Deconstructing the imaginary space of a Quadratura

Abstract

By focusing on the architectural qualities inherent to quadratura painting, this essay embraces the acknowledgment of its perspective strategies, intended space/form, and achieved synthesis of both represented and built space. To accomplish such an inquiry, the imaginary architectures outlined by Luís Gonçalves Sena (1754) at Santarém’s Jesuit College were taken analyzed. In order to verify the compositional and spatial qualities underlying the outlined image, two methods are explored: (1) the perspective restitution, dismantling the quadratura through a reverse application of perspective procedures and removing parameters strictly related to the ars pingendi; (2) the reconstitution of the architectural idea by searching for its compositional matrix and confronting the illusory space with the wider practice of the scientia aedificandi. These methodologies allow a complete analysis of the quadratura’s architectural contents as well as the Baroque space perceived as a whole.