interconnecting system of
hinged mechanical parts. Unlike Leonardo da Vinci. the German artist
offered his diagrams, by way of "exactly
repeatable prints" (the useful
phrase of W. M. l\‘ins, Jr.) to the widest possible public.
Abraham Ortelius, the great Dutch
cartographer, actually owned a lat-
Latin edition of Durer’s treatise
er
(fig. 3.17). One of the included dia-
grams demonstrates how the human face can be
[fig. 3.18) imprinted
upon an Albertian
grid and then be stretched in any direction (like a
piece of chicken wire). No matter which way the gridded surface is pulled
and how grotesque the resultant face. the features on that surface remain
ever in the same proportion. Such
topological concept was to prove es-
a
33. On Serlio’s yanous publications. see Schlosser (2). pp. gob-i0; Stillwell, p, :87.
:4. For the \‘anuus editions of Dfirer's Underway/sung, see \'agnetti. pp. 313-16.
‘1: Hiermn snid iiegrx‘i’en :‘rer Backer eon mensrlilrclier Proportion (Nuremberg: l.
M ‘ U:
The Heritage of Giotto’s Geometry
IL TERZO LIBRO
m SABASTIANO sumo BOLOGNESE,
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di Roma,
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Chapln Library of Rare Books, Williams College.
174
.
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5.17 Title Page of Albrecht Dfirer's ‘ . .
Synmwlrin pam'mn . . i
hunmnunm.
rorpnrimi A i .
(Paris, 1537),
hearing the signature of Abrnlmm ()rll‘llll§. of
[he
Cuuru-sy
Chapin Library of Rare Books, Williams
College,
170
Image and Word in Technical Books
i “"9" Ira-I
-.
Iqaé-o‘V 3 (ago.
2! from. 2! me.
1 [mm
( nigc b e [m
“on.
a U f
H9
\\
\\\
\\\\ =—-YI§‘“"°
3.18r A pngr {mm Albrlschl D'Lircr's Symnu'mn pumum
. . ,
hunmmlrmn mmmum . , .
(1537), owned by Abraham ()rlcllus, (‘nurtwy of [he Chnpln Library of Rare Buoks, Wlllmns
(allege
lhe Heritage of (iiotto’s (ienmetry
probably did more to spread the quattrocento Florentine's idea than the
i"
original text just printed for the first time in 1:40.
Schiin's accompanying illustrations had particular relevance to the bur-
geoning science of anatomical dissection in the sixteenth century, much
concerned with accommodating empirical observation to the ancient
Greek writings of (ialen (at that very moment being translated and com-
prehensively reeditedi. Like Diirer (and Piero della Francesca], Schon was
able to demonstrate in plate alter plate (figs. 5. i9 and 5.20, for examplei
that the human figure was reducible in every part to Euclidian solids and
thus quantifiable according to all the propositions of the Elements and
Optica. This realization. increasingly taken for granted by sixteenth-
century Europeans, allowed thetn to see, and then to believe, that the in-
spired anatomical illustrations in such grand volumes as Vesalius’s De
lummtii corporis falirim of 1343 did in fact reproduce exactly how human
physiology looks and works according to “natural law" (fig. 5.21)."0
Perhaps the most prophetic printed illustrated books instigated by the
sixteenth-century perceptual revolution were those that catered to an
ever-increasing demand for knowledge of practical mechanics. The au-
36. Mercator's most famous map, the one in which his method was for the first time
applied practically for use in plotting courses at sea, is known as Nomi et [INCH] orbis ter-
rae descriptio ad iisum
navigantium accomniodrita, published in 1569. His critical edi—
tion of Ptolemy’s Cosmogmphia, corrected according to his method, is titled Tnlmlae
319i
in Basel in
‘1556. Agricola born was
published posthumously
m
als”) was
the
from the UniverSity of Ferrara.
Whileserving as town phySICian in
he applied his nrles lllu’l'ulpfi
Bohemian mining center of Joachimsthal,
of that dangerous industry in technical matters
education to the problems
as well as those having, to do with human health, and composed what
17L)
The Heritage of Giotto’s Geometry
(1542).
quickly was
recognized as a classic of metallurgy.“
on matters
his book remains Moreover,
a
masterpiece of the German woodcut artist’s skill.
Figure 5.22 reproduces one of Agricola’s illustrations
of a
suction pump reciprocal
deployed in a mine shaft.
Though Agricola’s artist did
not follow Francesco di
Giorgio’s mechanical modifications, he
clearly
depended on the drawing conventions established under the latter’s
180
’l‘hc l-lcrimgc 0f Giotto’s Geometry
“BER. smrvs.
Yum w;
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I.
,
,, ///
.
//
4%
,
/ / .z
I,
V
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fig
\:
\
m4 Qyinta
5.22. Woodmt from Georg Bauer Agricola 5 De
I
re metallim (1556). By
permission of the Houghton Library, Harvard University.
182
Thc Heritage of Giorto's Geometry
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.
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18
The Heritage of Giotto's Geometry
6‘
SX LIGNF.
.
"fire”, SEPTE‘NTRIONALE.
Ob
Fr"!
Figure Cinquametrdificfmc.
’
J?
SNOI']
ORIENTAL.
'31VN0 “f1.“lim‘fi LIGNE
LIGNE MERIDIONALE.
’3
xx“ Weary“
5.24. A page from lacques Besson's Théafre ties instruments nmthénmtiques er
méchaniques (1578). By permission of the Houghton Library, Harvard University.
186
The Heritage of Giotto’s Geometry
fiwmmw Wfia‘afi
5.25. A page from Agostino Ramelli's Diverse ct Artifiriosc Machine (1588). By
permission of the Houghton Library, Harvard University.
188
The Heritage of Giotto's Geometry
uni/.1: «ART/melon;
"t.
jl!.4CI/INI:'.
.. -.K--M»‘ -. .. .. .
.r-
)(ifl{($1.13{gain-33351333525336?{Alina
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av
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M-mxemsciéa‘hizé
--
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Fu.
190
The Heritage of Giotto's Geometry
of contemporary intellectuals. We
lated into the metaphorical thinking
might also conjecture that the great EngliSh PhYSiCia" William Harvey
medical school the
.
(1578—1657], just graduating from the
at
University
'— of Padua in 1602, had seen and pondered such pictures. Whatevfl his in-
this way, then credit must be given not only the quattrocento artisan—
to
46. This novel thought has already been elaborated by Jonathan Miller. pp. 176.212.
.
Harvey published revolutionary theory of blood circulation in Exercitatt‘o atmlomica
his
For another interesting rev.
de motu sanguinis in aninmlibus (Frankfurt, 1628).
cordis e1
7’
A}: m: \‘JL'. ;
W
'
fifi‘II-l .
.,
181
Image and Word in Technical Books
pistons attached to the crank and tell how they function, and again
broken apart to reveal the holes through which the
pistons and water
spout pass.
Typical of the impresario authors of these
new-style printed tech-
nological books was Niccolo Fontana of Brescia (1499/1500—1557) called
Tartaglia (”the Stutterer”). Overcoming his
speech problem as well as
youthful poverty, he managed to school himself sufficiently in mathe-
matics and Archimedean mechanics to
publish a number of learned com-
mentaries and even enter into erudite
scholarly debates. He also edited
for the benefit of his less educated colleagues the first vernacular transla~
tion of Euclid’s Elemcnm (without
adding perspective diagrams, how-
ever). His most famous work had to do with military ballistics, a
technology he mastered in order
influential patrons.
to attract more
Printed in Venice in 1537, the book bore the hubristic title La nova sci—
entia ”New science,” in which he tried to apply geometric laws to
. . .
,
the trajectories of cannonballs and thus to improve the range and accura-
cy of current artillery.“12
The woodcutfrontispiece (fig. 5.23) of La nova scientia especially
illustrates thebootstrap humanistic ambitions of aggressive cinquecento
engineers such as
Tartaglia, who desired to be honored not only as prac-
tical mathematicians but as philosophers in the venerable tradition of the
ancients. His amusing scene, adapted from a famous Platonic allegory,
Stefano dei Nicolini da Sabbio, 1537); see Stillwell, p, 258. Concerning Tartaglia’s life
see Drake/Drabkin.
and times as well as an excerpted English translation,
183
Image and Word in Technical Books
sneak
attempting
over the wall on a ridiculous,
splayed ladder. As the picture in-
structs us, this poor fool is so ignorant of geometric fundamentals that
he will never lift himself into
Philosophy’s presence.
Surely the most successful set of titles marketed by publishers eager to
exploit the versatile talents of practical technologists such as Tartaglia (at
the same time acknowledging popular enthusiasm for Hero, Flavius
Veg-
etius, and other ancient writers on mechanics) was what came to be
known generically as the ”theater of machines.” After
1570, such trea—
tises appeared everywhere in
Europe, especially France, Germany, and
Italy.‘13 Two outstanding examples are Théatre des instruments mathé-
nmtiques et méclmniques by Jacques Besson (ca. 1530—1573), published
in Lyon in 1578, and Le Diverse et
Artificiose Machine (Paris, 1588), by
Captain Agostino Ramelli (1531—ca. 1600), Italian-born military and civil
engineer who also worked in France. Besson’s treatise initiated the
genre;
Ramelli’s has been generally acclaimed the most elegant.
Jacques Besson probably began his career as an apothecary, since his
earliest writings have to do with distillation of medicinal herbs.44 His
truelove, however, was mathematics, and he yearned to win an appoint-
ment as
engineer to the French king Charles IX.
Unfortunately, being
Protestant, he had to leave France and seek
refuge in Geneva, where he
served for while as a university professor.
a
Nevertheless, he continued
to pursue his earlier ambition by
collecting and modifying a remarkable
assortment of mechanical devices from
existing engineering literature
(including that of Francesco di Giorgio). Sixty of his illustrations were
then engraved by professional artists. Besson intended to
publish these
pictures with Latin commentary in a grand volume in an effort to attract
the king’s attention.
Once religious politics intervened. Besson was forced to flee to
more
London, leaving his book behind. It was hastily printed with skimpy text
in 1572. A year later he died. In
1578, however,
Francois Béroald
one
Keller.
'
On Besson’s life and career, see Thorndike, 52588—96; Keller, pp. 7—8.
44.
Image and Word in Technical Books
his personal friend. Indeed, the king so enriched Ramelli that he could
afford to pay for the production of 295 exquisitely engraved machine il—
lustrations collected into a thick book with text in both French and Ital-
ian."5
the of the
available until the eighteenth century, when
steam
invention
engine inadvertently made these foolish notions practical.
of Ramelli's book has been pub-
EXCCHEN f a“! mile and English translation
_.
45' An
Teach Gnudi, containing also a valuable appendix
Eugene Ferguson and
Maria
lished by the author; see Ramelli.
on the mechanical employed by
principles
187
Image and Word in Technical Books
,‘wai‘m
,
.
'Wr". "a.
.
vyt .7 ‘0:
.
L' .‘
4w
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2.
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5133;
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observe
by hand-driven paddle wheels.
Once again we
hicle from inside
of old medieval idea of the likes of Guido da Vig—
the stylish updating an
CVBHO.
189
Image and Word in Technical Books
ars).t-vBul
.
w—q-
1
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qufi'r’t‘W“.
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,-.
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its 5.5
5.28. A page from Agosunu anelli’s [)l‘w'bt' t-r Arlilimust- Mm‘lmn' [1:534] B‘- [‘L'rmmum ”I
gy intrigues
the leisure class today.
So many illustrations of pumps were
published in popular books ()l the
time that it is fair to assume the idea was taken for granted, even assimi-
It)!
The Hcmagc n! (noun 9 (k‘umctrv
"“V-h‘ JIW H‘r‘ll‘uun' that rhv mm! lmglhh pin mun “Ilium lhrwx
H3?" I'H‘I |n~t wmhmum: hum thc rnnh..ul adv-('1 M the L mn‘rut‘;
HI l‘mlua In 11w: had «Tu and pundrrcd ~m‘h pumnw Whitewr hi4 mv
”“5 way, then (ruin mm! M gnu-n nut Only In thv qunnrmcm-n .nrnun
Jr mun. “min :1 “Human“ m .a-::m.:f:f-n- llunklun Hum In! .mnlhcr mh‘wfinnq rm.
claim" "I [um umlrmp-un Jugnmnum wrurnhum mllucnu‘d ”Ann. “‘1' Hut]
192
6 / Geometrization of Heavenly Space:
Raphael’s Disputa
Descend from heaven Urania, by that name
If rightly thou art called, whose voice divine
Following, above the Olympian hill l soar,
Above theflight of Pegasian wing. . . .
193
The Heritage of Giotto’s Geometry
64. Interior oi the Stanza della Segnatura, Vatican Palace. Photo: {\Iinari—Ari Resource,
194
The Menu h'e of (lititto's (Zeotnetrv .
anomaly, raising questions that would vex scientists for the next two
hundred years 'lhe cosmological ittiagery of his Dispum is an
archexample of the proverbial light that burns brightest just as it goes
out.
painted in the opposite corner of the coved ceiling in the same room (in
fig. 6. i, between l’sHIItISMIS and The School of Athens). This is a
tiny
rectangular panel showing Astronomy, personified perhaps as Urania (the
traditional muse of that science)" looking from outside at the
geocentrtc
Vasart. 4 "iii,
'
, t _
.
I
(1509). Photo: Alinari—Art
l 1731i
‘
'
Resource.
'
‘
'
t
such rectangular corner panels as addenda to four circular tondi that his
predecessor, ll Sodoma, began on the ceiling of the Stanza della
Segnatura, the subjects of which were to relate to the themes of the wall
frescoes below. Since Sodoma largely completed the ceiling only the year
before, art historians believe that Raphael went immediately to work on
the walls, leaving the unfinished details, including those of Astronomy,
until later. Though Astronomy does not correspond specifically to the
Disputo, its intellectual conception did have great bearing on both the
subject and the design of the latter.7
Like all educated persons of the early cinquecento, Raphael understood
that the earth stood immobile in the center of the universe and was
197
The Heritage of Giotto‘s Geometry
enclfl-‘t‘d
surrounded by concentric, revolvmg crystalline spheres that
the seven planets and the fixed stars. Beyond the last sphere. or pri—
mum mobile, was the empyrean, where (iod reigned over
all. Such a
woodwt from
symbolic planispheric diagrams like the well—known 149}
W9 59° ””3
Hartmann Schedel's “Nuremberg Chronicle" (fig. 6.4)} ”He
the earth save
spheres abstracted as flat circles, all concentric
to
cosmic
that of the heavenly empyrean, which the artist drew eccentric in order
to signify its divine uniqueness.
that space beyond the moon was filled with “aether." This metaphysical
substance, as well as that of the seven corporeal planets, the fixed stars,
and the transparent spheres between them, was of immutable and perfect
the sun’s power should
composition." Above the primum mobile, even
cease and God himself remain the sole source of light. ”La legge
natural
nulla releva" ("natural law doesn't apply"), as Dante wrote in his
andiso (canto xxx, The Tuscan poet, approaching the divine
123).
throne with his beloved Beatrice, is struck with wonder because every-
thing near and far can be seen with equal clarity. Since heaven holds
no mundane matter, his vision is unconfused by atmospheric perspec-
'"
tive.
Fig. 6.5 illustrates a tempera panel called The Vision of St. Romuald
by Pseudo-Iacopino di Francesco, a late fourteenth-century provincial
painter little touched by the innovations of Giotto. The picture shows the
sleeping dreaming of his fellow monks climbing to heaven on a
saint
ladder. All figures are silhouetted against the flat, nonillusionistic gold-
leaf background usually applied by medieval artists. ”Jacopino,” however,
needed to revise this old schema in order to get across the idea that his
brethren moving from the tangible
were space of earth into heavenly
aether. His charming solution was to paint the ladder leaning on his
gilded background as if against a wall. At the top of the picture he then
painted a bright-blue star-speckled hole through which his climbing
‘
figures could pass beyond the terrestrial sphere into aethereal glory.11
By the late quattrocento, as we have already noted with Fra Lippo
198
Ceometrization of Heavenly Space
:- Dc Emctificarioncfl‘pmncoici
(clam: (a Naum.£rnn n11 mfpofm
1 «nun
Onfijnmum wan" munch: fabnum mum: ruin-x but rcpnnm .le npmb'
"Mt 9km fuglmh 3 I471. amplmrw’gnofu opus
nunuum rumzpodqammundfln 0mm qucmcn fume“: «15mm;
mm: mm opmndu uITuo;
vd fmullmda non puufl'ml. 9pm!
mun P309161!
fed noqu munmm {madam uuuemmm Sunni
“NW t‘p-TJI'I mm aimlhfmmumu am am bmdmmfmmfiannufizwmngxpfum
fa «Emu ab or?“ opac qa pmJnL'ai
quad Human bdrm langu raqman figulmnfo q
in
obfa.
of H10
HJHmJnn dedcl's H'rhdnmnk [1493] Cnuncsy
’1 4 Hu- i‘uliInn/z lmln
n! Rch “on In, Willums ('ollcgc
(thln llbrary
“)0
The Heritage of Giotto's Geometry
6.5. Pseudo lacopino, The Vision of St. Romunld (m. 1373]. Pinacoxcca
Nazionale di Bologna. Courtesy of the Soprintendenza ai Bcni Arlistici e
Storici. Bologna.
Geometrization of Heavenly Space
W
:3;
i l
,
I I
.>-_ _.
‘- ,.-.. “my-Lg;
i Ag"
_.
. -
_, __
_
1} Stillwcll, pp 33734.
The Heritage of Giotto’s Geometry
trapfcuo tuna!
Equinomll‘e
Impkuq
I“, filu‘ltll'
5
202
Geometrization of Heavenly Space
millary sphere was in the room as well. Since the late Middle Ages the
characteristic form of this instrumentsymbolized scholarly alienation,
furniture de rigueur in any would-be intellectual’s study.H As we shall
note presently, the armillary sphere may also have had special political as
the Instrument but employed it, somewhat like the mazzorrliio (fig. 5.6], as a drawtng
exercise.
The Heritage of (itotto's Geometry
equator atthe spring (Aries) and autumn (Libra) equinoctial points The
of the
ecliptic's 23-i/z-degree angle of obliquity determines the position
two tropics (the summer and wrnter solstice-s at (Tancer and ('aprtcorn,
respectively). The ecliptic poles intersecting the solstiiial colure then
establish the Arctic and Antarctic circles (66-1/2 degrees respectively
above and below the equator). One other ring denoting the Viewer's
the
horizon might be added, to he tilted to any desired declination from
polar .ixts." Thearmtllary sphere, it should be said, had no overt theo-
logical function. lts principles were purely quantitative and are applied
"'
in the equatorial mountings oi telescopes to this day.
Urania. W- discern the colures crossing the North Pole, and below
two
this point the Arctic Circle, the Tropic of Cancer, then a segment of
oblique line representing the ecliptic, and some other sketchy curves
indicating where the artist was trying to locate the Tropic of Cancer and
the celestial equator. ‘7
1n the finished painting (fig‘ 6.3) we can still see his outline, trans-
ferred to the fresco surface from the preparatory drawing, showing the
diagonal ecliptic crossing the horizontal equator just above the earth
(but with its inclination reversed from the drawing). Raphael also ap—
parently decided that nesting crystalline spheres would be too difficult to
204
Geometrization of Heavenly Space
realize in the final version. Had he applied all his tricks for creating
the illusion of transparent material (as Renaissance artists were wont to
do), he would have had to show the inner surface reflecting and re-
within
revolving planets is indicated, not even the sun. Instead the earth
the celestial globe is highlighted from an extracosmic source that also
illuminates the empyrean muse and her two attendant putti (perched
precariously on clouds). Raphael may well have had
incongruous flying
in mind as he
the verbal imagery of Dante’s Pamdiso (canto xxx, 107)
celestial incandescence as reflesso a]
painted them. He has in fact depicted
somnio del Mobile Primo; that is,
reflected upward from the sphere’s
of Urania. All the rational
surface so that it would shine upon the face
artist could do to depict such divine resplendence,
however, was to paini
it ordinary light
as that seems to emanate from outside the picture,
Urania according to Euclidian optical
striking the globe and reflecting
on
t
law'ls
bolized a heavenly glow.
Traditionally, as we know, medieval artists sym
i
18. Just as incongruously, Raphael also painted a strip of reflected light on the under-
that yet another illuminated Celestial body existed nearby,
side of his sphere, implying
Luckily, no one noticed,
the painter might have received the same fate as poor Gior-
or
205
The Heritage of Giotto’s Geometry
circle,
globe. Reading clockwise from the left just above the equatorial
we
making notes for his great epic, Paradise Lost. It is just possible that in a moment of
sharpened imagination (after his tragic blindness) as he was writing the opening lines of
bk. vu (see the epigraph at the beginning of this chapter), he recalled this small but rele-
vant detail of Raphael’s astrology in the Stanza della Segnatura. My thanks to John Reich-
ert, John W. Chandler Professor of English at Williams College, for this observation. See
also Treip.
22. Since Raphael indicated no planets
rising among the constellations, however,
Rash-Fabbri’s precise astrological dating cannot be sustained.
23. My sincere thanks to Jay M. Pasachoff, Field Memorial Professor of Astronomy at
Williams College, for his considerable help with these problems. I do believe that
206
Geometrization of Heavenly Space
__'_’_—
that the conjunction of
intended, by way of the picture’s central focus,
Raphael clearly be emphasized. Aries, according to an-
c at the vernal equinox
the equator and the eclipti
which the sun moves at this moment as it
was the conste llation through
cient astrology,
to the tropic of Cancer, bringing increased
crosses the equator on its nort hward journey
We see Raphael’s pentimenti clearly
in the draw-
daylight to the northern hemisphere. this above the earth in the center.
lines indicating instant just
ing, the two intersecting obvious reason that it would have ob-
did not draw in a zodiac figure for the
The artist
Nevertheless, educated people of the sixteenth century
scured his image of the earth.
of Aries the ram, first among the zodiac
would not have missed the implicit presence
called the ”Keys of St. Peter," after the first of the
constellations and therefore even
not only for renewed spring
Christ. Aries was the stellar metaphor
apostles and vicar of militant exercise of power; see AI-
Mars, for the
but, since it is proverbially guarded by
however, because of precession oi the cquinoxes [1°
len, p. 78. In modern sky maps,
is shown crossing the equator
the sun's northward path on the ecliptic
every 72 years),
at the moment of the
vernal equinox; see Eade, pp. 12—i3.
in Pisces
The Heritage of Giotto's Geometry
‘1‘.
{fl
6.10. Raphael, sketch for the Dispum (ca. 1509]. The Royal Collection, ’9 1993 Her
Majesty
Queen Elizabeth II.
mic space. We can trace the evolution of his ideas in this regard by
“examining three of the many extant drawings that scholars have
long
recognized as
revealing the artist’s step-by-step visual thinking. It is
generally agreed that the earliest surviving study is that now in the
Royal Library, Windsor Castle (fig. 6.10), showing a half elevation of the
proposed wall design.24 This drawing indicates that the artist sought
24. Fischel, no. 258; Joannides, no. 197 (p. 181).
208
Geometrizarion of Heavenly Space
Since Raphael was aware that a real doorway was cut through the wall
at the right (see fig. 6.2), he tried in this first drawing to balance the
door with animaginary architectural element at the left, a classical
portico on which he posed a figure pointing to a papal tiara and cartouche
fixed to a column. In the adjoining Raphael sketched a gathering of
space
more figures, presumably to be matched by a similar group on the right
section of balustrade occupies
side. No altar is as yet indicated. Only a
,x‘
this lower center space, and none of the depicted persons pays any
attention to it.
back into the
Above the bottom tier the artist sketched a cloud curving
row of figures.
fictive depth of the picture. On the cloud he drew single
a
the three tiers. Such is the formal function of the tall female and
among
the left. He was more concerned, however, with establishing V
column at
God the Father at the top, Jesus,
the central axis of his design, aligning
climax at all.
in
to solve these problems
Raphael apparently decided at this point as in a
and IOWer zones. In the latter,
separate designs for the upper
he quickly eliminated the
drawing now in the Musée Condé, Chantilly, favor of a
sketch in
architectural portico at the left of the Windsor
the Magi,
in Leonardo’s Adoration of
figural grouping similar to the one
for the center.26 Searching
but without at first finding a suitable solution
as we see in the
fine sketch
for a better arrangement of the upper zone,
Oxford (fig. 6.11), Raphael began
to
now in the Ashmolean Museum,
forms in fictive space
think that if he curved both cloud banks, their
of the framed wall.27
would nicely repeat the semicircular shape
does not adequately reveal
Unfortunately, the photographic reproduction
increase this
how the artist highlighted the left side of the upper tier to
bodies
illusion. We do clearly see, however, that he accented the curved
forward, if seated
of all his lateral figures, making them lean slightly
as
26. Musée Condé, Chantilly (Fr. vui, 45; Fischel, no. 260; Joannides, no. 199); also
Windsor Castle (Royal Collection 12733; fischel, no. 261; Joannides, no. 200). Some
scholars believe that the Chantilly drawing was originally attached to Windsor R. C.
in the two drawings are not drawn
12732, but this seems improbable because the figures
to the same scale. In the Chantilly drawing Raphael eliminated the balustrade leaving a
blank area in the lower center of the composition; in the Windsor drawing be restored it ‘
210
Geometrization of Heavenly Space
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A
--
6.11. Raphael, sketch for the Disputa (ca. 1509). Courtesy of the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.
study, now in the British museum, again depicting only the lower left
half of the semicircular composition (fig. 6.13)?" Having resolved the
28. These lines have nothing to do with a transfer grid, as some scholars have
thought There is no evidence of any other vertical or horizontal lines for that purpose
anywhere else In the drawing.
29. British Museum 1900-8—24—108 (liiscltel, no, 267; loannides, no, 204]. Raphael's
student (2‘ F. l’inni apparently made a close copy of this study in another drawmg now
in the Louvre; see loannides, p. 68.
The Heritage of (itotto's (ieometrv
212
Ceometrization of Heavenly Space
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6.13. Raphael, sketch for the Dispute (ca. 1509). By permission of the British Library and of
the Trustees of the British Museum, London.
ground cloud bank and into the frontal space of the picture. Raphael then
located the altar directly beneath. We also notice that the altar is constd«
erably forward of the place it will eventually take in the finished fresco
6.2). We see in the
(fig. also that Raphael drew the base of the
drawing
chalice containing the Eucharist as intersecting precisely with the curving
line of his earthly background.
as he was about
Let attempt to reconstruct the artist’s thinking
us now
to transfer the
composition of his small drawings to the awesome empti-
ness of the large masonry wall space (10 by 7 meters). As he pondered
the and refined his ideas in the process, he may have been
problem
struck by the resemblance of the walls framing molding to a great colure
around the celestial universe. His latest designs corresponded remarkably
modeled
quarter cutaway view (quadrant section) of the cosmos,
to a as
ropex‘3
During the winter of 1509 Raphael decided to lay out the Disputn by
transferring the two long parallel curves from his drawings to the pre-
paratory plaster nrricrio of the wall, maintaining the same relation to the
semicircular frame as in the armillary sphere where the Arctic Circle and
Tropic of Cancer attach to the colures. I propose that the artist, with a
,/ compass at the center of his horizon line, then drew these curves to cross
K the frame at approximately 66-1/2 and 23-1/2 degrees, corresponding to
32. King displayed his armillary sphere impresn ostentatiously on all his pub—
Manuel
lic monuments; note especially the great sculpted window on the exterior of the chapter
room in the Convento de Cristo, Tamar, designed by Diogo Arruda (1310-1314), illus-
214
Geometrization of Heavenly Space
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his and the upper side of the cloud—bank dais on which the proph-
halo)
and martyrs were to sit below.34
ets, apostles,
extension of the frame
Raphael painted an illusinnistic lateral masonry In
3 4. Since
to determine exactly where (whether at the outer ma-
his fresco space, it is im
possible
inner edge, or somewhere in between] the artist originally made
sonry edge, the painted
the measurements for his horizontal semictrcles. lay M. I’asucholi tintl ] took iiieti-
two
35. Raphael's perspective layout in the Dispum follows almost exactly the procedure
prescribed in Alberti (1), pp. 56—57; see Edgerton (2], pp. 41—63.
36. Redondi, pp. 106—7.
37f Alberti (1), pp. 54—55. Concerning the rule of “horizon-line isocephaly" in geo-
metric linear perspective, see Edgerton (2), p. 26.
216
Geometrization of Heavenly Space
guised as a
gray cloud. ]ust above he
painted still more piitti', their color
transmuted gold
to
they rise to the peak of his arching space. Inspired
as
39. Raphael may also have known that Luca Signorelli used the same stucco tech-
nique to depict the heavens in his fresco cycle in the Duomo at Orvieto just a few years
before. See Hartt, pp. 484—85.
40. Galileo described something remarkably similar in his Assayt'r of 16:3. stating
that all supernatural and natural light and heat in the universe were composed of tiny
igniroli, or See A. R. Hall (1), pp. 206—16; Drake [i], pp. 268—71; also
“fiery particles."
Redondi, pp. i3-z7. Redundi has argued that Galileo's 1633 trial for heresy was not
really about Copernicanism but rather was caused by his perceived support for "atom-
ism,” in violation of Aristotle‘s explanation that light and heat were immaterial “qual-
ities" of the four elements. (See Westfall's review of Redondi.)
La v—
\J
The Heritage of Giotto's Geometry
6.15. Detail of Raphael’s Dispum, Stanza della Segnatura (ca. 1509) Photo: Alinari—Art
Resource.
case, he was now aware of the anomaly created by the old convention in
this situation, and wished to avoid the very dilemma faced a half century
before by Fra Lippo Lippi. As we now see, Raphael decided to draw a
careful distinction between the Dantean splendor of his supernatural,
aethereal background and the objective, three-dimensional geometric
forms of his heavenly inhabitants.
In front of his golden background, on the extended platform of a
sepa-
ratecloud centered in the open space formed by the arc of the ”Tropic of
‘
‘
Cancer,” the artist grouped the holy personalities. Jesus sits enthroned
between the Virgin Mary and John the Baptist. Above, holding a bluish
218
Geometrization of Heavenly Space
orb, God the Father is posed in such a
way that his visible torso is above,
the "Arctic Circle." Had
Raphael painted God as if he were immersed in)“.
rather than silhouetted
against, this glittering region, the Creator would “
have looked indistinct as those other forms dissolving in the
as
golden
stratosphere behind. In other words, the artist denied to God the very
quality of aethereal space that he had so
beautifully symbolized by
means of his gilded stucco. The Creator of course had to stand
clear, fur-
ther contrasted against the gold
background by barlike stucco lines.
These lines, incidentally, look like conventional
cartographic meridians.
Moving downward, Raphael chose to paint his "Tropic of Cancer'fisem-
icircle in the form of cloud in his
a as
drawings, but now supported by
flying pittti. On it the painter seated prophets, apostles, and martyrs who
had been distributed between both upper tiers in the earlier sketches.“
They represent the Church Triumphant, and are arranged in a single un-
interrupted curving row. Both ends of the cloud on which they are gath-
ered just touch the wall-framing "colure," therefore flush with the
picture plane. The artist may have intended the solar moment of this
cloud-dais, crossing the cosmos at the level of the summer solstice on
June 21, as a theological sign of
good tidings, the single day when light
stays longest in the northern
sky.
On either side of the altar in the lowest "equatorial" zone Raphael
pushing the altar back into the picture’s depth. creating an ambiguous
alignment between upper and lower tiers. The spatial disparity becomes
even more confusing if we compare the sizes of Jesus, God the Father,
Marv, and John with those of the apostles seated immediately behind
and of the figures standing below on either side of the altar. li appears
Raphael painted the group around the Saviour perspectivally much larger
because he wanted the cloud that supports them to be understood as far
forward; tangent, in fact, with the picture plane, just as are the two
41 Those ltgures identifiable on the left sule ol the cloud are St. Peter, Adam, St.
John the [tangt-list, David. and St Lawrence. on the right. 5! Stephen, Moses, St.
Ambrose. and St. Augustine. To their right we also discern fit 'lhnnua Aquinas, hi ”1%
nairnture, Dame. and Pope Sixtus l\'. See l’leilier.
an)
The Heritage of Giotto’s Geometry
squared ends of the long semicircular cloud on which the apostles sit.
Also flush with the picture plane on this same vertical axis is the en-
circled Holy Ghost at the lower front end of Jesus’s cloud. The artist thus
positioned the Holy Trinity not above the altar but before it, hovering
over the empty pavimento between the gesturing Albertian interlocutors
in the near foreground.
Rome to work for the new pope, and we know how much the painter ad-
mired the architect, even to the point of including his portrait among the
theologians in the Disputn (the balding figure with a book leaning over
the balustrade at lower left).
In this regard, overlook Raphael’s consistent pictorial
we must not
adulation of his patrons and mentors in all the Vatican frescoes. The art-
ist had already insinuated a gesture to Iulius II’s
vanity in the Windsor
drawing for the Disputa. We saw there (fig. 6.10) an angelic figure seem-
ing to point to a papal tiara above a cartouche, on which would surely
have been displayed the della Rovere arms.45 Though this unsubtle refer-
ence was
expunged in later studies, I believe that Raphael’s charge was
always to symbolize in some way Iulius’s ambition to regain the power
and majesty of his revered uncle Pope Sixtus IV. As the artist
began to
paint the bottom zone of the Disputa, I think he saw an expedient op-
portunity once again, this time both to conceal and to enhance his in-
tended flattery by means of
Albe/rtfiinperspective. Whatever the intent,
our
ingenious painter did make it possible for His Holiness to imagine
lu lu
(Jeometrization of Heavenly Space
pi
a
altar—his
ward the painted
since the painter inscribed the
own, e’s
name
on it but twice.“7 There, step
not once
before the safreda or two
should himself
monstmncer lulius imagine at pause (and bein reeted at v
that point by
his uncle's raised hand). The Holy Ghost’s
down
5
gildfdgra ll,"
should then stream directly upon him as he completed like
In the last analysis, heaven and earth are neatly joined in this conven-
tionalized yet thoroughly Euclidian representation of the Christian uni-
verse. All space
is uniform, isotropic, and absolute by implication. Even
Bologna.
be in the ’historia' who tells the
"Then, I like there to someone
46. Alberti (1), p. 83'.
and beckons with his hand to look."
spectator what going
is on, .
. .
de Campos, p. to.
47. Redig content of Raphael‘s Dispitla
should in no
comments concerning the form and
48. My refute the iconographical studies by
to
H. Pfeiffer (1]
as an attempt
way be construed could be used to support both of
Winner. indeed, i believe my own analysis
and M.
well have understood his basic armillary sphere
insofar as Raphael may
their readings (in the argument of Winner]
model structuring "heavenly architecture"
as
compositional to Pfeiffer). ft is of course the true
or the schemata
of a new Golden Age (according
he imbues his work
with many levels of interpretation.
mark of a great artist that
The Heritage of Giotto’s Geometry
6.16 Detail of Raphael’s Dispum, Stanza della chnatura (ca. 1509). Photo: Alinari—Art
Resou rce.
Finally, it is worth
noting that, during the very months Raphael was
painting in the Stanza dell
Segnatura, Luca Pacioli's Divina proportione
was published, with all its idealized implications
concerning the geometry
of regular solids. The painter had no doubt heard about the Franciscan
mathematician while he was growing up in Urbino. In any case, he knew
of Piero della Francesca, whose writings on the Platonic polyhedra he had
read in the Duke of Urbino’s library—decorated, by the way, with a
222
Geometrization of Astronomical
/ Space'
Galileo, Florentine Disegno, and the
L) L) K»
The Hmtage ol Giottn's Geometry
1“” 0f h“
Galileo It (misstated crusally ‘0 3'- 0”“
“WWW-wart
astrommzcal discm cries: the INC Fl‘.‘ 5““ JWJUM’: ”l 1h“ ”Hau- of
the moon
{1m an
historian," founded the Accademm del Disegno ‘Acadfmy 0i
Dinning], H
an
organization where painters. sculptors. and architects could meg:
together not as mere artisan guild members but as mtellecruals, to
converse about current trends tn philosophy. literature. and snencea
V'asan wanted to establish a center where amsrs could keep up to date 0n
geometry and anatomy. the scrences he believed essential
the Pramce to
Reynolds; Banman.
i
3.
4. See Barzman, pp. 287-93. A page of Vasari's unpublished
manuscript [UHizi
4962A) is illustrated and briefly described in Firenze e la Toscana def Medici . . .
,
p. 145. See also p. 147 for a mention of the younger Vasari's illustrated
manuscript on
measuring instruments (on. 1600; Biblioteca Riccardiana 2138).
5. According to Karen-edis Barzman (personal correspondence, Ian. 12,
1988),
l
Galileo had written to Cardinal Francesco Maria dal Monte, brother of
Guidobaldo, ask.
ing for help in securing the Accademia position. However, apparently
nothing came of
this effort. Galileo was then offered and
accepted the mathematics chair at the Univ 91'-
sity of Pisa. See Prezziner; Rose (1).
6. On Galileo's friendship with Cigoli, see
Chappell; Kemp (6), pp. 93—98,
7. Panofsky (8).
(letlif‘u‘triJ-hifln .3; .-‘\-tut"n_iffil.4t L';““
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3. Galileo to Cigoli. lune 16. 1612, in CalilL‘t {3), 11340—4}, and translated by Pan-
ofslty (Si. PP~ 31'}?
Panofsky (8); Haskell, pp. 102—}. See also Shea for an illuminating commentary
9.
not only on
the Panofsky essay on Galileo as “crime of the arts" but on the effect of
conservative classical taste, especially his aesthetic preference for the Circle, on
Galileo/5
his disregard for Kepler’s theory of elliptical planetary motion,
10. Chappell, pr 91, :1. 4t
11. Vagrtetti; Veltmztn (2); Field (2); Field/Gray, chap, a. For an interesting case
study
on the influence of Diirer's perspective treatises on Kepler, see Straker.
Lt L) Vt
The Heritage of Giotto's Geometry
chapter 5, Cotnmandinu
was
sop.
_
..
d.icating how
cut illustrations of various solids
under raking light, in
they
cast their shadows on a plane. familiar with
As a perspectivist, Galileo likely t 0 have been
is the
seen how the geometrical con»
nmzzocrliio problem. We have already obsessed Florentine quat—
struction of that complex headdress (fig. 56)
Paolo Uccello an d Piero della Francesca.
Char-
trocento painters such as
the
revived in prin—
acteristically, this venerable projection puzzle
was
see also Vagnetti, pp. 334-35. Concerning Barbara's debt to Piero della
spectively;
Francesca, see Held (1].
14. Sirigarti; see also Firenze e la Toscana dei Medici, p. 145, and Vagnetti, p. 344
(who mistakenly says that the book was dedicated to Ladislao Sigismondo, prince of
Poland and Sweden). Sirigatti also influenced Vasari il giovmie, who dedicated his un-
published perspective treatise to him.
15. Barzman, pp. 287—93.
226
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Geometrizatiim ol Astronomical Sp-ICC
of
econd consisting twenty-four plates illustrating problems of
.
(‘560—l611l
Han?“ (where turning his attention from
con temporary Thomascolonies he was Wlll‘l Sir Walter
'ng the Virginia Raleigh tn
ninsPlesé) to the study of the moon; in fact, observing it through a six-
Galileo
Flemish inventors.
tube"
drawing of the tnoon {it}; 7.5) as
(as the English called the new de-
seen through
[W fldt‘lt‘d no L‘XPlanation save the Julian date and
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his observatton: "1609, July 16, hor. 9pm. The 3} [first
time of
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perfect sphere,
as a
prototypicalthe form of all planets
tion or the
moon
in the Christian
cosmos. dogma added to this euphoric image
and stars
the moon symbolize the Virgin's Immaculate Conception.
by having
moon" became rt commonplace expression for Mary, imply-
upurc as the
the universe, like herself, was incorruptible, that God would not
ing that
the moon or any other heavenly body in another shape. Re—
have created
those who served zealous Catholic patrons,
naissanfe artists, especially
frequently depicted the Virgin standing on such a moon, as did Bar—
tolomé Esteban Murillo [1617—1682) as late as the mid—seventeenth cen-
their ideas concerning the relationship of Harriot’s and Galileo’s lunar observations.
31
The Heritage uI (jmuo's (icomctry
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7.5, A page from LurcnzoSirigaui's Pmtini iii pmsln'mva (159(7). By permission of th‘
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buomeinzation (It Astronnniztsl bps-u
Murillo did of the subject, poised upon a ball marblcd like translucent nl—
abaster but with a highly polished, utterly smooth surface.
In Thomas Harriot's England, the anti-Aristotelian Francis Bacon had
concluded that the lunar body was not solid at all, but rather composed
of unexplained "vapour." Harriot’s own opinion about the moon's
some
‘hardly have looked as sharp as it does in figure 7.10, a modern Lick Ob-
“servatory photograph familiar to every college astronomy student. 1"
\
\
‘
19. Pasachoff, pp. 118—19.
234
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Concerning the theory of the moon commonly held by Europeans before Galileo
23.
and the difficulty of disprm'ing this conception. see Anew
I.)
\u ‘1-
The Heritage of Ciotto's Gcomctry
7.9. Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, Immaculate Conceplion (ca. 1660). Courtesy of the Walters
Art Gallery, Baltimore.
236
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POAS Richard Westfall has revealed, Galileo’s fascination with the tele-
also
was by
motivated earthly arnbition.27 There is no reason to
scope Florentine
belie“
that
the. waited until
scientist he had perfected his
rounding discovery.
Investigation by Ewen Whitaker indicates that Galileo's recordings of
date from November and December
the moon'5 phases 1609.2H Since his
observations during these two months could be affirmed only when the
in partial shadow, his
moon appeared viewing nights were limited to
twenty-four, not all of which would
about conveniently be free of
clouds.“
/_
tiano Serlio’s treatise on architecture. In this translation of a 1606 Dutch version of the
original Italian, Moxon commented, “the words are translated, but not the Science. On
"
fessor (Galileo) far off in an unfriendly foreign university (Padua) had to do in order to
research grant from his home state’s science foundation (the Medici family of
procure a
Florence). See also Biagioli for a similar discussion of Galileo’s struggle for recognition.
28. Whitaker. For other arguments concerning the dates and times of Galileo’s lunar
observations, see Righini; Gingerich; Drake (2). Galileo, however, did not begin looking
at Jupiter, and therefore did not observe its four moons (which he prudently named the
”Medicean stars"), until January 1610. For an interesting argument that even in this dis-
covery Galileo applied
his knowledge of perspective, see (3. Parker.
of Galileo’s discoveries and the timing of his
29. On the order announcement, see
suspecting world: ”I have been led to the opinion and conviction that the
deep valleys/’31
30. See Sheehan, pp. 9—27, for the latest analysis of how
Galileo arrived at his con.
clusions. Sheehan rather summarily dismisses the Sideretts tiioiciiis illustrations as
"crude drawings" realizing that they are secondhand, engraved by an anony.
without
mous journeyman after Galileo’s sketches. Among all historians of science who have ex.
amined this matter so far, only Gingerich has looked at Galileo's illustrations with
anything like an art expert’s eye, observing the distinct difference between the prelimin.
ary watercolor sketches and later engravings. There is no way Galileo could have made
such careful pen~and-wash studiesduring his exciting first moments at the telescope, as
anyone who has ever stood in the cold, windswept tower of San Giorgio Maggiore
(Galileo’s open “observatory”) should quickly understand. Like any seicento painter of
outdoor scenes, Galileo returned to the studio to finish his pictures, relying on remem-
bered impressions, verbal notes, and hasty diagrams. Plein tii'r painting, after all, was not
l. h n
The Heritage of (harm’s Geometry
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It seems that Galileo furnished his wash drawings to the engraver only
as guides, and apparently
asked him to emphasize the more spectacular
artistic license to exaggerate the size of that particularly dark, deep crater
we see lying just below center along the terminator in figure 7.15. This
is Albategnius, and Galileo wished to compare its steep sides with those i,
of the high mOuntains surrounding the region of Bohemia-32 Thus he
(jahlet [1), pt iir; Drake (i), p. 3(L See also Van Helden (4], p, 47,
32
[u 43 K»
The l-leritage of Giotto's Geometry
244
(.eomeirization of Astronomical Space
to the .
history of art
,
.
as to the history of m.
belong
H“ my
‘
(,alileo exists,
»
to
f“ ‘llmugh nU
of Constable and
technique for ren—
Let
directed toward the Suit, while on the side opposite the
blackened part5
crowned with bright contours like shining summits. There is
Sun they
are
Drake (1), pp. 32—33. See also Van Helden (4}, pp. 40—49.
33‘ Galilei [1), pp. sr—gr;
to 4: ill
The Heritage of Giotto's Geometry
earth.
His next observation had to do with what is today referred to as
When the Moon is not far from the Sun, just before or after a new
Moon, its globe offers itself to view not only on the side where it is
adorned with shining horns, but a certain faint light is also seen to mark
out the of the dark part which faces away from the Sun,
periphery
separating this from the nether. Now if we examine the matter more
closely, we shall see that not only does the extreme limb of the shaded
side glow with this uncertain light, but the entire face of the Moon
(including the side which does not receive the glare of the Sun] is
whitened by a not inconsiderable gleam. it is then found that this
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247
The Heritage of Giotto's Geometry
region of the Moon. though deprived ofSUHliShL alt“) Shines not a little.
The effect is heightened if the gloom
ofmg]1t has alrk‘ddt' deepened
darker field a given light appears
through departure of the Sun, for in
a
no small
brighter. This remarkable gleam has afforded
. , , Perplexny to
Some would say it is an inherent
and natural light of
philosophers. . . .
the Moon's own; others that it is imparted by Venus; others yet, by all
the stars together; and still others derive it from the Sun, whose rays they
would have permeate the thick solidity of the Moon. But statements of
this sort are refuted and their falsity evinced with little difficulty. For if
were contributed by the stars,
this kind of were the Moon’s own, or
light
Now since
the Moon would retain it particularly during eclipses. . . .
the
does inherently belong to the Moon, and is not
secondary light not
there is no other body left but the Earth, what must we conclude? What is
be we must assert that the lunar body [or any other
to
proposed? Surely
dark and sunless orb) is illuminated by the Earth. Yet what is so remark~
able about this? The Earth, in fair and grateful exchange, pays back to the
Moon an illumination similar to that which it receives from her through-
out
nearly all the darkest gloom of night.“
How was Galileo able to make such a discovery? What led him to raise
this issue in the first place? The fact is, as any seventeenth-century Flo—
rentine connoisseur of art would have known, the ability to depict re-
flected light was one of the outstanding achievements of Renaissance
painting, admired to this day in masterpieces by the very artists we have
been about. While growing up in Tuscany, the young scientist
speaking
may have seen many unforgettable examples, such as Francesco di
Giorgio’s Nativity (fig. 4.14), or perhaps even a drawing such as figure
7.17,by a follower of Leonardo da Vinci, where we observe how mar—
velously the rendered light from the baby’s head reflects upon its moth—
er’s cheek. Moreover,Galileo, through association with Cigoli and the
Florentine Accademia del Disegno, is likely to have known the relevant
instructions in Leon Battista Alberti's treatise On Painting, available
since 1568 in a popular Italian-language editionr‘S
A shadow is made when rays of light are intercepted. Rays that are
248
I
‘
'
.‘rV
’
,-
h.‘.
xv-
I‘ n. _A_‘. yr A
..
_
w,.......v.. _.
7.17. School of Leonardo da thci, drawing of a woman and child (ca. 1500].
Devonshire Collection, Chatsu‘orth. Reproduced by permission of the Chatsworth
Settlement Trustees. Photo: Courmuld Institute of Art
are reflected, for instance, when they rebound off the surface of water onto
the ceiling; as mathematicians prove, reflection of rays always takes place
I; 4:. \0
The Heritage of Giotto’s Geometry
at
equal angles. . . . Reflected rays assume the color they find on the
surface from which they are reflected. We see
this happen when the faces
of people walking about in the meadows appear to have greenish ting“
a 1,.
darks contrast with the illuminated parts of the moon, but never so
bright as the illuminated sides. Too bad that Galileo’s journeyman en—
his burin in the final il-
graver was unable to reproduce this effect with
lustrations printed in Sidereus mmcius.
The telescopic observations of the moon announced in Sidereiis mm—
cius opened the eyes of Renaissance Europeans to a celestial reality they
had thought existed only in perspective pictures. To Thomas Harriot’s
Britain, where the visual arts still lingered in the Middle Ages, Galileo
offered a crash course in Italian ways of seeing. Suddenly everywhere in
Britain, amateur as well as professional philosophers were able to con-
ceive of the ”mountains and umbrageous dales” that Galileo had just de-
ings of Dryden, Donne, Butler, Milton, and many other British poets.”
Even Harriot, once he had read Sidereus iiimcius, finally saw the
shaded craters that had eluded him a year before. In Iuly 1610, four
months after Sidereits nuncius was published, Harriot drew yet another
lunar picture (fig. 7.18). Once again there is no written comment, but, as
38. Concerning the remarkable poetic response to Galileo's discoveries, see Nicolson
(1) and (2).
Geometriution oi Aslriflltfifnial Eta-Ct
fink M"
:
‘1?"
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...- _
7.19. Cigoli, Assumplum of {In' Vir‘gm [1612]. Pauline (‘11.1pul, 5.1m.) Mann Maggmrc, Rome.
Courtesy of Miles Chappc”, Willinmsburg, Virginia.
L: lo
kn
Geometrizaiion of Astronomical Space
vel‘V-
1611
’Galileo’s lriend Cigoli was commissioned to fresco 1h;-
co‘ or the Pauline Chapel in the Basilica of Santa Maria Mag-
Nd ceiling The artist permitted
was
depict there the Virgin Mary
diprcdint;
to
in Rome-
_
.
Cmmr'POCde
on a
moon
(“8- 7'19), no doubt inspired by one of
drawings.“
"331003 original
GJTO thift day Cigoli’s painting is officially and prudently called the A5-
253
8 / Geometry and Jesuits
in the Far East
Though the Chinese are most friendly to painting, they are no, as
advanced as we. . . ,
They don’t know how to paint with oil, Or
how
to draw shadows, and so their pictures are pallid and withoul
cast
life,
—Father Matteo Ricci, LL’ngs
[1602)
innovative aspect of the work was still its pictures, the subjects and
layouts of which Nadal programmed himself.
Nadal’s opus was hardly the first illustrated devotional manual
pub-
lished in response to the Council of Trent.2 What made it
unique was
its absolute dependence on for meditational
images inspiration. Earlier
tracts employed illustrations only as a kind of adjunct; readers were
My sincere thanks to
Chin-shing Huang of Harvard University, C. K. Wang of
Princeton University, and Hu Zheng, Xia Qiu, Raymond Chang, and Jason Kuo of
Williams College for their help in translating and
interpreting the Chinese tests referred
to in this chapter.
254
1N NOCTE mu”; 1317341331.
CF71?
3:752;
..;:
.3 Aft“ :
1
"
and the
expected to concentrate on the words refer to pictures as sup-
functioned mm the other way
plementary guides. Nadal's pictures
around. They, rather than the explanatory text, had the responstbility of
projecting the viewer's mind and emotions Vicariously
into the
'10um
sition of place,” just as St. Ignatius urged as the “CCCSSNY prelude
to devotion in his Spiritual Exercises.
[n the Nativity, plate Evangelicne liistorine imagines, we
3 of the
notice immediately that Nadal was inspired by
contemporary scientific
illustration.3 So impressed was he by the clarity of the diagrams recently
published in such treatises as Agricola’s De re metallica and Ramelli‘s
Diverse ct Artificiose Machine that he decided to adapt the standardized
conventions discussed in chapters 4 and 5. Just as any one of Agricola‘s
If,
i
H
”1‘ \J"i(
.
es ~—_.
-
"
mo. “m” i» .
l ,
‘
IfiiJf'ufT
I.
i.
't‘. .
0
directing the three mag: at M Vamp Jr;
I, and the
star 471:»! -
! 1 H U510"
11L ()l Intern-mm;
[hug git-111?, Jililttkpl‘cnr {aw-{w V
. AI ‘
A\. '1'| f
[int-‘5' Renaissance artists could tum t.
as
m spam: Alid‘tl'ni"ilk3ii\ ‘
Depth d
{Mute
symbol
‘
lur
..
a commit-tit
also provtdt' HHlltJlln}: tttstariu .n (“'11: lo
“
of ii“? engraved tnttlxnlt‘s, this umumtltm “a: met: in imitate
"the”
related but temporally separated (.mpc-l (in.
iyP‘,|(,I,;ii.'allybehind the Annunciation the
Hugh: Initl imp,
or
4..ch .m'n l,‘
4”“!
(ruafi’m’n Jc J
limb“-
A5 Thomas Buser has argued, Nadal's pillll‘fl was the hut l(’~llll
mwmpt to establish
a new (hunterrelortnalott
putt-ital lntm \M'll
We li.l\‘e wtnt‘ in .I~~tttt.|tt' iiitli [hr
before Il’tOSL’ baroque extravagan/as
believed
style.” Nodal
485“"
that because til Renaissance advances in
the sacred idea oi his nth-gm would
printmaking technology,
science and
now appeal
with greater realism and clarity to a larger audience than anv
art before, propaganda Hde ("spreading the laith”] by means of
religious
all that oi pictures, enhanced
the most universal of languages, now bv i
century Jesuit mission to ('hina under the brilliant lather Matteo Rim
Oriental taste.
Like all the missionary orders in the sixteenth century, the Jesuits
were concerned that their converts might misinterpret Christian images
dish
m0 promoted
)lUgvna'
' '
suited Jesuit
”Such
.
a
Ricci folloWers also Wished [0
mcmphysics, the ngic’ofwliic‘h and’hishimself,
sctences.
model
the matumatita
oit Ricct think in expert per- an on
to \J‘ {a
The Heritage of Giotto's Geometry
the end of the sixteenth century (and it was not burdened by any theory
of immutable aether or concentric spheres), it still lacked any geometric
could trace the paths of
system.16 However ably Chinese astronomers
stars planets by algebraic means, they could not express the heavens
and
stereometrically (they hadn’t yet the astrolabe). Ricci perceived this flaw,
and begged that Rome should immediately dispatch astronomy books,
instruments, and above all trained astronomers to Beijing. The Jesuit
curia was
extremely slow in sending astronomers, but books and instru-
ments did arrive within Ricci’s lifetime. He was able to improve at least
some of the Chinese measuring techniques, and the emperor was indeed
grateful; so much so that in 1601 he granted Ricci’s request and even
allowed the Jesuits to found a reading room in Beijing in which not only
Christian literature but also treatises on Western science and technology
would be available.”
This institution, later known as the Bei Tang or North Church Library,
was intended not
only for the intellectual and spiritual reinforcement of
the far-from—home Jesuits but also for the enlightenment of Chinese
scholars, who there might acquaint themselves with Western ideas. After
Ricci died in 1610, his immediate successors, particularly Father Nicolas
Trigault, managed to add several thousand volumes to the collection,
including the latest and sometimes the most controversial works then
15. J. Parker, p. 5.
16. On the state of Chinese astronomy vis—awis the West at the time of M atteo Ricct,
see Needham (3), pp. 171—458; also Nakayama/Sivrn, pp. 91—ios.
17. For a
good overall history of the Jesuit mission to China in the seventee nth cen—
(
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The Heritage of Giotto’s Geometry
predominant land mass in the center Ithe "Middle ngdomW with the
25. An elephant-folio facsimile of each of the sections of this map is published in col-
or with Italian translation and commentary by D'Elia (1). See also Dunne, p. 98; D’Elia
(3), 1:207—11. A single one-twelfth section of this map is reproduced and discussed
briefly in Needham (3), pl. xcr, facing p. 583.
Pfister, 1:37; Bernard (4), p. 2. Copies of this book can be found in the library of
26.
the Jesuit curia, Borgo Santo Spirito, 5, Rome, under rubrics )AP—SIN 11 12, 13, and
1:1.
27, As translated and quoted in Spence, p. 146.
262
(women)! “Nd Jesuits in the Far East
__
h”?
r05 before it went to press.2H In an]! (350, he managed
final draft
.
to
he . . .
.l
readt number of
- .
Chinese,
‘
‘ in
among which
medicine, the ”Art of Memory...
were
rract5 on
matheénatl cls, and even
nfucian
middle of the seventeenth century, the Holy Seem Rome as
Until the successors in China tacitly shared this aim, to establish a
Ricci's
Well as
blending Christian liturgy with the peculiar
Of “China rites,"
Special set
of the East.For one thing, the Jesuits realized that religious ser-
ritual5 in 1615, Pope Paul V gmmcd rhr-m
Latin were too difficult, so,
vices in
to celebrate mass
in Chinese. With that precedent they inau-
Permission tacitly approved in Rome, of translating
urated a further policy, again Chinese characters.
literature in
and publishing their
In this vein,
Chinese-language tract based on Nadal‘s [mue-
the first
manual for
Nien-zltit Gui-clieiig, was published (15 a Jesuit
ings, called
It was composed about 1620 by one of Ric-
the recitation of the rosary.
da Rocha.” This
ci’s closest
collaborators the Portuguese father Joao
sorrowful, and
fifteen woodcuts representing the joyful,
work contained
all adapted from Nadal, one of which is reproduced
glorious mysteries, a de Vos’s Nativity (fig. 8.1).
here as figure8.2, copy after Marten
that the copyist has Sinicized the entire
com-
We notice immediately
flattened according to Chinese tradi—
The perspective has been
position. by native schemata, and even
the
tion, landscape details
are represented
facial characteristics. We may conjecture
principal figures bear Oriental transformation of
was content with this stylistic
that Father da Rocha
it conformed to Ricci's
idea of allowing Chinese
Nadal’s subject, since their own Confucian
the Christian message within
viewers to imagine viewer would sur- Chinese
image of the Nativity
a
context. From such an
the virtues of pa—
like Confucian ethics, extolled
mise that Christianity,
artist did, even if inadvertently,
triarchal familyorder (after all, Nadal’s
of Mary!). As for those didactic
place St. Joseph at the ”preferred right”
fix a
/
7(
4.5-
‘-
r_ '.,' .
, , .
the traditional
'
-(i ortanlt
,
I
m,“ unprepared
.\adal
"scientific Christian medita—
were
place lost European souls with new COHVCFIS in the distant East. Thus
thx
puritanical papal brief of 167}, forbidding the missionary Orders to Nb}
lish books or Scripture without prior Roman approval,
interpret and the
Vatican’s draconic condemnation of the Jesuits’ special “China rites" in
1743 have been excoriated by
modern historians as spelling the
ruin of
the Catholic missions and the demise of Western influence in China for
the next two centuries.”
In the final analysis—at least as far as the history of modern techno]~
ogy is concerned—such dogmatic Catholic decrees against the China
rites
may not have been so narrow-minded after all, as the
at least insofar
Jesuits were chastised for
naively entrusting the illustration of Western
texts to native artists. Europeans may have assumed that even in
tradi—
tional China words and images would be coordinated just as in their
own
books, but the Chinese copyists neither understood the Western origina]S
nor even felt it
necessary to represent what the words described.
Ricci and his successors in Beijing constantly begged Rome to send
but asked for competent
they
more astronomers, never
European-trained
artists. Nevertheless, Ricci’s superior and overseer of the Eastern mis-
sions, Father Alessandro Valignano, did appreciate the necessity of fur-
nishing the new churches with
holy images. Taking his cue from the
Franciscans in New Spain, he
prudently urged that indigenous artisans be
trained to combine their native craft with the principles of Renaissance
chiaroscuro and linear perspective. Unfortunately for the
Beijing mission,
Valignano decided that Japan, not China, should be the training center,
and directed Father Giovanni Nicolao (1560— .7) to found a
so
Japanese
”Academy of St. Luke,” where local converts might be taught to draw
and paint in the Renaissance manner. This decision, as yet unevaluated
by modern historians, was more crucial than anyone at the time
imag—
ined.32 Perhaps it even
played some role in the differing paths taken by
China and Japan in the oncoming Industrial Revolution.
In any case, Nicolao remains practically unknown to art historians.
Presumably he received his artistic education in of the many re—
one
spected studios of late cinquecento Naples. Between 1591 and 1614 he as—
31. For a blistering condemnation of the Jansenists and other jealous rivals of the
Jesuits on this score, seeHay, pp. 95“.,- also Dunne, p. 269.
32. On Valignano’s mission principles in Japan, see Schiitte.
266
Geometry and Jesuits in the Far East
of
European-stylethenPalputht
mlnlgiaudt“.IQ‘JSCril‘Yln“Him“ his pupils, of Chinese
.
.n were
tog-J?"ljwo during Una
Ricci’s lifetime.
know“ by the tmmanuel Pereira [1636—
name
The {irsb
apparently
1Chlristian
L talent, the called Jacopo Niwa,
second,
Nicolao hadl l ‘t‘t
was
‘681‘34 He
s
reported have painted is
Vailcstliourneyman.
as to
rewarde‘lfine e for still extant)"5 and
several Westerin-sty a'tarpieces (none
his
certain
darin aristocracy, it followed that Western science and even the visual
arts were to be introduced from that social direction only,
1“ wivi I it In »
.‘wm .W
et urchin-(forum (Rome min
piriorum
Verhaeren, items 251 i, His.
207
The l’leritage of Giotto's Geometry
Alter Riccl'fi death in min, ilie most gifted scientists sent in (‘hina by
lifltllt'F lOle"
the Society of Jesus were a Swiss,
and
5?l"“‘l‘ l‘5_7("“(’3”l,
who aptly called himself in Latin ’l'eretitius, a. German, in lather loliann
Adam Schall von [39]] (1591—1666). Both arrived Beijing i623,
in
been SlUtlL'm 0f
Schreck, who held a degree in medicine, had also
it
the University of
Galileo's courses in astronomy and mathematics at
l’adua and later a fellow member elect of the prestigious Accmlc'l‘i“ (lCi
Lincei in Rome.” Father Schall was likewise a trained astronomer and
Like kit-Ti: he “Mil"
even more
qualified as a general polymath."“ to Use
young new
emperor.
During the courselong life, Schall published twenty—nine
of his
Chinese-language works on theology, astronomy, mathematics, optics,
geography, and history. Schreck, although he died only seven years after
arriving in Beijing, was able to publish eight scientific treatises in
Chinese, on mathematics, astronomy, mechanical technology, and anat-
omy.“
As Pasquale D’Elia has painstakingly argued, the Jesuits of the Chinese
mission, or at least those with astronomy, were generally
conversant
relevant books both pro and con. It came to own, for instance, two edi-
tions of Copernicus's lh' reimluiiuiiilms orbiimi cot'lt'stiimi (Basel, 1560,
human
' .
Only stern
teach the heliocentric
( theory, pre- to
"His forbidding any from
pl bmhe mifisiunaries speaking more
openly support of 0,1,0“
in
also held to a geocentrie
pill“ dincc ”minimal Chinese astronomy
tltat nothing would be gained by upset-
.. [hc Jesuits rationalized
'4
\Vllh‘lrmmtion
then
-“
for Galileo remained
[31110115 Florentine
firm that Father Schreck repeat-
send opinions how
so
adjust to
g,“ the
on to
“I t0
edli'
the
filing“; calendar. of his former colleague’s joining thereplied.
L
vain; the often
indifficult Galileo never
He
“are-nlly diSnpproved Jesuits,
um, iriztt
4:. D'lllta lat, is), Verhaeren, items [‘54,
1 l)‘l.im 1:], pp :7-aq
Io Kepler. who, Unlllxl‘ (.alrlen very [mili-
:l
was
lntclt‘5lllu;l\'. St‘ltretk then mote
"IIIITIHJKIHII to “flunk. see ll'l ll-l lzl, pp. we
and did send helpful .Istrnnunnial
mining
‘2‘
work t.in
A min til
iii
~
u l‘iixtei p lhu
lslt pp no.
[)‘Llla [.il pp l'l‘r‘ll.
Runn- [\i‘ «In H W-
be found in the lesuit library,
205)
ihe I’leritage ol (limto's Geometry
8.3, Woodcut by an
City.
phases of the moon begin and end the Chinese lunar month. Both
which
images are obviously derived from engravings in Galileo's Sidereus nint-
cius, showing the moon as the Florentine astronomer saw and described
it in 1610. if Schall did not have Galileo’s work at hand, he must have
had his Chinese illustrator copy other European prints plagiarized from
Galileo’s originals. Whatever, the woodcut on the left, purporting to
show the moon in its first quarter, actually depicts Galileo’s engraving of
the last quarter turned upside down.
D’Elia, in his twentieth-century translation of Schall’s little treatise,
did not then reproduce these Chinese illustrations—with good reason,
27o
Geometry and lesuits in the Far [M
”I:
o mfi d i n g parts 5 0 mOUntatns when they first
valleys.
the
in
I“?
receive
other
lrom ‘he
' '
light
Let us
look closeunl'y at t h
,
47. This translation, by Hu thng oi Williams College, differs slightly from D’Elia's
ltalian ([4], p. 173): "Nella Luna, si dice, si veggono delle parti illuminate e delle part1
oscure; le prime sono convesse, le altre concave; in altri termini si ha da (are (0| menu e
,. .ii .,
Aflfllmt'dran
mining more than fifty lean-5.. 7.1115 i and explain
2 me
that one of these Western treatises had led him to believe that the de—
51. Verhaeren, items 1682 (Ghetaldi), 2872 (Stevtn); Needham (5|, [7. 213, n. b, and
lager, pp. 81-85 (Monte). Oddly enough, Monte's classic is not listed by Verhaeren, al-
though his Bei Tang Library catalog does include Monte's In duos Arclnmedis tlL‘qut'pml-
demntimn (Pesarol 1588 [item 1425].
52. Verhaeren, items 3422 (Ramelli), 73o (Agricola), 3920 (Zetsing). Verhaeren does
not list the last three works,
5). Keller.
54. For a brief biography of Wang Zheng, sec Gabrielt, pp. 514-15,
272
Geometry and Jesuits in the Far East
“'0‘
. ,,
.
of bucltd's
wad geometry. After instructing Wang
first
matters for several days,
Schreck “dictated" the present text of
in the-‘0
Tit—slum. Wang then "translated and illustrated” it. The
Yumm- Qi—qi assumes that the reader
will take it for granted that a
chinL‘SC syntax
mandarin such Wang
as Zheng would have commissioned the illustra-
from someom else.
tions
shows of the illustrations published in the
Figure 8.4
one
1627 edition.
copied directly from plate of Faustus Verantius‘s Ma-
is a woodcut
11
It
chiuae (fig. 8.5), depicting
novae a horizontal wind turbine driving four
on two floors of circular stone tower. No Chinese—
mills distributed
a
relation
in the drive shaft? Figures 8.6 and 8.7 show two more
to
stand
Yuan-Ii Qi-qi Tit-shite woodcuts. The first illustrates a reciprocating wa—
ter pump
driven by a man in a treadwheel, derived from a plate in Vit-
di machine e edificii (fig. 8.8).55 The second,
torio Zonca's Nova tentro
from Ramelli's Diverse e! Artificiose Machine (fig. 8.9), represents
a
well, the water from which is raised by means of a vertical crank turning
an underground
Windlass. Again we observe that these woodcuts, like
every other in
the book, misrepresent the original designs from which
they were only did the Chinese artist not comprehend
“copied." Not
now standard
Chiaroscuro and perspective, but he was unaware of the by
to deci-
Western engineering drafting conventions. His futile attempts
internal mechanics of Zonca’s flap-valve pumps
pher the ”transparent"
and the cutaway view exposing Ramelli’s buried winch (this
artist inter—
the curving lines that form the edge of the unfamiliar cutaway
preted
5. This is
one of several designs in Zonca's treatise that were apparently plagiarized
Martini; see Reti.
from the fifteenth-century manuscripts of Francesco di Giorgio
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be regarded
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a mystical apparition] ”118'“ as
the
did not also reveal that Wang Zheng,
charmingly quaint if they
bureaucrat, w as no more able than his
< -
ist’s decision that the cutaway view in Ramelli’s original (fig. 89) mugt
the gears at lower
indicate some sort of mystical smoke wisping around
if in error, was to depict the
right. His solution, more sensible equally
instead as if
they were churning in the midst of suddenly appear-
gears
ing billowing surf (fig. 8.ii).
To be illustrated books on technology had been published in
sure,
China long before anything similar was produced in the West. Printing,
after all, had been a traditional Chinese craft since the ninth century.“‘
In the year 110}, while western Europeans were laboriously copying and
right up to the present century.“ In i313, a few years after Marco Polo
brought western Europe its first news of Chinese printing, Ninig Slut,
the classic Yiian Dynasty “Book on Agriculture," was published \ritli
5n. For the latest on the history of Chinese printing, see Needhani (1;)
37. See (ilahn.
280
Geometry and Jesuits in the Far East
-
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bunk: and
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mmlrrmmmu
lil’ll,()(iUli
were
published, just (Ihina, with an upper-class clientele in mind,
as in
Most of them were designed as de luxe reference books intended for
Europe and Ming—dynasty China in this respect—not only China but all
non-Western cultures everywhere in the world at that time. As we
medieval Christian doctrine
have seen, a unique tradition rooted in was
truism cite
.
tezzipiira, g7
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subsequent \\'esterii art
iii the
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at least
““0““ "th world 0' pure li‘rms then peiliaps we tan pinpoint
Wt‘slcrii .H‘IISJIl-k‘nglnut‘fs paiiiculailv during the
one “335011 why
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries came to depend more and
more On
beneficial
-
or
just how
short run however. there is no
unique Western way u: .4
native language
t \
working draix'itis
t
.
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
"
Aschendori, 1927.
al. “The Natural Sciences and the Arts Fiqum 2’ n 5
”
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‘
- ' I
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~ :
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‘ -
t
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6:,
*
t
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-
t,
’
H
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.
: K
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'
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A rn cm ‘
‘1 -'v
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Leon”
Biblmgruplw
I’lf“! .\ I‘HII‘U of ( IIIHpu-Jtm” ”1"“.
v‘\|l\h('ll\l. lel‘“ t“ H“. (I‘m-fl “I [/h'
(
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V ,
”chum “am I)“ Hl'rl'unix.’ L W: Rn.- int-2.. '-H‘ m Lam Um- !‘rknmumy HI»
"CHIIIHZ 1M” 1'“; mm H is.“ mu: “7" .':!rr.z-:- 5:: H1"; ftm .‘J-Ju‘wwnr‘
Hamburg [" hm: Haumh‘iu 15 WW
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I“
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‘ ' '
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'
L-mtl-‘t-‘Pt' ll
( .mm. .\nna ()nam 0n the 'l heme 0|
‘ .
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.
,
Jam“, ,
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‘~“':“,'-”u;:,..;. S Y fidgcn'm, Pvt Baden". 6-,
fir-“‘Wed by
'
[)‘Elw. ngquule
;
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(mill/”(V ,"Juf.
\aucana,
Bybli-‘JH‘G‘ Aposznllsa
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'
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INDEX
1191‘,
Alhazen, 43m 97
Anamorphusefi, 173
Frn, 7;
Angelica, 1
Annunciation, mm,
1,1 ,
1
11mm. 1(v<n
91, lr‘mnmr‘ A
Antonine, "MT-l!“ 1:; I
289 '
.
:rv 17
1 1:
Apolludnrm,m l‘vm 2 11'
'
r' “urn, .121)
Apollomu.» '
'
lwr‘
1
;~r ;.,n
ArCth/nl (ll?""l I -
1‘, .
i»; I'llxppn, 14, 59. 91, 9.3, 125—16,
Luz—4:: »
:1‘ |~l
~‘
Arclumnlr:
I .
(dihedral, 1115—11
Lupin». l'lurcnnne
»
‘
‘
'
‘
~11",
ml! of, 15m
Army ( lHInaHmIg method
1mm
Yell-“W Ll mmnsrrnunn of. 89, ()4, 10;_
Ann
.
; lupzxuw
Anslml: HI),
,I
‘
'
"f ‘
>
‘
1'
1,
1‘
Armlllm. 11w lluu‘r, l'lmmnm 2;;
u I ,
:1» “
“"
‘
-'!
um“
Arum:
index
China
Feng-shen Yin-te, 20
artistic schemata in, 10, 20, 263—66
filarete (Antonio Averlino], 136
astronomy in, 259—60
in, 261—62 Flavius Vegetius, 112, 185
cartography
Florence, 1, 13n, 97—98, 102—3, 224
concept of space in, 23—24
Jesuit mission in, 258—63, 266—73, 283—87 Baptistery, 89, 105-6
"rites” in, Cathedral (Duomo), 109—10
263, 265n. 266
science in, 10, 13, 15—16
Flotner, Peter, 17o
technical illustration in, 2—4, 117, 283 Forli, Mclozzo da, 167
Form, 38
Cigoli (Lodovico Cardi), 224—25, 248, 253
Cimabue, 71—72, 76—79 Fontana, Giovanni, 119—20, 125
frescoes at Assisi, 50—56, 75 Fountain, 191—92
Clavius, Christopher, 253n, 259—60, 262 Francis of Assisi, St., 47—48, 63, 71
Clement lV, pope, 45, 47 Frontinus, 112
316
lmivx
Hmum
“by“. (lurk-s 4: M.uluu haliu‘mv d: Lil-um" llf' In 4|,
klmmhm. 4:
Iii-mun“ oi LH 4; w» m; "n m» N mil HR
llcmul \lcuudim,
u: is:
2.18
lh-rnlguh \lnhdnn lirnmgvn], ”‘44.; 'Imrlulu [H \S
”\‘ll'Y llu'miw mun MAM \x {Virgin} u: uh wl. II“ t
in
lllli~ Paul .37 :H n :4!
llnlx L3hu$L ul-Q\ uS~lmy m4 :1; .”
pnnnui: m. In N lulw lln Mum Mam
no 22011
Maggum' lx'nmvl .uh
llnnncmuu \‘Ilel d ,
up” Magnum "~. M 1:5
Himkv, Robert. \--,; Mallmmuu u
Hudson Depth P'rccpuun 11-5; in Minn ti\'|llll\| \fi'n
Huyaum. Ian mm .3 .\lu::u..l:w mm v.5 if“. in
Main: ('w-nnn I dc “mud nlukr uf Hu-
Ignatius Loyola. 51.. :q, 2:1»
u‘nu’. 0‘. mi, HR. :1.
Indium.“ RL‘VfllullUl’l. n :m‘
Muilu. lminmml l nlr‘ maml ilulu‘ nl HU-
Isaac Master. so mm: :31.
Isndon‘ of Scullc. 5L. :0, w
Mn» Mlllnul. Ru
lslam.1. an. :1 Mnmhn, (.vlnldlm I,‘\
an oi, :5—19. in:
math-minim oi, n
Mh’hvlanyylu lluunnmu, m. :H
Ligozzi, lacopo, 4
m
:H (vlmdlinl, 3].. 266, 267
David. 96 3'5: i.:.v .r'n'ng, 26x
Lindberg, -
.i
2.; m my
‘~ -i :hn—Sy
Lippi, Fra Filippo. 91—04 uh 117.
218 ..
nuns, .154
Livy, 167
dchncil, 150
-
272—73, 280
Plato, 16,42, 16}, 167, 222, 231 Scientific Revolution, 10
and live regular solids, 163, 167 Secret codes (among Renaissance
engineersl,
Tlnlllf'llb, 42 120—25
l’liny, 167 Secretion secretormn, 112
l’omarancio {Niccolo Circignani), 237n Serlio, Sebastiano, 158, 170, 237—}9n, 2:1,
I
3/8
Index
269, :71
Terrestrial l’umdiw, mun
Theater of maximum, 18'; m: 1;",
-“
In Jim», :7I-7‘l
r
Theun ul Alexandria n .w vm
\rmn, :mhjn
Edgerton. Samuel
Y.
N7430~5-E34 1991
7o1'.8——dczo 91-1301
Am lll‘nrhm ll llHlUuY oi 5m we
H isturicnl Association’s
Winner of the American
R. Murmro Prize
1992 Helen and Howard
Western "sci—
the relationship between the
This ambitious book explores
’
with Galileo in the early seventeenth cen—
entific revolution’ that began
the Renaissance ”artistic revolution" inaugurated
byGiotto three
lury and
and research, it
f ruit of many years of thought
hundred years earlier. The
role that Italian Renaissance painting, sculpture,
demonstrates the crucial
science.” Samuel Y.
’
scientific practice.
is bold attempt to show how the
”Edgerton’s interdisciplinary study
a
as slowly refined by
the Renaissance artists
perception of the world, An ambitious
behind the scientific revolution. . . .
with
"EdgertOn'5 book is learned and richly illustrated paintings and
Williams College.
ma mamas
Cornell Paperbacks y
o U
“l" l l mull
r |