1The treatise Perspectivæ pictorum et architectorum (organized in two volumes: one published in 1693 and the other in 1700) is based upon the primacy of the image and explanatory schemes in order to communicate the fundaments of linear perspective drawing along with examples of its application, giving visibility to the artistic practice of Andrea Pozzo. In line with other coeval treatises, this is perhaps the work that most privileges graphic communication over a strictly theoretical approach on perspective. An imminently operative character that, linked to the powerful Jesuit political machine of Propaganda Fidae, had certainly contributed to its rapid dissemination throughout the Catholic space, associating its imagetic purposes to the pedagogical and evangelizing project of the Society of Jesus.

2Evidence of the treatise success is its successive translations. Originally written in Latin and Italian, early as 1700 it was translated into Italian, German and French, in 1706 a new translation into Latin and German carried was published by Jeanne Boxbarth and Conrado Bodenter, in 1707 a Latin-English edition by John James and in 1708 a Franco-Flemish edition. Besides these, in 1725 and 1735 two editions were prepared in Chinese departing from the works held by the Chinese scholar Nian Xiyao (Fig. 1) and following the cultural exchanges between the Chinese imperial court and Giuseppe Castiglione, among others, as well as the Portuguese Jesuits established in Beijing¹.

Figure 1 - Andrea Pozzo/Nian Xiyao. Diagonal magazine cover. Guimarães, nº2 Simetria, 2017

3According to Glatigny (2009, 28), the treatise success is due to several factors such as: disclosure of a technical question widely recognized as inevitable (although not entering into the specificity of geometric theorems saving the reader to more speculative and abstract questions and, consequently, a hermetic discourse that would distanced the work from its objective of informing and rationalizing the practice of perspective); offered a wide variety of examples of architecture and ornaments (applying, for instance, perspective principles to the drawing of different architectural orders); showed examples of the sotto in sù strategy giving the impression of revealing the secret of such a disseminated practice at the time.

4Regard to the treatise scientific contents, Migliari (1999, 73) states that Pozzo's interest in mathematics and science is verified through the similarity between the constructions exposed by him and those of Bosse/Desargues developed within the scope of the Académie Royale Française de Peinture et de Sculture. To these authors Glatigny (2009, 19) adds Dubreuil since both belonged to the same cultural and ideological milieu with an analogous research oriented to the adequacy of representation to spiritual requirements. On the other hand, with regard to the essential problem of Quadratura, the projection of the outlined image onto the architectural surface, Camerota (2010, 32) adds Maignan having in mind his procedures in order to control the deformation of the painted hour-lines at Trinitá dei Monti and at the Spada Palace in Rome. As such, and to what concerns to its positioning between mathematical speculation and practical demands, it seems that Pozzo puts himself in an experimental positioning, once his work cannot be considered nor from a strictly scientific point of view, neither from a narrowly empirical field deprived from geometrical demonstrations, as the coeval so called practical texts.

5According to this integrating vision between the scientific dimension of perspective and its operative dimension, based upon the practice of drawing that supports the most diverse artistic demands (easel painting, quadratura painting, scenography, altarpiece composition and architecture), Andre Pozzo addresses, since the opening of its work, to the perspective scholars (Ad lectorem prospecte studiorum), immediately clarifying the reader about the deceptive pleasure of the sight:

«L’arte della prospettiva com ammirabili diletto inganna il piú accorto de nostri sensi esteriore che è l’occhio; ed è necessaria a chi nella pittura vuol dar la giusta situatione e diminutione alle figure; e la maggiore o minor vivezza che conviene a’ colori e alle ombre. Al che insesibilmente s’arriva, se la persona non contentandosi di fare studio nel solo Disegno, s’avvezza a digradare esattamente tutti gli Ordini d’Architettura»².

6It is under this alignment that the work imposes itself in the western world, and that later we will verify its relevance beyond the European continent, as an operational synthesis of the perspective, an imaginary demonstration of its applicability to artistic practice, as well as a showcase of formal vocabulary and hypotheses of composition. The excellence of its illustrations and explanatory clarity (which favours practical application based upon the required theoretical background) make the work a maximum reference, both in the scope of scientific and artistic dissemination.

The Portuguese context and the treatise reception

7Although a Portuguese version of the Perspectivæ pictorum et architectorum was never published during the 18^th century, Andrea Pozzo's treatise is particularly important in the Portuguese panorama, expanding throughout its imperial space, namely through its scientific and artistic networks, among which the Society of Jesus played a significant role.

8Regarding the specific circumstances of such influx into Portugal, we can identify two paths, one directly from Rome, as well as another from Vienna. If the first path is attached to the diplomatic relations between the Portuguese court and the Holy See, as well as the circulation of Jesuits from Rome to Lisbon and from Lisbon to the overseas territories, the second is mainly consequent to the royal wedding of D. John V with D Maria Anna of Austria (daughter of Holy Roman Emperor Leopoldo I). Concerning this, Andrea Pozzo was called by Giovanni Paolo Oliva, general of the Jesuit house, to exercise his practice in Rome in 1680 and in 1703 the Italian Jesuit Painter arrives to Vienna being protégé by the Holy Roman Emperor Leopoldo I, as well as by his son Joseph I.

9Having in mind both this paths, from Rome and Vienna into Lisbon, we must consider other tow dissemination paths: one from Lisbon, departing from the court and the metropolis main colleges into Portuguese regional circles, and another one from Lisbon towards the overseas territories of the Portuguese empire, mainly to the Brazilian captaincies of Santos, Rio de Janeiro and Minas Gerais, whose importance grows along the late 17^th and 18^th centuries, in consequence of the cycle of exploitation of gold and precious stones.

10According to the overall exposed context, the reception of the Perspectivæ pictorum et architectorum in Portugal seems to take place via Inácio Vieira (1678-1739)³, who contributes to the diffusion of both theoretical and imagery contents of Pozzo’s treatise through his pedagogical action at the Aula da Sphera of the Santo Antão College in Lisbon. In fact, from this Jesuit priest, we must underline his extensive career not only as a mathematician but also within the Jesuitical administration: first as assistant of the secretary general of the Society of Jesus, having stayed in Rome for 4 years; second as rector of the college of Santo Antão of Lisbon. Particularly, and in relation to the period of his Roman residency, it is still unclear which contacts did Father Inácio Vieira held with the local scientific and artistic milieu and, consequently, what were the major updates latter shed into his classes of mathematics in Lisbon.

11It is important to highlight, to better contextualize the activity undertaken by Inácio Vieira, that the Aula da Sphera at the Santo Antão College of Lisbon was, from the end of the 16^th century to the middle of the 18^th century, the most important educational and scientific institution in Portugal. Being the single one that continuously provided the teaching of mathematical disciplines (including optics, perspective and geometry), it answered the country’s demands of specialist technical training. In fact, here the Ratio's strategic plan was adjusted to the local circumstances, following the royal request by Cardinal D. Henrique. In the college were integrated the courses of cosmography, navigation and geography (with all the practical aspects inherent to the construction and operation of nautical and astronomical instruments) as well as lay students besides the scholastic students of the Order. An openness that induced into a more practical approach of the scientific contents.

12It is over this sedimentation of expertise, and in the urge of the Restauration Wars (1640-1668), that the Aula's syllabus were redirect within the scope of the art of war and fortification, albeit that, at the same time, a Fortification Class was founded by Royal decree. Its dynamics will culminate in the reign of D. João V, whose profound changes to the Portuguese scientific panorama coincide with the arising of the academies that established new platforms for discussion and scientific exchange. However, and despite the impasse between the perpetuation of scholasticism and the expectation of openness to scientific progress, the monarch often resorted to the Santo Antão College recruiting technicians among his teachers, some of whom were indorsed as royal mathematicians and astronomers. Of these, Domenico Capassi (1694-1736) and Giovanni Batista Carboni (1694-1750) were called to Lisbon having in the view the fulfilling of a cartographic mission in the Portuguese America. A fact that not only attest the scientific importance of the Jesuit community, but also the importance of the Lisbon college as an intermediation platform between Europe and the overseas territories.

Vieira's Work and Pozzo Dissemination in Portugal

13Giving particular attention to the activity of Inácio Vieira, it is in the context of the scientific flourishing of the College of Santo Antão, at the beginning of the 18th century, that his reflection and theoretical systematization of the sciences of vision is inserted. In the scope of his activity at the Aula da Sphera (Fig. 2), Inácio Vieira sequentially writes the manuscripts of the Tractado da Óptica (1714 - BN Codex 5169), Tractado de Prospectiva (1716 - BN Codex 5170), Tratado da Catoptrica (1716 - BN Cod 5165/1 ), and Tractado de Dióptrica (c. 1717 - BN Codex 5165/2)⁴, exposing an extensive recognition of the eye and properties of the retina’s image, along its geometric-mathematical interpretation and the consequent graphic conversion, as well as the identification of reflection and refraction properties of light.

Figure 2 - Inácio Vieira: front folio of the manuscripts of Tractado da Óptica (1714 - BN Codex 5169), Tractado de Prospectiva (1716 - BN Codex 5170), Tratado de Catoptrica (1716 - BN Cod 5165/1), and Tractado de Dióptrica (c. 1717 - BN Codex 5165/2)

14The thematic sequence of the overall manuscripts follows the modern tradition, where the approach to the perspectiva naturalis (the conditions of vision and perception of objects) is followed by the systematization of the perspectiva artificialis (graphic simulation of the visual reality and invention of the image). However, the optical simulation and geometric-mathematical enunciation of the perspective image underlines, not the imitation of the visual experience of the natural, but, its inventive potentialities in order to interfere with the perception of physical reality, theatricalizing the visual experience and extending to the limit the illusion of the senses and consequently of human reason.

15In his Tractado de Prospectiva, Inácio Vieira updates the Portuguese perspective knowledge following Pozzo illustrations, statements and operative sequences (though this is not the only source of the manuscript), exhorting the wonder of nature and the prodigy of artistic and scientific production in the deception of the eye: «perspective strives to form in the plan, with colours and brush, the strength of Architecture, exposing (…) what the most right-handed architect put in solid for admiration of art, and ornament of the buildings, and the pleasantness of the gaze»⁵.

16Articulating perspective science and the image of the baroque space, Vieira does not fail to expose a chapter dedicated to architecture and composition rules, pointed as an Opportunistic Parenthesis of the Civil Architecture. A deviation from the contents of the perspective, inspired by Pozzo’s Avvisi ai principianti, conditioning the practice of perspective to the acknowledge of architectural composition.

17As a whole, the work does not provide original contributions repeating, essentially, the positioning of French and Italian 17^th century treatises, but «in its omnivorous approach, it is sometimes open to the exemplification of practice based on the direct experience of the authors of reference (…)»⁶. As such, Vieira’s treatise can be understood as «compilation of quotes from immense authors, some of them from the same Jesuit circle, to whom Vieira not only extracts his ideas, but also appropriates the respective figures and illustrations, drawing them manually in a somewhat crude, but perceptible way, adding at the same time some comments and variants»⁷. Even so, this was the first work in Portugal that, after some brief experiences from the first half of the 16th century, recognizes the importance of a correct perspective representation of space, establishing an extensive full theoretical and practical understanding of the theme.

18In his manuscripts Vieira confronts and synthesizes the contents of pre-modern reflection (Euclides, Vitruvius, Alhazen, and Witellio) and the great Jesuit scientific compendia (Kircher, Schotto, Scheiner, Tacquet and Dechales), alongside with Andrea Pozzo's work on the strict field of Perspective practice and Architettura Picta. The prevalence of the direct citation of authors affiliated to Jesuit Society, namely Claude Dechales and Andrea Pozzo, testifies the vigour of the Order propaganda machine in the dissemination of the scientific and artistic conquests. The sources of the treatise are centred on the modern Jesuit production moulding it, at the technical and conceptual level, to its ideological values.

19Although they remain manuscript, the contents of Inácio Vieira's work were disseminated since the College of Santo Antão, being very likely to have been used as a guide during his lessons at the Aula da Sphera (a deduction taken from the way he addresses his audience and advises her in the application of the stated procedures). At the same time, the circulation of handwritten copies (such as the codices deposited at the Portuguese National Library: cod.1869; cod 2127; Cod 2258; Cod 4246) must be taken into account. Probably executed by students, those manuscripts repeat the lesson's contents allowing to achieve a wider audience. In this line of thought, the manuscript of the Trattado da Ótica, deposited in the National Library of Brazil, should be considered and added to this list.

20Along with Father Inácio Vieira, mathematicians such as José Sanches Silva, with his thesis Perspectiva Matemática Assombrada Aos Rayos (1716), as well as Inácio da Piedade Vasconcellos, with the publication of Artefactos symetriacos e geométricos (1733), quoted Andrea Pozzo, concerning both his geometrical constructions and his rules of the architectural orders. Also, during the eighteenth century, 3 translations into Portuguese were produced, although they have remained manuscript (Fig. 3).

21Focusing upon those manuscripts, the Perspectiva de pintores & architetos (1732), by José Figueiredo Seixas (a painter and architect that collaborated with the Italian master Nicolau Nasoni), reveals along the translation of Pozzo’s original text, annotations and additions clarifying operative sequences in the delineation of the quadratura image, arriving to the enunciation of a New explanation. On the other hand, the first part of Primeira parte de prospectiva de Pintores e Arquitectura (c. 1730/45)⁸, includes a drawing after a ceiling painted by António Simões Ribeiro (in order to illustrate Pozzo’s 100th enunciation), along with a truncated translation of a sculpture treatise. A document whose authorship was recently intuited by Cabeleira (2015, 311) and confirmed by Alves Silva (2020, 175), being attributed to Inácio da Piedade de Vasconcellos: an author coincident with its production in space (Santarém), time (the 30s and 40s of the 18th century) and a coincidence of interests (geometric science and sculpture). More literal to Pozzo’s original publication is the manuscript Libro de Prespectiva e hé tamben de Architetura (1768), undertaken by Frei José Vilaça, a painter, sculptor and Benedictine engraver based in the monastery of Tibães, nearby Braga.

Figure 3 - José de Figueiredo Seixas: Perspectiva de pintores & architetos (1732); Inácio da Piedade Vasconcellos (atrib): Primeira parte de prospectiva de Pintores e Arquitectura (c. 1730/45); Frei José de Santo António Vilaça: Libro de Prespectiva e hé tamben de Architetura (1768)

22It is precisely that from the set referred documents resulting both from the activity of the Aula da Sphera and the manuscript translations in circulation in Portugal (either the copies of the compendiums or lessons undertaken by masters of the Jesuit colleges, either the translations that guide and support the artistic practice), that we should consider the codex deposited in the National Library of Brazil, Rio de Janeiro, containing an Optics and a Perspective Treatise, first brought to daylight by Marília de Azambuja Ribeiro from the Federal University of Pernambuco.

Scientific Networks. From Portugal to Brazil

23The circulation of knowledge and ideas between the metropolis and the overseas territories is still an investigation front with great gaps that, however, it is achieving relevant advances through the research project TechNetEMPIRE | Technical-scientific networks in the formation of the environment built in the Portuguese Empire (1647-1871) ⁹. Although the issue discussed here is tangential to that of the above mentioned project, the set of networks, either institutional or informal, matter to the issue raised here once that are considered the exchanges between Lisbon and Brazil, more particularly the captaincies of Santos, Rio de Janeiro and Minas Gerais. Locations where, taking advantage of the cycle of exploitation of gold and precious stones, a huge constructive campaign along with the decorative revision of the built environment demanded for artists with a secure domain of linear perspective capable of responding to a new emerging aesthetical taste, the Quadratura Painting.

24However, the influx paths of such taste are still unclear, varying, as glimpsed by the developed studies, according to the flow of Italian and Portuguese artists between Rome, Lisbon and Brazil, along with the exchange of printed books and engravings that influence the local imaginary and, consequently, the artistic practice.

25In this sense, it is worth to take into account the studies of Raggi (2016) who, departing from the discussion over the decorative renovation of the Cathedral of Salvador da Bahia (1688-1690), evokes the expectation of the responsible director of the Cathedral in commissioning painted perspectives to a Roman painter that may have been present in Bahia during the 80s of the 17^th century (RAGGI 2016, 126). However, concerning this Roman painter or the source of such imagetic aspiration, in direct connection with the Roman practice and taste, little or nothing is known, not least because the pretended works were interrupted by the Portuguese king D. Pedro II due to the lack of resources. Relevant in Raggi's inquiry is the idea that the elites of the American colony anticipate the arrival of such an updated taste in relation to Portugal. This evidences the cultural emergence of the American colony with a possible direct relationship with the dominant centre of the quadratura praxis, aiming to transform Salvador da Bahia into the centre of the new political framework of Brazil in the consequence of the Portuguese Restoration and reorganization of the imperial space. However, it was only later, from 1735 onwards, that the arrival of Portuguese painters, namely that of the painter António Simões Ribeiro, will materialize this transformation of the spatial appearance and aesthetical choices fostered by the local elites. Concerning this context, and chasing clues about the circulation of printed treatises and engravings between Europe and Brazil, Mello (2003) has advanced into its identification through the analyses of inventories of book collections owned by artists and religious houses. Searching more specifically for perspective and quadratura practice texts, it was already possible to confirm the presence of the Andrea Pozzo treatise in the Brazilian territory.

26Of the identified archival entries, one, advanced by Pedrosa (2012), is related with the Lisbon woodcarver, José Coelho de Noronha (1704-1765), active in Minas Gerais in the first half of the 18th century, which held a small library from whose inventory the presence of Architecture and Ornamentation books is verified. Another entry, but concerning an artist from late 18th century, was identified by Mello (2003, 596). Based on the post-mortem inventory of the painter Caetano Luiz de Miranda (c. 1770-1837), and whose library would contain more than 100 titles, it enabled the identification of tow volumes of a perspective for painters in folios that, promptly, the researcher attests to be the Andrea Pozzo treatise.

27If such identifications support, albeit timidly, the idea of circulation of major coeval publications dealing with perspective science and imagetic models of quadratura painting in Brazil (along with their explanations and images), more relevant is the identification of the codex (Fig. 4) from the National Library of Brazil (BNB Manuscripts - 02.01.020), whose volume comprises the Tratado da Ótica (f.005-341) followed by the Tratado da prespectiva (f.001-306).

Figure 4 - Inácio Vieira (dictated by): Cover page of the manuscripts (BNB - Manuscritos 02,01,020), Tratado da Ótica and Tratado de Prespetiva

28According to the BNB catalog, the codex is identified as the Tratado de Ótica (TRATADO de Ótica. [S.l.: s.n.], [17--?]. 306 p., Orig), and described as a volume illustrated by dozens of figures, including a perspective treatise and showing an allegorical drawing on the title page. From a preliminary observation of the document, some elements stand out given its strangeness in relation to the set. That is the case of the tow opening pages of the codex (one concerning the opening allegorical drawing, and the other the page of identification of the Optics treatise). In addition, it was also noted that the folios numbering is not sequential throughout the overall codex, suggesting a later gathering of both manuscripts, the treatise of optics and perspective, most probably due to archival criteria.

29With regard to the opening page with the allegorical drawing, we highlight the difference of the paper quality, in relation to the body of the document, as well as the inscription on the lower panel written in Spanish (Fig. 5). At the same time, attention should be paid to the drawing quality of this opening page revealing a different graphical quality when compared to the drawings and illustrations included in each one of the codex's treatises. This difference, but mainly the inscription in Spanish, suggests that this folio may have another origin and that some circumstance, not yet determined, but perhaps linked to the document's path, may have led to its incorporation in the codex. Eventually, this inclusion would be due to what is represented: day and night with a human figure on his back, dressed in Jesuit clothing, pointing towards an angel on the firmament holding a vertical sundial, while sited on a desk another figure writes holding on a feather and looks at a cone with horizontal section (maybe concerning principles of conical sections) and a pair of candles with glass that exemplify the dispersion of light rays and its passage through a glass lens.

Figure 5 - Inácio Vieira (dictated by): Codex 1^st and 2^nd folios (BNB - Manuscritos 02,01,020)

30The image lower panel, surrounded by scrolls, includes the inscription «Quien bien quisiere observar de su profession el modo solo en ella ha de estudiar pues es mejor ignorar que querer saberlo todo» ¹⁰. An affirmation that tends towards the specialization of fields of knowledge and that, although in agreement with the organization of the manuscripts in specific fields, it doesn’t follow its written discourse once it presents and advices constant links between the exposed matters and procedures.

31As for the origin or journey of this codex within the empire space, no information has been detected, either through the library catalogue registration, consultation of the responsible librarian or direct analysis of the document. Even so, the most likely route corresponds to the inclusion of such manuscripts among the titles of the former library held by D. José, King of Portugal, and that constitutes the original nucleus of the National Library of Brazil. If this can somehow be confirmed, one could still speculate about a coincidence of titles between the libraries of the Santo Antão College and that of the Lisbon Royal Palace, reinforcing the idea of a direct relationship between the Jesuits and the court, much explored by the historiography¹¹. However, for now this, this is just an assumption, not an argument founded over documental data. A pathway that still requires much more inquiry.

32Continuing the analysis of the codex of the National Library of Brazil, it is revealed an absolute coincidence between its texts and the counterparts at the National Library of Portugal in Lisbon. Nevertheless, we point out a significant difference: the illustrations (Fig. 6). Although the illustrations are also coincident, in structure and type of notations, there is a huge difference in terms of its graphic quality, which is incomparably superior in the case of the Rio de Janeiro Codex. Fact that reveals a greater mastery from who writes and draws the manuscript, and which is accentuated by a superior page organization, concerning the layout and distribution of the different schemes, as well as in a more refined sense of the image and rigor of its outline, whether at the level of the more abstract schemes illustrating geometrical procedures as at the level of illustrations on the subject of architecture. A parallelism that we propose to unveil by putting some of these cases face to face.

Figure 6 - Inácio Vieira: Tractado da Óptica (1714 - BN Códice 5169), folios 266, 274, 280 and 283. Inácio Vieira (ditado por): Tratado da Ótica (17?? - BNB - Manuscritos 02,01,020), folios 195 and 213

33Going further deep in this parallelism, in the Lisbon manuscript of optics the illustrations appear interspersed with the text, while in the Rio manuscript they deserve an autonomous folio gathering and organizing, sequentially, the aspects addressed in the text. On the other hand, and with regard to the perspective treatise, in the Lisbon manuscript the prints are broader, bringing together into a single folio a greater number of schemes that, in addition to the lack of organization of the drawing plan, lead to gross errors, namely the breaking of lines in perspective. This is the case of figure 18, of Estampa 1 of the Lisbon manuscript, where copying the 2nd figure of Pozzo’s Tome I, the draftsman breaks the depth line so that the scheme fits within the limits of the folio (Fig. 7).

Figure 7 - Andrea Pozzo: Perspectiva pictorum et architectorum (1693, Roma), 2nd figure. Inácio Vieira: Tractado de Prospetiva (1716) Estampa 1, fig. 18

34On the other hand, and on the chapter Digressão opportuna Da Architetonica Civil. Linha única das ordens desta Sciencia (Digression on Civil Architecture. Unique line of the orders of such science), the quality of the schemes, considering both its delineation and included notations, referring elements denomination and proportional relations, is much more refined and dense to comes out from the Rio manuscript (Fig. 8). A difference that reveals a greater investment in terms of communicative properties, namely through image, of one document in relation to the other.

Figure 8 - Inácio Vieira: Tractado de Prospectiva (1716 - BN Codex 5170), estampas 3, 6 and 12. Inácio Vieira (dictaed by): Tratado de Prespetiva (BNB - Manuscritos 02,01,020), folios 035, 109 and 241

35Yet, from the Codex analysis the key in relation to its identification, is offered by the 306th folio of the perspective treatise manuscript (Fig. 9). In its closing page we are allowed to read, even if through purposely strikethrough text, its authorship and origin: «Ditado pelo P.^de Ignacio Vieira da Comp.^a de Jesus no Colégio do Santo António de Lisboa … Senhor de 1719/ Dictated by Fr. Ignacio Vieira from Company of Jesus at the Santo António College of Lisbon … Lord of 1719»¹².

Figure 9 - Inácio Vieira (dictated by): Tratado da prespetiva (1719 - BNB - Manuscritos 02,01,020), folio 306 with strikethrough of the document’s authorship, affiliation and year of production

36From the read sentence, the content of the Rio de Janeiro manuscript is definitively bounded to that of the Lisbon manuscript, whether institutionally, the Santo Antão College in the city of Lisbon, as well as concerning its authorship, although registered by a different hand (possibly one of the students in his class at the Sphera). On the other hand, the date indicated agrees with the assumption of a later manuscript, possibly dictated in class, or, who knows, aiming for the preparation of publication, a conjecture reinforced by the drawing quality of the included illustrations.

Artistic Networks. From Portugal to Brazil

37If the dissemination of Andrea Pozzo's treatise, in terms of apprenticeship of the perspective model, is unquestionable to what concerns to quadratura painting models, whether with regard to the image drawing or the architectural composition, is not so clear. Both in Portugal and in Brazil, and despite the circulation of artistic agents between the two sides of the Atlantic, the architectural perspectives, or the quadratura models and practice, are often generated through hybrid solutions resulting from the multiple ways of influx or by assimilation and transformation through local taste and artist’s ability and training (Fig. 10).

38From the Portuguese experience under Pozzo's model, the quadratura painting by Luís Gonçalves Sena at the main chapel of the Jesuit College of Santarém (1754), must be highlighted. A work clearly affiliated with the imaginary architectures that give space to the Entrance of Saint Ignatius in the Paradise, painted in the vault of the Order's Roman college¹³, critically adjusted to the spatial circumstances of the Portuguese chapel. Besides this author we also identified the work of Manuel Xavier Caetano Fortuna that in the nave´s vault of the church of Stª Escolástica de Bragança (1763) which evidences a direct decal from Pozzo's engravings (although the decorative dominance tries to cover a poor domain of the perspective resolution), still adapting the iconography to the program of the temple. From the same period arrives the quadratura painted by José Ferreira da Rocha, pouncing in the ceiling of the Church of Santo António of Lagos (1769) the outlined space on figure 59th of Pozzo’s volume II¹⁴.

Figure 10 - Andrea Pozzo and Gonçalves Sena - fig. 98th from Perspectivæ pictorum et architectorum volume I (1693, Roma), Assumption of the Virgin (1754, Santarém). / Andrea Pozzo e Caetano Fortuna - fig. 98th from Perspectivæ pictorum et architectorum volume I (1693, Roma), Stª Escolástica o the convent of S. Bento (1763, Bragança). / Andrea Pozzo e Ferreira da Rocha - fig. 59ª from Perspectivæ pictorum et architectorum volume II (1700, Roma), Church of Santo António (c.1769, Lagos)

39In the same line of thought, but now following the implementation of the Italian model on the other side of the Atlantic we must underline de activity undertaken by several painters such as: Caetano da Costa Coelho, from Porto, who painted the vaults of the main chapel and nave of the church of Ordem Terceira de São Francisco da Penitência of Rio de Janeiro (1732-1737), considered by many to be the 1st painting in perspective of Brazil; António Simões Ribeiro, who arrives in Salvador da Bahia in 1735 developing an extensive and impacting activity; and José Soares do Araújo, from Braga, active between 1760 and 1799 in Diamantina, Inhaí and Couto de Magalhães. However, in the appreciation of such cases, the Pozzo affiliation is not so clear, being the painted architectures managed in a wide variety of models and transformations. Authors, whose trajectory in the space of the Portuguese empire and repercussion in the local milieu in which they operate allow, as Mello (2019, 310) mentions, to highlight Salvador da Bahia and Rio de Janeiro as focal points, in the dissemination of the quadratura painting in the colony (Fig. 11). Departing from this idea that the same author reinforces the importance of António Simões Ribeiro, who disseminated the Bacherelian model at Bahian lands since 1735.

Figure 11 - Caetano da Costa Coelho – nave ceiling of the church of Ordem Terceira de São Francisco da Penitência (1732-1737, Rio de Janeiro) / António Simões Ribeiro – Chapel of Nossa Senhora da Conceição at the church of São Francisco (1741-43, Salvador da Bahia)

40Focusing upon the case of the painter António Simões Ribeiro, he was very probably apprenticed of António Lobo, a painter of the first generation of Portuguese quadratura painters trained directly under Bacherelli, who, in turn, is the very responsible for the introduction and shaping the illusory spaces of the Joanine era. This affiliation of Simões Ribeiro to the Italian master and model, is shown through his works in the decorative features (garlands, finials, false reliefs and the presence of putti) alongside the shape of the architectural elements (balconies, curved arches and scrolls) and the general composition of the illusory space.

41Although his origin has not been fully identified, records of António Simões Ribeiro's activity as a painter can be traced since the beginning of the 18th century: he works as a portrait painter in Coimbra; his accession to the Brotherhood of S. Lucas in 1718¹⁵; and his apprenticeship along the quadratura painter António Lobo¹⁶. Later on his activity varies between Coimbra and Santarém, centres where he was responsible for the transition from plain decorative painting into the pictorial architectures of the quadratura genre, which, in order to transform the space appearance, integrate a robust acknowledgement of linear perspective. However, in 1734 the painter left Portugal towards Brazil, arriving to Salvador da Bahia in 1735. A place where his practice will unleash the fascination over perspective paintings, transforming the taste and local artistic panorama, as well as forming disciples who will disseminate this genre throughout the northeast of Brazil (Mello 2002 and 2019; Raggi 2016). The ceilings of the main chapel of the church of Santa Casa da Misericórdia (1735) and of the Senate Chamber of Deputies' hall (1736), although vanished, along with those of the Church of the Convent of Santa Clara do Desterro (1745), the Jesuit Library (c. 1735) and the Church of S. Francisco (c. 1736), that still remain, prove his extensive and qualified activity as a quadratura painter at Salvador da Bahia.

42From his experience as a quadratura painter, the oldest news from António Simões Ribeiro are related to the ceilings of the nave and main chapel of the disappeared church of S. Martinho (1716, Santarém). An example registered in the drawing included in the Primeira parte de prospectiva de Pintores e Arquitectura (f. 110v), and mentioned on the História de Santarém edificada as a painting «of good modern architecture»¹⁷. Although, the aforementioned drawing shows the configuration of the ceiling central oculus, a scheme applied to close the outlined illusory architectures in order to frame the view of the heavenly space, it serves to illustrate the procedure exposed by the Pozzo’s 100th figure regarding the projection of the outlined image onto the architectural surface. A fact that results from the proximity among the ceiling and the author of the manuscript, Inácio da Piedade de Vasconcellos, the very same one of the História de Santarém edificada.

43The activity of Simões Ribeiro is resumed in 1723 when, together with Vicente Nunes¹⁸, signed a contract to paint the ceilings of the Library of the University of Coimbra, a major work sponsored by the Portuguese Crown (Fig. 12). However, it remains unclear how an artist, whose only previous proof of his quadratura mastery would have been the ceiling of the parish church of S. Martinho in Santarém, obtains a commission of such magnitude.

44Each of the 3 ceilings of the Library is managed autonomously from a single and central point of convergence, following the perspective canon of linear perspective. An option in line with the configuration of the three rooms of the library: each space does not exceed a ratio of 2 to 3; the mural plan of separation between spaces prevents an oblique and continuous view of the ceilings; the ceiling high allows the annulment excessive perspective foreshortening. Thus, and in a conscious observance of the optical principles (understanding the observer's movement and directing of the gaze inside the built space, distance from the viewpoint to the projection plane, amplitude of the visual cone and the relationship between architectural composition and the surface of the representation), the painted quadraturas stretch vertically each spatial module of the library according to two levels of composition: a first one, coinciding with the cylindrical sectors of the ceiling surface, which presents a balance of the illusory construction contracting the space perimeter, but following the rectangular configuration of the of the room; a second, painted in the vault's flat sector, with an illusory structure whose surrounding balcony is freed from the rectangular built matrix.

Figure 12 - Simões Ribeiro and Vicente Nunes: Joanina Library (1717-22, Coimbra)

45Albeit the uniformity among the adopted scheme in the three ceilings, their variations concern the architectural combinatory, the chromatic palette and the outline of the false gallery and frame that ends the vertical visual impulse. If Ribeiro's imaginary architectures show a bold inventive power, when confronted with the current constructive practice, they are in line with the forms that emanate from the Italic peninsula. The compositional freedom, the boldness in the opening and projection of the construction over the central spatial void, strengthening the perceived space perimeter (consequent to its successive movements of contraction and dilation) and the accentuation of luminous contrasts, in addition to the overlapping of a fairy decoration, value the quadratura as an added value of the architectural experience interfering with the quality of the built environment¹⁹.

46Returning to Santarém, Simões Ribeiro undertakes the monumental ensemble of the church of the Hospital of the Ordem Terceira de São Francisco (1723-25), and, later, the decoration of the Casa da Irmandade de Santa Cruz da Ribeira (1732), alongside with the dome of the church of Santa Iria (c.1725-32)²⁰. In the same context, we also dare to extend the painters activity to the architectural paintings at the Convent of Almoster. Although not properly studied and in an advanced state of ruin, the quadraturas of the chapel of S. João Evangelista, along with the scenographic surroundings of the altarpieces of S. João Evangelista and Nossa Senhora das Dores and Virgem (although this last ones, disconnected from the built structure, following strategy closer to the scenic mechanisms of the theatrum sacrum), the chromatic palette and architectural vocabulary is very close to the quadratura paintings at the Church Hospital of the Ordem Terceira de São Francisco.

47In the church of the Hospital of the Ordem Terceira de São Francisco, Simões Ribeiro paints the subcoran vault and seven of the eight side chapels of the temple (3 on the Gospel side; 4 on the Epistle side), being the subchoir vault pointed out by Vasconcelos (1740) as «admirably painted of architecture»²¹, and the chapel of S. Luís (Fig. 13) as «all very well painted of architecture»²².

Figure 13 - Simões Ribeiro: Chapel of S. Luís King of France at the Hospital Church (1723-25, Santarém)

48As a consequence of the temple's configuration, the quadratura has in each one of the space units in which it intervenes (sections of the sub-chorus and individual side chapels), an independent perspective structure in coherence with the autonomy of the illusory, decorative, iconographic and architectural program (Fig. 14). In the chapels the placement of the viewpoint at its centre is attached to the little depth and spatial autonomy, while, in the subchoir, autonomous viewpoints are defined at the centre of each section following the reduced high that constricts the surface distance to the gaze. According to this, the quadratura cycle of the church of the Hospital of the Third Order of São Francisco constitutes, without a doubt, for the variety of its plastic, perspective and spatial solutions (ranging from the recomposition of the built surfaces to the suggestion of cancelling it and articulating it with imaginary spaces), one of the most significant works produced by a Portuguese author.

Figure 14 - Interpretative scheme of the illusory space suggested by the quadratura paintings in the chapel of S. Louis, King of France, at the Church of the Hospital of the Orem Terceira de São Francisco (1723-25, Santarem). Right, the built structure of the chapel with identification of the transformed surfaces, axes of the built space (in red) and suggested space (in blue). at the centre Individualization of the successive illusory space strata and, on the left, the operated synthesis

49In this sequence, the architectural composition painted on the dome of the church of Santa Iria (c. 1725-32) fits the construction and transforms its surface through elaborate and convex balances. Such option, in confront with the linearity of the supporting surface, annul the semi spherical dome imposing an illusory space full of contractions and expansions.

50From the above exposed, and aiming for a broader reading of António Simões Ribeiro's work among the production carried out on both sides of the Atlantic, it seems imperative to analyse and confront the relationship between the paintings of the chapel of S. Louis King of France (1723-25, Santarém) the dome painting at the church of Santa Iria (c.1725-32, Santarém), and the monumental work executed by the author for the vaults of the lateral transepts at the church of São Francisco (1741-1743 Salvador da Bahia). Works that, despite the difference in scale and distance (both chronological and geographical), show coincidences far beyond the configuration of the supporting surface to manifest a same positioning in terms of the composition of the illusory space and applied ornaments. A research project recently started.

Conclusion

51From the exposed, it is clear the effective existence of a scientific and artistic network that, in the particular case under analysis, has its origin in the Italian peninsula being disseminated, via Lisbon, to the colonies of the Portuguese America. A condition that occurs through the circulation of Andrea Pozzo's printed work, as well as through manuscripts that repeat and dissect the contents of Pozzo's linear perspective, as well as through the hand of artists who assimilate, reflect and applied ways of doing.

52As for the manuscripts retrieved here, both treatises of perspective (one at Portugal's National Library and the other at Brazil's National Library), the direct relationship between the documents is underline, reinforcing the connexion, albeit informal, between both sides of the Atlantic. However, at this moment, it is still not possible to clarify the path of the manuscript dictated by father Inácio Vieira which, from the Santo Antão college at Lisbon until Rio de Janeiro, would allow us to recognize ways of transferring scientific and technical knowledge in the space of the Portuguese empire.

53From the analysis of the document, the content of the Rio de Janeiro manuscript is categorically linked to the Lisbon manuscript, whether in the attribution of its authorship to the mathematical Jesuit mathematician Inácio Vieira (although its recording was carried out by a different hand), as well as the institution of origin, the Santo Antão College in the city of Lisbon. On the other hand, and comparing the date of the Lisbon manuscript (1716) with that of Rio de Janeiro (1719?), It is evident that the one from Rio is a later copy, possibly dictated in class, or, who knows, aiming for the preparation of its publication.

54At the end, certain is that, through the mouth of Inácio Vieira and the hand of a student from the Jesuit Lisbon College, Pozzo's thought is transferred from Rome to Brazil.