Author(s) Bosse, Abraham
Title Representations geometrales...
Imprint Paris, A. Bosse, 1659
Localisation Paris, Ensba, 188 A 7
Subject Chimneys, Gates, Perspective


     The Representations geometrales is a succession of eleven plates preceded by a title page and two plates of engraved text. Abraham Bosse addresses himself here "aux curieux et praticiens de l’architecture". It is the first collection that he published on that art, in 1660 if we can believe plate I bearing that date, even if the title page is dated 1659. He was already working on his "traité d'architecture" into which he says he had thought about inserting these plates of doorways. But he abandoned that idea, anxious to make "d’autres et même quelques fenêtres, cheminées, alcôves, décorations de salons et chambres" which he would publish as he went along. The book falls into the tradition of the collections of models inaugurated in France during the 16th century by Androuet du Cerceau and Serlio and continued during the following century by Alexandre Francine (Livre d’architecture contenant plusieurs portiques de differentes inventions, sur les cinq ordres de colomnes, Paris, 1631), Pierre Collot (Pieces d’architecture, ou sont comprises plusieurs sortes de cheminees, portes, tabernacles..., Paris, 1633), and Jean Barbet (Pieces d’architecture, où sont comprises plusieurs sortes de cheminées, portes, tabernacles..., Paris, 1633) whose copperplates were engraved by Bosse. If Francine's portals are probably more appropriate for chateau parterres, garden buildings and fountains, if the few models of the Flemish author Collot remain anecdotal, on the other hand the ten portals presented here have more connection with those of architects like Serlio, who proposed fifty portals in the Livre extraordinaire (Lyons, 1551), thirty "rustiques" and twenty "délicates", illustrations engraved on copper, preceded by a text of commentary, or like architect Pierre Le Muet who added nine portals by his hand to his edition of Vignola in 1632. In the preliminary text he explains the measurements and plane proportions "de plusieurs parties de bâtiments faites par les règles de l’architecture antique". He develops at length the way to convert the "module" or half-diameter of the column into feet or inches "afin de s’accommoder à la manière de mesurer la plus en usage parmi le commun des ouvriers". Thus the "module" was equal to one foot or twelve inches.
Obviously hoping to educate his readers, Bosse began by illustrating the shapes of the pediments, segmental or triangular, which he would use in the following plates (pl. 1). Ten models of portals follow according to the five orders, represented each time in elevation, profile and side views. There is a single model for the Tuscan order (pl. 2) and composite ("composé") (pl. 11); three Doric (pl. 3, 6, 8); three Ionic including one porte cochère (4, 7, 9); and two Corinthian (pl. 5, 10). The Doric, Ionic and Corinthian models are presented with variants, simple or elaborate: the shaft smooth or fluted, the frieze flat or pulvinated for the Ionic, the mouldings decorated or not.
Architecture was not only subordinate to perspective; it was also a full art to which Bosse would give most of his time. If he probably went back to his engravings used for his courses at the Académie de peinture, the intention, whatever one might say, was completely different. Bosse no longer addresses himself to painters who had no need of such precise dimensions to represent plane portals. The rational and precise presentation of the various models reveals a knowlege of the treatises of the best authors. His concept of an order as an architectural entity determined by a constant relationship (5:15:3) among the three fundamental parts of the order (pedestal, column, entablature) is inspired by Vignola's doctrine. His remarks on the profession of architect and good taste in architecture (pre-eminence of the Greek orders, criticism of mixed compositions) reveal a concept very close to that defended by Roland Fréart de Chambray in his celebrated Parallèle de l'architecture antique avec la moderne (Paris, 1650). Bosse also benefited from it to criticize the painters and draftsmen who were unaware of the rules of optics and perspective which give to certain antique edifices all their beauty, for they preferred to follow a "prétendu copiste de perspective pratique", that is to say Jean Dubreuil, the author of a Perspective pratique published in three volumes (1642-1649), a vulgar plagiarism of Girard Desargues' work distributed by Bosse. The allusion to the scientific dispute opposing them starting in 1642, lasting almost three decades with the Jesuit father and Jacques Curabelle, among others, shows that Bosse was in the heart of these scientific and theoretical debates of his times.
In 1664/1665 Bosse finally integrated the Representations geometrales with his architectural treatise in two sections (Traité des manieres de dessiner les ordres and Des ordres de colonnes), as he had initially planned, combining relevance of substance with commercial coherence.

Frédérique Lemerle (Centre national de la recherche scientifique
Cnrs, Centre d'études supérieures de la Renaissance, Tours) – 2009

Critical bibliography

A. Blum, L’œuvre gravé d’Abraham Bosse, Paris, Morancé, 1924.

G. Duplessis, "Catalogue de l’œuvre de Abraham Bosse", Revue universelle des arts, Paris, 1859.

M. Le Blanc, notice 290 of the exhibition catalogue Abraham Bosse savant graveur, Tours, vers 1604-1676, Paris, S. Join-Lambert & M. Préaud (ed.), Paris/Tours, Bibliothèque nationale de France/Musée des Beaux-Arts de Tours, 2004.

F. Lemerle, "Les livres d’architecture du graveur Abraham Bosse", J.-P. Garric, É. d'Orgeix & E. Thibault (ed.), Le livre et l’architecte, Wavre, Mardaga, 2011, pp. 173-179.

R.-A. Weigert, Inventaire du fonds français. Graveurs du XVIIe siècle, 1, Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, 1939, pp. 471-534.