Discours touchant le point de vue: dans lequel il est prouvé que les choses qu'on voit distinctement, ne sont vues que d'un oeil

Abstract

Originally published 1679, this is a charming but serious treatise on optics for artists. “This was one of the first French investigations into the nature of sight. The text, with some 31 illustrations in wood and copper, was aimed at an audience of artists and connoisseurs interested in problems of optics. Its purpose was to defend current theories of perspective against accusations that their use in painting had been based on false premises. The arguments were later expanded in LeClerc’s Système de la vision fondé sur de nouveau principes (1712).” - Wiebenson, III-B-23. LeClerc argued that in natural vision one eye is always dominant at any one instance, and that the painter’s one-eyed vision is therefore justified (see M. Kemp, The science of art, p. 236). (Charles Wood, cat. 167, # 187)