DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61668#0307
THE TOMBS OF THE POPES 197
By her side, is Perspective (Plate XLV.), one of the
most beautiful figures of the series. It has the interest
of being the first time Perspective had been included in
artistic representation among the Arts and Sciences.
She holds in one hand an astrolabe, and bears over her arm
the Rovere stemma, as being under the special protection
of the Pope. This honour is accorded only to three of
the figures, the other two being Rhetoric and Dialectics,
doubtless in tribute to his powers of oratory. To these
three Antonio seems to have given extra care for they
are the most beautiful in attitude and in form.
Perspective is more classic and simple in pose and
gesture than the other figures, and the outstretched leg
and foot are of a beauty remarkable even among these
exquisitely modelled limbs.*
Arithmetic on the other side of the Tomb has on her
face the expression, wonderfully well presented, of one
who calculates. She bends over her tablets, absorbed in
* Her motto has a special interest as being quoted from the “Per-
spectiva Communis ” published by John Peckham, in the very year
of the completion of the Tomb. It runs : “ Sine luce nihil vedetur.
Visio fit per lineas radiosas recte super oculum innitentes. Radius
lucis in rectum semper porrigitur, nisi curvetur diversitate medii.
Incidentiae et reflectionis anguli sunt aequales.” The original words
of Peckham are as follows: “prop. L: Sine luce nihil videri.” I.
prop. XXVIII: “ visionem fieri per lineas radiosas recte super
oculum et initentes,” I. prop. XV. “ radius lucis primarie similiter
et coloris in rectum porrigitur. nisi diversitate medii incurvetur.”
II. paro (prop.) VI. . . , angulos incidence et reflectionis aequales
esso.” This interesting discovery was published by C. Joseph Kern
in his “ Grundziige der Linear Perspektivischen Darstellung in der
Kunst der Gebruder Van Eyck,” Leipzig, 1904, vol. i. p. 35.
By her side, is Perspective (Plate XLV.), one of the
most beautiful figures of the series. It has the interest
of being the first time Perspective had been included in
artistic representation among the Arts and Sciences.
She holds in one hand an astrolabe, and bears over her arm
the Rovere stemma, as being under the special protection
of the Pope. This honour is accorded only to three of
the figures, the other two being Rhetoric and Dialectics,
doubtless in tribute to his powers of oratory. To these
three Antonio seems to have given extra care for they
are the most beautiful in attitude and in form.
Perspective is more classic and simple in pose and
gesture than the other figures, and the outstretched leg
and foot are of a beauty remarkable even among these
exquisitely modelled limbs.*
Arithmetic on the other side of the Tomb has on her
face the expression, wonderfully well presented, of one
who calculates. She bends over her tablets, absorbed in
* Her motto has a special interest as being quoted from the “Per-
spectiva Communis ” published by John Peckham, in the very year
of the completion of the Tomb. It runs : “ Sine luce nihil vedetur.
Visio fit per lineas radiosas recte super oculum innitentes. Radius
lucis in rectum semper porrigitur, nisi curvetur diversitate medii.
Incidentiae et reflectionis anguli sunt aequales.” The original words
of Peckham are as follows: “prop. L: Sine luce nihil videri.” I.
prop. XXVIII: “ visionem fieri per lineas radiosas recte super
oculum et initentes,” I. prop. XV. “ radius lucis primarie similiter
et coloris in rectum porrigitur. nisi diversitate medii incurvetur.”
II. paro (prop.) VI. . . , angulos incidence et reflectionis aequales
esso.” This interesting discovery was published by C. Joseph Kern
in his “ Grundziige der Linear Perspektivischen Darstellung in der
Kunst der Gebruder Van Eyck,” Leipzig, 1904, vol. i. p. 35.