Your Most Obedient Subject,
J. Sturt.
PREFACE
TO THIS
TRANSLATION.
Notwithstanding the Art of PERSPECTIVE must be acknowledg’d so highly and indispensably requisite in the Practice of Painting, Architecture, and Sculpture; that in the First of these especially, nothing commendable can be perform’d without its Assistance: Yet such have been the Difficulties and Obscurities met with in the first Attempts, and so great the Perplexity and Confusion of Lines in the Practice thereof; that the best Instructions, hitherto made English, have invited very few to such a Prosecution of this Study, as might render their Performances of this kind, truly valuable.
’Tis something unaccountable, that, among so many learned Persons as have handled this Subject, Priests, Architects, and Painters; very few, if any of them, have given Directions proper for shunning that Disorder and Confusion of Lines, which, in most Instances, must necessarily attend the Execution of their Rules: In all or most of which, the whole Space for the Performance is confin’d between the Lines of the Plan and Horizon; which, where the Scale is small, and the Height of the Eye not very much advanc’d, renders the Work exceedingly confus’d; and where those Lines are coincident, (which frequently happens) the Method becomes utterly impracticable.
This Author’s great Experience in the Practice of Perspective, having furnish’d him with excellent RULES for Shortning the Work, and Obviating the foremention’d Difficulties; he has here very generously imparted them, and especially the latter, in the Tenth and Eleventh Figures. And tho’ on Perusal of the first three or four Plates, this Method may possibly seem the same that some others have before made use of; yet whoever shall diligently observe and copy the Rules and Examples of the succeeding Figures, must necessarily acknowledge the great Advantage this has in a Perspective-Plan and Upright, clear and distinct; whence the finish’d Piece is deduc’d, without the least Incumbrance of the Work. The Explanations of the Rules here given, are short and instructive; and the Architectonical Designs produc’d to exemplify them, Noble and Magnificent.
The Manner of Designing, where the Perspective is drawn on several Ranges of Frames one behind the other, and such Scenes of Theaters whose Grooves lie oblique to the middle Line, is also here laid down: And by our Author’s Method, Horizontal Perspective, or that of Ceilings, is render’d less difficult than the Vertical, or that against an upright Wall. Upon the whole, nothing seems wanting that may make a Work of this nature complete; unless what concerns Designs which are either Circular, or abound with many Columns: For the Performance whereof, the Author, as he promises in the Sixty-fifth Figure, has, in a SECOND Volume, given a Rule more proper for the purpose; which also may possibly be made English in due time, if this Part meet with Encouragement.
What the Author once intended should make a Part of that Second Volume, he afterwards inserted in the Ninety-third and following Figures of this Book: In the last of which, particular Notice should be taken of his Conclusion; That if Painters would not run into inextricable Errors, they ought as strictly to observe the Rules of Perspective, in designing the Figures of Men and Animals; as they do in painting Columns, Cornices, or other Parts of Architecture.