The Deformation : Attention and Discernment in Catholic Reformation Art and Architecture

A fascinating account of the use and meaning of visual and spatial distortions in seventeenth-century art and architecture.

During the Catholic Reformation, patrons, artists, architects, and viewers, especially in Rome, were strongly drawn to visual and spatial distortions or “deformations”—works of art and architecture that were designed to be visually incomprehensible, at least initially. From Borromini’s San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane in Rome to the attention-grabbing prospettiva in the city’s Palazzo Spada and the anamorphoses that define the corridors and walls of Minim and Jesuit buildings, The Deformation explores what this intriguing phenomenon reveals about contemporary religious belief, optics, and the natural sciences, as well as wider questions about attention and discernment. Failing to conform to an established ideal, deformations required a “reformation” to achieve that idea