vari disegni de arcitettura ornati de porte (Benardino Radi)
Elio Bysäth
The book “vari disegni de arcitettura ornati de porte” by Bernado Radi is a book mainly illustrated with drawings of entrances. The title of the book is Italian and says that it is about various architectural designs with ornate doors. This title makes sense because ornaments were frequent in the 17. century. Ornaments were getting reinvented as well as copied from the ancients.
This book is strongly illustrated, it is essentially a book of illustration. Other than a short introduction there is nothing written in this book. The 52 illustrations are always on the right side of the page and the left side is let free because of the image on the page before shining through. The illustrations are all monochromatic and make a hand drawn appearance. Different techniques of depiction are used to show different materials in these entrances.
These illustrations are drawn rather big, which also makes the book of significant size. It mesures about 24cm x 33cm. This makes the book appear as a catalogue.
This makes sense because in that time it was a kind of catalogue. Bernardino Radi was a sculpture based in Rome. To show the wide possibilities there are when working with ornaments he created this book. The book shows new ways of using ornaments the drawings weren’t all existing they were also partially fictive. In the 17. century ornaments weren’t only used to look nice they also represented status and they had to be fitting for the inhabitants of these buildings.