Architecture and Memory

The Renaissance Studioli of Federico da Montefeltro

Robert Kirkbride

 

A perspectival velo of intersections, by which each miniature window of visual information may be translocated to a reticulated sheet of paper, thereby reconstructing the desired vista. From Robert Fludd (1574-1637), Utriusque cosmic maioris scilicet et minoris metaphysica (Oppenhemii: Ære Johan-Theodori de Bry, typis Hieronymi Galleri, 1617-21). "The authority of Brunelleschi's perspectives came from the clearly intelligible structure they gave to space; they also provided a method of practical construction. The simple scaffolding of orthogonal lines and lines converging toward the vanishing point determined a geometric network thanks to a play on 'intersections;' this network turned into a play of elementary figures which were easy to isolate; the squares of the pavement usually placed at the surface became trapezoids according to the perspectival effect, the squares placed at an angle turned into diamonds, etc.; ...what one was left with at the end of the deconstruction of that space could be reconstructed on the painting as if it were a puzzle, that is to say like marquetry...the unifying function of the perspective clearly expresses a coherent mathematical thought, but the analytical and assembly procedure which comes from it is the technique of marquetry." (Chastel, "Marqueterie et perspective au XV siècle," 144-45: translation Anna Botta).

Source: Collection Centre Canadien d'Architecture/Canadian Centre for Architecture, Montreal