Volume: 99; 2019; 80 pp; Softcover
MSC: Primary 01; 00; Secondary 51
Print ISBN: 978-1-4704-5267-4
Product Code: SPEC/99
List Price: $50.00
AMS Member Price: $37.50
MAA Member Price: $37.50
Electronic ISBN: 978-1-4704-5528-6
Product Code: SPEC/99.E
List Price: $50.00
AMS Member Price: $37.50
MAA Member Price: $37.50
Supplemental Materials
Optical Illusions in Rome: A Mathematical Travel Guide
Share this pageKirsti Andersen
Translated by Viktor Blåsjö
MAA Press: An Imprint of the American Mathematical Society
Optical Illusions in Rome is a beautifully
written and richly illustrated guide that takes the reader on a tour
through ingenious uses of geometry to create illusory impressions of
space and grandeur in Italian Renaissance art and architecture in the
Eternal City. The book takes us to some of the most striking and
historically important uses of optical illusion and includes works of
Peruzzi, Borromini, and Pozzo. The artworks are analyzed geometrically
and placed in their historical context. The notes on visiting the art
described make the volume the perfect companion for a study trip to
Rome. A chapter on the principles of perspective geometry and a
collection of exercises make the book a wonderful resource for a
module on perspective in a geometry or art history course. The
mathematical discussion is kept at a level accessible to a reader with
a familiarity with high school geometry.
Kirsti Andersen is a distinguished historian of mathematics and
emerita faculty at Aarhus University. Her previous book, The Geometry
of an Art, is widely recognized as the definitive work on the history
of the use of perspective in European art. Viktor Blåsjö, the
translator, is a historian of mathematics on the faculty at Utrecht
University. Blåsjö has won both the Ford and Pólya prizes
for expository writing from the Mathematical Association of America.
Readership
Undergraduate and graduate students and researchers interested in art, perspective, and mathematical tourism.
Reviews & Endorsements
'Optical Illusions in Rome' is a beautifully written and richly illustrated guide that takes the reader on a tour through ingenious uses of geometry to create illusory impressions of space and grandeur in Italian Renaissance art and architecture in the Eternal City. The book takes us to some of the most striking and historically important uses of optical illusion and includes works of Peruzzi, Borromini, and Pozzo. The artworks are analyzed geometrically and placed in their historical context. The notes on visiting the art described make the volume the perfect companion for a study trip to Rome. A chapter on the principles of perspective geometry and a collection of exercises make the book a wonderful resource for a module on perspective in a geometry or art history course.
-- Joel Haack, University of Northern Iowa, MAA Reviews
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Optical Illusions in Rome: A Mathematical Travel Guide
- Cover Cover11
- Title page i2
- Copyright ii3
- Contents iii4
- Translator’s introduction 16
- Acknowledgments 510
- Copyright iv5
- Introduction 16
- Trompe l’œil on walls 510
- Three-dimensional trompe l’œil 1722
- The anamorphosis in Trinità dei Monti 2934
- Ceilings as image surfaces 3742
- Some results from perspective theory 5156
- Exercises 6166
- Notes for the traveller 6974
- Endnotes 7176
- Bibliography 7378
- Sources of the illustrations 7984
- Back Cover Back Cover192