Révérend P. Niceron: The Curious Perspective
Above: Various illustrations by Jean Francois Niceron
Jean François Niceron (1613-1646) was a catholic friar, mathematician, and an artist with a passion for investigating perspective. He was a native of Paris but travelled widely in Europe and was awarded a professorship in Rome.
Scientific societies^ were beginning to emerge in Niceron's time and he became a member of the 'Circle of Mersenne' (or Académie Parisiensis), named after Niceron's mentor, a polymath acoustics mathematician and theologian, Father Marin Mersenne^. It was through his association with this society that Niceron became acquainted with leading intellectuals in both Paris and Rome, such as Fermat, Desargues, Descartes, Gassendi, Roberval, Cavalieri, Kircher, Maignan and others.
Niceron's academic connections kept him well informed about the latest advancements in scientific thinking, particularly within the fields of optics and geometry. He attempted to apply this theoretical knowledge to the anamorphic paintings and murals that he was producing and he published his first book on the subject when he was 25 years old ('Thaumaturgus Opticus').
A later expanded treatise ensured Niceron's place in history. 'La Perspective Curieuse' (The Curious Perspective) consists of 4 parts ('books') and was first published in 1638. It concentrates primarily on the practical applications of perspective, catoptrics and dioptrics. The publication also associates the illusory effects of optics with a contemporary acceptance of natural magic (or proto-science). Niceron was sympathetic to the idea that optics was as much an art of illusion as it was a science of the properties of light.
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