Drawings
Keywords: Illustrations, Perspective, Geometry
As you open the book, you are greeted by a short introduction written in Italian. Afterwards you will find a collection of very beautiful, hand-drawn illustrations from Francesco Borromini. The first drawing being a portrait of himself surrounded by some books and drawing tools. The others are sections, perspective drawings and floorplans of the Sant’Ivo alla Sapienza in Rome.
The baroque-style church was built by Francesco Borromini around 1664. Every single drawing is very detailed. They are beautifully shaded with an amazing technique. He uses the light and perspective to show the depth and intricacy of the building. Even an untrained eye can see how much effort and time is put into every single one of these illustrations. It is even more impressive if you think of what means the artist had to work with at the time these illustrations were made.
One thing that also is very eminent in the work of Borromini is his interplay with simple geometrical figures. Such as circles, ovals and squares. With the help of the illustrations, you are transported to the church where you can feel the effect that all the architectural techniques Borromini used has on you.You can easily find yourself in awe of them, wanting to look at them and analyzing them for a very long time.
Perhaps this is one of the reasons why all of the illustrations are followed by a blank page. This way the focus is always on one drawing. You could also write down your remarks on the blank Pages. The book is overall very light on words. Aside from the introduction at the beginning the book has no other Text. Not even a description to the images. They are just merely numbered by roman numerals at the top right corner keeping it simple.