"Spiracolo" (Pinhole)
From Inventions
Name adopted by the inventor (from the Latin spiraculum = aperture).
Contents |
Inventor
Leonardo da Vinci
Historic Period
15th C.
Description
Perforated iron plaque for projecting the shadow of an object to be painted onto a wall. Leonardo suggested how it could be used to created special illusionist effects: "If you want to represent a figure on a wall, the wall being foreshortened, while the figure is to appear in its proper form, and as standing free from the wall, you must proceed thus: have a thin plate of iron and make a small hole in the centre; this hole must be round. Set a light close to it in such a position as that it shines through the central hole, then place any object or figure you please so close to the wall that it touches it and draw the outline of the shadow on the wall; then fill in the shade and add the lights; place the person who is to see it so that he looks through that same hole where at first the light was; and you will never be able to persuade yourself that the image is not detached from the wall”. (Richter, par. 525). Leonardo probably used the same procedure to create particular anamorphic compositions, such as the struggle between a dragon and a lion described by Giovanni Paolo Lomazzo: "Francesco Melzo states that Leonardo followed the same procedure to paint a dragon fighting with a lion, a thing most admirable to see, as well as for the horses he donated to King Francis of France, where his art in depicting the horses was greatly esteemed by Girolamo Ficino" (Trattato dell'arte della pittura, scultura, et architettura [Treatise on the art of painting, sculpture and architecture], Milan 1584, chap. XX).
Bibliographical Resources
Leonardo da Vinci. The literary works of Leonardo da Vinci. Compiled and edited from the original manuscripts by Jean Paul Richter. London, Phaidon, 1970, I, par. 525.
Lomazzo, Giovanni Paolo. Trattato dell'arte de la pittura: diviso in sette libri ne' quali si contiene tutta la theorica, et la prattica d'essa pittura. In Milano, appresso Paolo Gottardo Pontio, 1584, cap. XX.
Lomazzo, Giovanni Paolo. Trattato dell'arte della pittura, scoltura, et architettura. Con una tavola de' nomi de tutti li pitttori , scoltori, architetti, et matematici antichi, et moderni. In Milano, per Paolo Gottardo Pontio, 1585.
Lomazzo, Giovanni Paolo. Scritti sulle arti. A cura di Roberto Paolo Ciardi. Firenze, Marchi & Bertolli, 1973-1974.
Existing Instruments
- Museum of the History of Science, Oxford
Museum of the History of Science, Oxford, inv. 28797
Author of the entry: Filippo Camerota
