Prospectiva Pingendi, Prospectiva Fingendi. For a History of the Different Rules of Practical Perspective

The method of perspective representation has consolidated over time, up to its complete formalization, through a series of important and complementary achievements both in the scientific and artistic fields. While the study of the laws of ancient optics, combined with practical experimentation, slowly contributed to the rigorous formalization of the method in Renaissance intellectual circles, the workshop practice required operational rules that quickly and easily enabled artists to produce images in which the depth of the space and the three-dimensionality of the subjects it contains were evident. The study presented here intends to focus attention on the procedures practiced by artists, with particular attention to perspectives rules that really weren’t , in the scientific sense of the term, but which contributed to establish a shared and widespread basis for the development of sensitivity of seeing and representing in perspective, in the intimate and labile boundary between prospectiva pingendi and fingendi.