Brunelleschi's Dream
Sometime in 1413-19.
Bring some bread. And more wine.
As I said, I saw myself at first sitting in the darkness inside the
camera obscura, staring at the
inverted image of the Palazzo Vecchio. I sat in a magnificent chair, unable to move. This was extremely frustrating as you can well imagine ... I was utterly helpless. A delectable meal had been laid out on a table beside me, and in the dim light I could make out roast pheasant, a plate of fish, varieties of fruit and cheese, loaves of bread, and jugs of wine ... and I was starving! – absolutely famished, and again, completely helpless. I was alone, no boy to serve me. Everything I needed was so near, and yet entirely inaccessible to me.
Suddenly I was standing in the very centre of Rome's Colosseum, where in fact I have spent many hours drawing the ruins. You know of
my excursions to Rome to study the buildings of the ancients. In the dream, my view of the ruins was almost completely obscured by advancing and receding orthogonal lines extending to every block of stone in the place. The lines seemed to move constantly, and they nearly obscured the sky – it was frightening.
Finally, before the bells woke me, I sat atop the Uffizzi, looking across and down at the structures in the centre of Firenze: the Palazzo Vecchio, the Palazzo del Popolo,
the Duomo and so on. This is when it struck me.
As you know, I have struggled to complete this system of drawing which will be failsafe – always accurate, and always portraying the world as we see it – without the need of a camera obscura or any other device. What the ancient Romans failed to do, I did. I realized that for every object whose face confronted the viewer at a specific angle, the receding orthogonals must intersect at a point in the distance. If the structure were infinitely large, at that point it would appear so small that it would disappear from view – in effect it would vanish. Thus, I logically call these points
vanishing points. Blocks of stone, or buildings that are differently oriented require a different point to the right or left of the others. What had evaded me was how to answer the question of exactly how high or low these points should be distributed in the drawing.
In that instant before I awoke, sitting atop the Uffizzi, my question was answered. We have become accustomed to accepting the de facto decision of the camera obscura – its pinhole predetermines the height of the observer, regardless of whether he sits or stands inside the camera. But what I have realized is that the vanishing points must be placed at the height of my eyes! Of course! Not at some arbitrary height decided by a pinhole, but at the elevation equal to the eyes of the observer, wherever he or she might be: in the bottom of a stairwell, or working on a course of new masonry at the highest level of the Duomo.
Looking down at the buildings in my dream, the orthogonals that had tortured me in the Colosseum, now sang in harmony as I saw them extend to vanishing points along a line that precisely coincided with the height of my own eyes – not as it would be were I standing in the piazza, perhaps six feet from the ground, but as it was atop the Uffizzi. Further, I realized that were I to represent this line in a drawing, it would coincide with the line that separates earth from sky. In the present case, there was much to be seen below that line. Were I to stand in the piazza however, this line would be lower, again at the height of my eyes, and most of what I saw would rise above the line. So you see, my vanishing points must rest upon this line, this horizon line ... unless a block of stone has been tipped upward or downward at an angle ... but I do not wish to confuse you. Do you see? I have my answer. This is the
final piece of the puzzle. Now I can complete my system of perspective drawing, and it will be unchallenged forever.
God bless dreams! Now hurry and finish your meal. I must go to the Duomo to
study the Baptistery. This will be a challenge, but it will also supply
the proof that has eluded me.
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