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His style of town planning is represented by spacious, regular plans, with the main thoroughfare bordered
by arcades that form a ground-floor gallery below solid structures above. The theatrical effect is further
accentuated by the presence of water courses, fountains or terraced waterfalls
” (Van de Winckle, p. 726).
“
His drawings and his
Scenographia
... of 1560 show that he had acquired a competent grasp of the
rudiments of spatial construction during the late 1550’s and was already capable of exploiting perspectival
effects with an unusually lively imagination
” (Kemp, p. 109).
La
Scenographiae
est très rare non seulement en mains privées mais également dans des bibliothèques
du monde entier : on ne connaît que l’exemplaire du Getty (incomplet de la page de titre) et celui du
Metropolitan Museum of Art (département des dessins et gravures).
Quelques taches ou traces de mouillures, planche 9 avec grande déchirure restaurée sans manque.
Provenance : Earls of Macclesfield (vente VI, octobre 2005, lot 2070).
Exceptionally rare first edition of this work on perspective and scenography by the leading and best-
known exponent of mannerist decoration and the instigator of a new urban vision in northern and
central Europe. Kemp regards the artists as the first of a number of Northern European graphic artists
to have thoroughly assimilated the Italian tradition in perspective.