ABSTRACT
The architectural drawing straddles an uneasy dichotomy between the image as a tool or model and the image as a more or less persuasive report or comment on the visual effects of using that tool or model. Architectural 'truth' now resided in illusionist shading or, in other words, precisely where for Alberti there had previously lurked only 'deceptive appearances'. The capacity of 'rendered' geometrical elevations to convey the chiaroscuro of a perspective view and yet avoid dimensional distortion enabled such representations to operate in at least three other possible ways. Adam employs strong shadows wherever he can to emphasize the solidity of the forms casting them, since not to have done so at this time would have been considered a failure in correct draughtsmanship. Freart's approach is symptomatic of the cultivation of a critical sensibility more concerned with the visual effects of architecture than with its practice.
