Square by Bernardo Buontalenti

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Name presumably adopted by the inventor (documented by Giulio Parigi).

Contents

Inventor

Bernardo Buontalenti (1536-1608)


Historic Period

c.1590


Description

Instrument described by Giulio Parigi as "Very easy Invention of Messer Bernardo delle Girandole Engineer to the Most Serene Grand Duke of Tuscany for drawing in perspective". The instrument is a variant of Egnazio Danti’s square - Giulio Parigi explicitly calls it scuadra – but has no graduated scale. The intersections are measured by means of a string on the vertical rod and transcribed onto a sheet of drawing paper by overturning the thread on the horizontal axis. The drawing thus appears upside down and reversed, as in the camera obscura. At the Uffizi’s Gabinetto dei Disegni e Stampe is a rare drawing of Grand Duchess Christine of Lorraine done with Buontalenti’s instrument, perhaps during a summer holiday in the Villa dell'Ambrogiana: "Done this day the 5th of June 1595: This perspective drawing of the Most Serene Grand Duchess of Tuscany has been done by my own hand; done with the instrument of Bernardo Buontalentj; in the palace of mBrogiana".


Bibliographical Resources

Parigi, Giulio. Strumenti e macchine, 1590-1600, Parigi, Bibliothéque Nationale, ms. It. 1292, cc. 41, 44, 58.
Cristina di Lorena, Disegno di un modello di fortezza eseguito con la squadra del Buontalenti, Firenze, Uffizi, Gabinetto dei Disegni e delle Stampe, 2326 A.



Images


Author of the entry: Filippo Camerota

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