Perspettiva ridotta a perfezione: Glimpses of Daniele Barbaro’s Perspective Theory

This contribution is intended to identify some textual elements, apparently
secondary in Daniele Barbaro’s treatise on perspective, which either foreshadow
unprecedented developments in the discipline of representation or have
constituted complex critical nodes in the field of perspective. The first of these
is introduced in part V: anamorphosis (though never so called by the author, since
the term was not yet in use), suggesting a quick method to deform any flat image
by means of shadows. Finally, the author mentions two other ‘eccentric’ elements
of interest for the future developments of perspective that originated in Daniele
Barbaro’s text: an optical-projective device first introduced by Giovanni Battista
Vimercato, later developed by Jean François Niceron in his Thaumaturgus
opticus (1646), and the camera obscura.