Ludovico Cardi Said “Il Cigoli”. Practical Treaty of Perspective: Innovative Aspects and Intuitions

The practical treatise of perspective (1613) is undoubtedly one of the less studied treatise, although there are some innovative aspects that are much earlier than the actual coding of perspective science. Filippo Camerota published and commented the Cigoli’s treatise in his “Linear Perspective in the age of Galileo. Ludovico Cigoli’s Prospettiva Pratica” and filled an empty space concerning Cigoli’s contribution to the development of perspective. Camerota has highlighted many innovative aspects of the treaty, the profound knowledge of the perspective science of the treatise expressed in the first two rules, and confirmed by the third rule that, through the analysis, study and construction of a perspective machine, has allowed to confirm and endorse the first two. However, there remains a gap concerning the singular use of canonical distance points by the Cigoli, which makes it an innovative use especially in the second book, with reference to the second perspective rule, for the visualization of the fake facades of a theatrical backdrop in true form, in order to recreate, from the noble point of view, a three-dimensional illusion. Exactly this is the theme analyzed in this paper, through the use of computer graphics to better render the study and the underlying results.