VUES D’OPTIQUE
The ‘vues d’optique‘, are a very particular type of printed images that, during the 18th century, were used in Europe for the production of spectacles intended for the vast and varied public of the streets and squares, called upon to participate in a journey of the imagination whose forms and instruments constitute a clear anticipation of the cinematographic spectacle. The sheets, made using engraving techniques and appropriately arranged by means of carvings, perforations and counter-drilling, depicted biblical episodes, historical facts, landscapes and allegorical subjects and were presented to the public inside extremely simplified optical apparatuses, mostly wooden boxes with openings or doors that could be opened, lenses and mirrors for refraction and candles to illuminate the images.
The Casanatense specimen
Purchased in 1993, under the direction of Angela Cavarra, thanks to the extraordinary funds allocated to the Directorate General by Law no. 145 of 1992 (‘Interventi organici di tutela e valorizzazione dei beni culturali’), the Casanatense specimen comes from Augsburg, a city that shared with Paris, London and Bassano the exclusivity of this type of production. Its rarity is due both to its excellent state of preservation and to the less usual roll form of presenting the images in loose sheets. The set consists of an initial sheet in heavy paper dyed black, on which an inscription in Gothic letters is read surrounded by a frame, both made by the perforation method, and 69 engravings, each measuring approximately 275×410 mm and bordered by a black paper border. All the engravings are cut out flush with the illustrated part and therefore lack a title and author and publisher indications, but on the verso of each one is the progressive numbering from 1 to 71 (Nos. 57 and 58 are missing) and a caption in German on the depicted subject. The captions, penned in black ink and apparently all by the same hand, can be traced back to the period when the scroll was assembled, i.e. the second half of the 18th century.
The colouring of the engravings is in watercolour, in bright tones of red, yellow, blue, green and black, and is very accurate in its execution. All the boards are prepared for night vision by means of carving, punching and drilling and counter-drilling in silk of various colours, in some cases reinforced with brush strokes, and in black mesh to simulate gratings and grilles.
Specifically, the tables marked with nos. 1 to 4 represent the ‘Stories of Adam and Eve’, 10 to 16 depict the ‘Planets’, plates 17 to 19 and 23 comprise the ‘Wonders of the World’ series; five engravings are views of the city of Lisbon (Nos. 34 to 38), and six of the city of Turin (Nos. 39 to 44).