De pictura, 1977-78

Nine framed elements placed closed together at short intervals from each other reproduce the perspectival drawing of an exhibition space. The reversed central element evokes the verso of the painting displayed on the fourth side of this room. The side walls feature two other paintings, whose lifelikeness is proven by the nails along the outer vertical side. Akin to the reversed middle canvas, the nails draw the viewer's attention to the material plane, which at the same time opens and closes the space of the representation, on the threshold that divides the physical space on this side of the scene from the inaccessible one beyond the painting surface. The signature, the title, and the date of the work written on the verso of the canvas in the middle certify the authenticity of the painting that escapes our gaze, and at the same time of the work that we see.
The torn fragments applied to the central canvas of the bottom row are taken from the black and white reproduction of a previous version of De pictura, formally identical but without a collage (GPO-0345).
The dimension of the representation evoked by way of the perspective, with its illusory spatiality and ambiguous virtuality, is accentuated by the title, which harkens back to that of the famous treatise by Leon Battista Alberti (1435), in which, for the first time ever, the author theorized the ideas of the new Renaissance vision, founded on perspectival construction in relation to its use in painting.
The same theme was developed in three other variants, made between 1977 and 1979 (GPO-0344, GPO-0345, GPO-0367, GPO-0412, GPO-0417).