GEOMETRIA, PERSPECTIVA E REPRESENTAÇÃO EM JOÃO DE RUÃO

Abstract

The great difference between medieval and modern artistic procedures lies mainly in the detection of a scientific disposition based on the construction and dissemination of texts that consecrate Antiquity as a pillar of knowledge and a reference for the attitude that will lead both art commissions and workshops. Especially from the 15th century onwards, the literature that would shape artistic production, would also act as proof of erudition and, consequently, assume a vital importance in the improvement of the artist’s social status, along with knowledge itself. The mastery of mathematics, geometry, and the rules of perspective and proportion, along with the expertise in the depiction of anatomies and landscapes, within the well managed framework of religious iconography, would grant the success of a workshop with more or less capability of affirmation in the secular and ecclesiastical market.

It is in this scientific universe, extracted from multiple references, that Jean de Rouen operates. Its retable compositions, always invoking the presence of architecture in the formulation of an ideal atmosphere, are directed both to the obedience of religious iconography, to the rigor of mathematical and geometric construction in compositional ordering, as well as to the balance of a representation whose mission is probing the role of the human in his relationship with God. The altarpiece of the church of Misericórdia in Coimbra (MNMC) offers exactly that relational dimension that, in this specific case and in an unusual way, is transmuted, perverting the reading and understanding of the theological cycle in question.