behind the window project
A method for transferring a drawing to another surface on a different scale,
especially to a larger surface that is to be painted, such as a canvas or
a wall. (…) the drawing is ruled off into squares, and the same number
of squares are then ruled on the surface to which the drawing is to be
transferred. Each square of the drawing is then copied freehand onto the
corresponding square of the other surface, focusing on one square at a time.
‘Alberti’s window’ , an open frame gridded by perpendicular threads through which the artist should view the scene to be painted,and then transfer the coordinate details in scale onto his similarly gridded picture. In essence, even if inadvertent, it shifted the purpose of perspective painting not as a depiction of divine mystery revealed by geometry, but as worldly perfection framed by geometry.