Arte Poetica, e da Pintura, e Symmetria, com Principios da Perspectiva

Lisbon: por Pedro Crasbeeck, 1615. FIRST EDITION. Hardcover. Fine. In an attractive 20th c. binding of sponged calf (joints starting, light wear to extremities), the boards gold tooled with a large central compartments and fleurons at the corners. Spine richly gilt, with a citron morocco label and ornaments in the compartments. A good copy of this rare book. With a divisional title page to the second part “Arte da Pintura” etc. In the first work some gatherings and the folding table are lightly damp-stained. Title page dusty and with small loss to the blank upper corner, far from the text. Final leaf with early paper repair in blank lower margin. Second work with very light dampstain to the opening leaves. Final six leaves with small dark stain. Four leaves with very slight worm-trail in lower margin. Finger-soiling to margins and a few light damp-stains in the gutter of the opening leaves. An early reader has added a note in ink on folio 69. Last leaf soiled and lightly damp-stained. The very rare first edition of the first Portuguese book on painting and perspective, written by the painter-poet Felipe Nunes. The book also contains the first edition of Nunes’ treatise on writing poetry, “Arte Poetica”.

Nunes’ “Arts of Painting, Symmetry, and the Principles of Perspective” is a comprehensive artist’s manual, containing a wealth of both practical and theoretical information and instruction. Nunes provides formulas for mixing paints (and choosing the best quality ingredients), explains how to prepare colors for painting in oil, tempera, fresco, and illumination; describes the use of glazes (such as a glaze of asphalt to render dark skin tones, and verdigris for greenish tones), provides instructions for applying gold leaf to various materials (vellum, silk, etc.), and explains how to stretch a canvas and prepare painting surfaces (panel, canvas, plaster, vellum, etc.)

Nunes discusses and illustrates theories of perspective, symmetry and proportion according to Albrecht Dürer, Daniel Barbaro, and Juan d’Arfe, including the use of grids and screens to render observed objects in perspective. Nunes also describes a method for making paintings with hidden images using ‘anamorphosis’ and instructions for constructing and using a camera obscura (see below). The book is illustrated with four anatomical woodcuts used to demonstrate symmetry and proportion.

In the chapter on how to paint in oils, he gives instructions for making color mixtures, mixing shadows for various complexions, purifying linseed oil (for white lead and blues); how to glaze, recipes and techniques for depicting iridescent draperies, and gilding filigree borders. In the chapter on painting with tempera, Nunes explains how to paint landscapes and objects at different distances in order to give the illusion of depth and space.

Next comes the chapter on painting in fresco: the preparation of the plaster (a 3-year-long process), pricking and pouncing the preparatory drawing to create a guide on the plaster, “so that the painting may be made with greater assurance and brevity…. Take note that no more of the wall is prepared than that which you can paint before it dries… If you can’t paint all that stands ready, and it has to dry, you must scrape down all that could not be painted and prepare it again when there is time to finish the painting.”

The chapter on painting illuminations is the longest. It explains how to choose the best parchment (the best comes from Flanders), how to wash and prepare the colors, how to make color mixtures, how to prepare gum, to grind gold, etc. There are numerous processes for making specific colors -some rather involved (verdigris, lead white, vermillion), and five recipes for making ink for writing on parchment. There are instructions for gilding silk, paper and parchment, followed by a very long section on instructions for gilding stone, wood, glass, and leather, each of which requires a different method. Gilding the edges of books is also explained. Complex instructions are given for imitating gold brocade (the technique known as estofado.)

Nunes describes ingenious methods for making frames with movable parts, one of which can be manipulated to display only one figure (out of three) at a time, and another for revealing two figures. This is followed by a long section on making optical illusions and perspective images, taken from Daniel Barbaro’s “La Practica della Perspectiva”(1569). It includes an explanation of how to create an optical illusion through the use of ‘anamorphosis’, i.e. by using a distorted projection to produce an image which is then cleverly hidden in the painting. Viewed from directly in front, the painting shows one image. When viewed from another angle, the hidden, distorted image will be revealed to the eye.

The description of the Camera Obscura, taken from Barbaro:

Nunes writes: “In Part IX, Chapter 5, Daniel Barbaro explains another way of copying cities and anything else you wish. From inside make a hole in a window situated with the view and perspective you choose for a view of a town or whatever else you wish. The hole should be the size of spectacle lenses. Set a spectacle lens into the hole you have made; use an old man's worn-out lens that has some thickness at the center, not one that is concave like those of near-sighted youths. Then cover the whole window so that the only light is that which comes through the lens; take it to where you wish to draw. Then place a sheet of paper at a distance behind the glass lens, so that all that you see outside appears on the piece of paper much diminished in size. Place it at the distance where it is most distinctly seen. You may discover this distance by moving the paper closer and farther from the glass until you find the convenient and proper place. Then you shall see in the paper all the things you wish to draw in their true form; it is important to do this on a clear day and with a very brilliant sun. With experience you will see which lens represents best; have the paper firmly supported so that the contour is not lost, and then you may outline what is shown.”(Translation by Zahira Veliz, as published in “Artists' Techniques in Golden Age Spain” (1986). (Inventory #: 5124)