Showing posts with label Francesco Borromini. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Francesco Borromini. Show all posts

Monday, July 18, 2011

Forced Perspective

Francesco Borromini's Perspective Colonnade was built in 1660 as an amusement for the courtyard of the Palazzo Spada. Assisted by a mathematician, this is a fascinating example of an optical illusion in which diminishing rows of columns and a rising floor create the visual impression of a gallery 37 meters long (in reality, it barely measures 8 meters) with a life-size sculpture at the end of the vista. Believe it or not, the sculpture is only 60cm high. In fact, it is so low-ceilinged at the far end, that only a child could stand upright...

Photographer Danilo Scarpati
Photographer Rita Gram

Palazzo Spada

Photographs from here, here and here