In honor of the publication of De prospectiva pingendi, one of Piero’s three mathematical treatises, and its arrival in the Historical Studies/Social Science Library.

One of the great painters of the Italian Early Renaissance, Piero della Francesca changed the course of representations of three-dimensional forms on two-dimensional surfaces.  Earlier writers, Cenino Cenini and Leonbattista Alberti had sketched out spatial painting methods.  Piero’s treatise is unique in that he presents the theoretical and mathematical procedures for achieving correct diminution and projection into space.   A painter who left no preliminary sketches for any of his paintings, he illustrates his verbal definitions in the treatise with more than 150 magnificent and rigorous drawings. 

Published in Rome, the set is comprised of six volumes, three for the Italian version and three for the Latin: text, drawings, and facsimiles of the manuscripts.  The publication was edited by Marisa Dalai Emiliani and thirteen other scholars.

March 29 4:00 p.m.  White-Levy Room, Historical Studies-Social Science Library, Institute for Advanced Study

Discussants:
Marilyn Aronberg Lavin, Professor of the History of Art, Princeton University, Yale University, and the University of Maryland.

Daniel R. Grayson, Professor Emeritus, Department of Mathematics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign