The Projective Cast: Architecture and Its Three Geometries.

The author of this work, Robin Evans, may be unfamiliar to Renaissance scholars. Trained as an architect, he probes formulations of architectural projection, injecting ideas about practice into the current discourse linking history and theory. According to Evans, projective geometry originated in the creative impulse of the Early Renaissance that sought to resolve the polarity between science and art, between the rational and the intuitive. Architectural projection culminated in the three geometries distinguished by Einstein: "compositional, projective and signified." While this study examines a spectrum of material culture from the Renaissance to Post-modernity, it will also engage readers whose primary concern is the cultural production of early modern Europe.

Evans's book is anything but a linear history of architecture. The analysis of architectural method, rather than form, determines the selection and interpretation of material. The emphasis on process leads to multiple and simultaneous propositions; simultaneity, in fact, is emblematic of the author's approach. Architectural draftsmanship finds its parallels, among others, in music, stereotomy (techniques of stone-cutting) and caricature. Visual analogues range from the "trompe" in French Renaissance architecture to Cubist paintings by Matisse and Picasso, as well as illustrated treatises by non-canonical theorists. The author rewrites significant axioms of architectural history like the origins of Gothic vaulting and perspectival formulations of Piero della Francesca. Rarely dismissive and unusually thorough, Evans critiques generations of writers on architecture, while simultaneously addressing the broad constructs of cultural definition.

Although lucid, this book is not for the casual, inexperienced or impatient reader. The narrative is organized into three sections composed of nine consecutive chapters from "Perturbed Circles" (chapter one) to "Rumors at the Extremities" (chapter nine). The cryptic titles are connected by a single thread - the analysis of geometric projection - which takes surprising, sometimes perplexing, turns. Illustrations are generally ingenious, but occasionally distracting. Amidst this panoply (or maybe because of it), the authorial voice emerges in elegant yet unassuming prose. The book is designed to complement the author's complex strategies; high-quality illustrations and spacious margins allow for the juxtaposition of image with text.

How, then, might a scholar of the Renaissance use this book? One option would be to read selectively, to focus on chapters dealing with Alberti or Raphael. Another, to cast about for insights into Renaissance culture scattered throughout the text. Either approach, however, is likely to lead to a more comprehensive, rewarding perusal. For example, the author sets out in chapter one to bridge Wolfflin and Wittkower, admitting to interpretive leaps. His analysis of the centralized church rejects assumptions about spatial centrality, both in respect to mathematical calculation and cultural symbolism. Key instead is the introduction of geometric projection, originating in the contemporaneous discourse of perspective. As chapter two shifts to twentieth-century debates about modernism and the fragmentation of form, the reader, grounded in the historical analysis of orthographic projection, encounters a perceptive appraisal of post-humanist architecture and deconstructionist theory that recalls the Wolfflin/Wittkower "concordance."

This book was near completion when the author died unexpectedly at the age of 48. The editing that ensued, mentioned in the preface, may account for the choppy, unformed ideas in the last segments of the book, in particular the final chapter. On balance, though, The Projective Cast is the product of extensive research and profound reflection. It is the work of a scholar, discerning beyond his years, who managed to efface boundaries that traditionally circumscribe scholarly fields.

EUNICE D. HOWE University of Southern California