Lot 1265: LOMAZZO, GIOVANNI PAOLO (1538-1600).

Trattato de l'arte e de la pittura... diviso in sette libri. Ne' quali si contiene tutta la theorica, & la prattica d'essa pittura. Milan: Paolo Gottardo da Ponte, 1584

Condition Note:

4to (205 x 146mm.), [40], 692, 695-700, [6]pp., last three leaves containing errata and an additional chapter 17 for book 6, illustration : woodcut arms on title-page of the dedicatee (Carlo Emanuele, grand duke of Savoy), woodcut initials, woodcut medallion portrait of the author after Annibale Fontana, binding : eighteenth-century speckled calf gilt, spine gilt in compartments, morocco lettering-piece, red speckled edges, binding a little rubbed

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LITERATURE AND REFERENCES

Censimento 16 CNCE 24452; Cicognara 159; A. Blunt, Artistic theory in Italy 1450-1600, chapter IX, "The later Mannerists"
CATALOGUE NOTE

Lomazzo, a painter by trade, was a pupil of Gaudenzio Ferrari. The onset of blindness at the age of 33 turned him to the theory and philosophy of art. Strongly Neoplatonist in his views, he believed that beauty was something divine infused into man, independent of sense impressions, a spiritual grace ("una certa grazia vivace & spirituale"). He was much influenced by astrology, and in his attitude towards mathematics and its relationship with painting, he turned away from the geometrical attitude of the early humanists towards one that relied more on the individual eye.