Museo Galileo
italiano
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Science of drawing
Video   Text

 

Drawing became a scientific discipline when the concept of representation was combined with that of measurement. This happened in the Renaissance with the invention of linear perspective, which made it possible to represent three-dimensional entities on a flat surface using the principles of Euclidean geometry. The combination of figurative efficiency and geometric rigor in the image ensured the success of the discipline not only among artists but also among mathematicians. The latter used it, for example, to demonstrate the construction principle of the Ptolemaic planisphere. In sixteenth-century military circles, perspective drawing served as a surveying method in cartography; meanwhile, the depiction of fortresses was achieved by means of a different type of perspective specifically known as military perspective. Only later, in the nineteenth century, was it codified as isometric or axonometric perspective. On these premises—which were linked to the need for an objective, measurable representation of physical bodies—the French mathematician Gaspard Monge was to codify the methods of descriptive geometry in the late eighteenth century.

Objects
Carpenter's folding rule

Carpenter's folding rule

Inv. 608
Maker unknown, English, 17th cent.

Compass known as Michelangelo's compass

Compass known as Michelangelo's compass

Inv. 1357
Maker unknown, Italian, 16th cent.

Dividers

Dividers

Inv. 1486/bis
Maker unknown, 17th cent.

Drawing compass

Drawing compass

Inv. 3684
Maker unknown, 17th cent.

Pantograph

Pantograph

Inv. 596
Joseph Meinicke, Vienna, 18th cent.

Reduction compass

Reduction compass

Inv. 3686
Maker unknown, 17th cent.

Reduction compass

Reduction compass

Inv. 655
Maker unknown, 17th cent.

Reduction compass

Reduction compass

Inv. 688
Agostino Rastrelli, Florence, 1719

Reduction compass

Reduction compass

Inv. 633
Maker unknown, 17th cent.

Three-legged compass

Three-legged compass

Inv. 1480
Maker unknown, Italian, 17th cent.