A BOOK, Andrea Pozzo: Prospettiva de pittori e architetti, Roma 1693

With a total of 103 full-page engravings (2 frontispieces, 1 plate of
column orders, and 100 illustrations numbered 1-100). First edition, NB:
volume 1 only (of two).
Very worn contemporary vellum, spine damaged with loss, endpapers worn
and creased, joints weak, title with round stamp of Collegium
Lowenburgicum and a gift inscription in ink dated June 22, 1768, last
leaf of text almost loose and with architectural sketches in pencils on
verso, continuing to endleaves. Some finger-soiling, and latter half
more foxed and soiled, occasional short marginal tears and the
occasional stain.

"This famous book is a monument in the literature of Baroque art and
architecture. Andrea Pozzo was a clergyman, painter, architect and
theorist. He executed trompe-l’oeuil paintings for many Italian
churches. He is chiefly famous for his ceiling fresco in St. Ignazio in
Rome, showing the Saint in exstasy, which is a tour-de-forçe of
perspective painting, and a trompe-l’oeuil cupola in the same edif1ce,
in which the principles set out in this work are exquisitely
exemplified. This classic on perspective is a complete manual for
painters and architects, covering the use and delineation of all kinds
of perspective. It was among the most influentlal works on the subject,
and was instrumental in spreading the ideas of the Roman Baroque
especially in the Northern European countries" (Ove Hagelin, The art of
writing and drawing. A selection of one hundred books from the Ekström collection in the national library for psychology and education,
Stockholm, 1987).

Kulumaa.