Il Disegno Obliquo: Una Storia dell’antiprospettiva

by Massimo Scolari
Marsilio, Venice, 2005
347 pp. Illus. 363 b/w. Trade, 24 euros
ISBN: 88-317-8617-2.

Reviewed by Ian Verstegen
University of Georgia Studies Abroad
52044 Cortona (AR), Italy

iversteg@uga.edu

In 1984 the Venetian architect and designer Massimo Scolari published the now-classic "Elements for a History of Axonometry" (Casabella, pp. 42-29). It remains to this day one of the few non-technical (but technically informed) reviews of the birth of axonometric projection from Renaissance military or cavalier perspective. The article noted an anticipation of the parallel perspective presumed by axonometry in geometric proofs, the use of parallels in the study of shadows, and ended on a speculative note, comparing the rejection of flaws noted in linear perspective to a Platonic viewpoint of timeless perfection. In a footnote Scolari noted that, "The publication of a text on the history of the axonometric is anticipated," and so when the book under review was announced——Il Disegno Obliquo: Una Storia dell’Antiprospettiva (The Oblique Drawing: A History of Anti-Perspective)——this reviewer was excited. Alas, the book is ‘merely’ a collection of all of Scolari’s previously published, yet still exciting, essays on oblique, military, and parallel perspective, on architectural models and geometrical proofs——in short all the themes touched on in the original essay——under one cover.

In the very brief preface Scolari notes how his reflection on axonometry began in that very essay that serves as an Introduction to the book and "remains still today the title of a book I should have written" (rimane ancora oggi il titolo di un libro che avrei dovuto scrivere). The book should not disappoint, however, because it is useful to have all of Scolari’s thought brought together. Indeed, the fact that some of the material was originally published in English (like the "Axonometry" article) or emerged from teaching seminars in the United States opens up the hope that this book might be translated into English with a jump-start from the preexisting English texts.

Scolari makes the (increasingly less) startling assertion that linear perspective has not been of much interest or use in world history, let alone in the Greco-Roman past. Beginning with the Egyptians and Near-Eastern civilizations, most cultures have preferred forms of oblique perspective utilizing parallels. This is close to Rudolf Arnheim’s discussion of the "Egyptian Method" (Art and Visual Perception, 1974) in world art except that Scolari goes further and notes that such a method of graphic transcription is not just a common means of expression but also the backbone on which ancient cultures related ideas about mathematics and engineering. One of Scolari’s chapters and its discussion of ancient Greek mathematical treatises on papyri is particularly fascinating. The maintenance of oblique strategies throughout the Byzantine and Islamic dynasties, and its independent usage in Chinese traditions, assured a currency when the Renaissance rolled around. Except now, of course, it is not the discovery of linear perspective that was the epochal discovery but the continuation and refinement of ancient conventions.

Scolari shows how mathematical proofs in oblique and parallel perspective were the first to transport the possibility of reading depth not only along x and y dimensions (up and down along the parallel frontal plane) but also along the z dimension (in depth). This was then picked up by the military engineers of the sixteenth century who used a compass to read off dimensions in all three dimensions and calculate costs, judge the success of a fortress design, and plan an attack

Scolari was a pioneer in noting the virtues of non-perspectival methods and their various links and connections. But here perhaps is where the pioneer, who offered such fresh and exciting possibilities twenty years ago, particularly makes us wish he had indeed written that book. The transition just outlined, that Scolari so ably lays out, is downplayed in favor of its continuities with ancient practices with oblique perspective. Did the ancients ever read off dimensions in the same way? If not, how then did their drawings of machines (another memorable chapter) literally inspire building? What is the contribution of the drawing to blueprints, working drawings, and working by "remote control?" Once military perspective was introduced, did it inspire the epochal changes in the western mentality that are usually ascribed to the rise of perspective? These are tasks for contemporary research. Now with a knowledge of Scolari’s great contribution they can be certain not to reinvent the wheel and maintain his broad vision as a model.