Architectural and Perspective Principles

Watch this slide show to see the process of setting out a two-point perspective of a Renaissance building in the field

The horizontal and vertical registrations—entablatures, imposts, columns and pedestals—are both what generate the perspectival logic and are the bones of the architectural system

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The classical architecture of the Renaissance depends on what Vitruvius called the genera and Vignola called the Orders: and ordering is precisely what the classical columns and entablatures do in Renaissance buildings, they provide systems of order. In drawing an ordered Renaissance structure, the horizontal and vertical lines of registration are both the essential elements of the design and the bones of the perspective construction. To draw them carefully is to understand their logic.

The Cappella del Santissimo Sacramento in the Cathedral of Lucca, probably begun to a design by Baccio da Montelupo, is a classical Renaissance pavilion nestled subtly into its Gothic frame. The piers of the medieval transept are what remains of the articulation of the former exterior wall; the cappella is actually an additional volume appended to the east flank of the south transept. See a visual survey and analysis of the exterior here.