Perspective versus stereotomy: From Quattrocento polyhedral rings to sixteenth-century Spanish torus vaults

Abstract

Quattrocento perspective and Spanish sixteenth-century stereotomy share a number of concepts, problems and methods, although there seems to be no direct substantial connection between them. This suggests the existence of a common source, but it is not easy to identify it. Neither classical geometry nor the mediaeval practical geometry tradition include a word about orthographic projections, rotations or projection planes. Thus, mediaeval construction shop practices furnish the most probable common source for perspectival and stereotomic methods. Curiously, these practices are seldom mentioned in the exhaustive literature on perspective; even the use of orthogonal projection, although impossible to deny, is not often stressed. On the other side, Gothic tradition is recognised, at least in Spain, as an important source of Renaissance stereotomic methods. By contrast, the role of perspective and Italian and Italianate artists, which has been downplayed so far, should also be taken into account as a source of Renaissance stereotomy. © 2010 Kim Williams Books, Turin.