Perspective on Curved Surfaces in the Age of Pozzo: The Nuova Pratica di Prospettiva of Paolo Amato

Abstract

The study focuses an almost unknown treatise on perspective, The Nuova Pratica di Prospettiva, written by the priest Paolo Amato (1634–1714) in the last years of his life and published posthumously in 1733. The main points of interest of the Nuova Pratica is the perspective projection on cylindrical surfaces, which exceeds the coeval ‘practical’ treatises on perspective. A detailed resume of Amato’s treatise is accompanied by geometric schemes illustrating the perspective method proposed by the author. None of the paintings made by Amato has come down to us, but the vault covering a hall added to a Norman church in Palermo shows a trompe l’oeil that was painted by one of his favorite disciples. A repeatable method, integrating laser scanning and photogrammetric surveying with digital representation tools, supported the restitution of the painted architectural scene and highlighted potential links to the content of the treatise. The geometric analysis of the orthogonal projection of the vault highlighted a rigorous and unexpected geometric scheme underlying the trompe l’oeil.