Door by Pietro Accolti

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Revision as of 12:10, 27 July 2010

Has no specific name but is a variant of Albrecht Dürer’s window.

Inventor

Pietro Accolti

Historic Period

1625

Description

Pietro Accolti’s perspective instrument is a variant of Albrecht Durer’s more famous window. Unlike its model, Accolti’s instrument could be used to depict from real life objects situated at any distance. The visual ray was not, in fact, simulated by a string. The painter looks at a point on the object through a viewer and intersects the visual ray by mans of a ball sliding on a string that runs diagonally across the frame of the “window”. When the ball is stopped at the point sighted, the “window” is closed and the position of the ball is transcribed onto the sheet of drawing paper. A variant of this instrument, with the “window” hinged to the base of the frame, was proposed later by William Halfpenny in 1731.

Bibliographical Resources

Accolti, Pietro. Lo inganno de gl’occhi: prospettiva ptratica di Pietro Accolti gentilhuomo fiorentino e della Toscana accademia del disegno. Trattato in acconcio della pittura. In Firenze, appresso Pietro Cecconcelli, 1625, pp. 5, 12, 15-16, 21, 24, 25, 28-30, 36, 40-41, 45, 48, 54, 65, 74, 84-87, 89, 116, 122, 124-125, 128, 132, 144.

Halfpenny, William (Michael Hoare). Perspective made easy: or, a New Method for Practical Perspective. Shewing the use of a new invented scenographical protractor; so easy, that a Person, tho’ an intire Stranger to Perspective, may, by Reading a few Lines, become Master of the Instrument, without the help of a Master. It’s Useful in Taking the Perspective Draughts of Towns, Countrys, Houses, and Gardens, or any Object whatever; much easier than what has hitherto been Practised. With several useful Examples in Practical Perspective, London, 1731.

Images

Pietro Accolti. Lo inganno de gl’occhi, Firenze, 1625, parte II, cap. XV, p. 84.

Author of the entry: Filippo Camerota