Dürer's work is dedicated to the proportions of the human body
in order to enable artists to draw features that are as close as
possible to nature. It is comprised of four books: Book I teaches the
reader how the entire length of a human body can be divided into
proportions and then drawn on the basis of the "divider". Book II
explains the use of a measuring stick which measures a sixth of the
entire length and likewise enables the human figure to be drawn as
realistically as possible. Book III demonstrates how the previously
determined proportions can be changed to create variations, and Book IV
looks at the illustration of movements. Dürer distinguishes between the
body masses of men, women and children.
The work includes around 150 illustrations, including vignettes. The
illustrations were created on flat woodcut profiles that Dürer otherwise
did not use for artistic work.
Dürer chose the German language and focused on goldsmiths and stone
engravers, painters and carpenters. He spent two decades polishing the
words as the German language was hardly ever used for publications.
Dürer was not able to refer to known terminology for the geometric and
anatomical figures and invented a lot of new terms.
The cover
page and first pages of the introduction were lost in this copy and were
presumably updated by hand in the 18th century under consideration of a
second copy.
BEYOND STANDARD DIMENSIONS
With this work, Dürer created the first printed instructions
for the artistic illustration of humans. Various editions and
translations appeared within a short period of time. Dürer's work was
reprinted without any changes for a long time. In 1791 Goethe wrote that
Dürer's proportional teachings contained "truly wonderful sayings. It
would be nice if they were revisited and translated into more recent
language." In 2011, an edition was published with an in-depth
commentary.
Dürer appeared to be familiar with the manuscript
written by Leon Battista Alberti, who also explored the body's
proportions. While Alberti viewed art as a medium for creating something
beautiful, Dürer explained that everything brought to us by nature,
regardless of its aesthetic appeal, is worthy of being illustrated.
He added to the mathematically geometric proportions that he had
calculated to provide many different variations. Thus, fat and thin,
long-legged and stocky figures were drawn that did not centre around a
single standard measurement.
The body proportions reveal a growing interest in anthropometry
during the early modern era. Dürer considered the art of measurement to
be a science which was available to create a basis for medicine,
physiognomy and even racial doctrine, and later for the manufacturing of
clothing, too.
A NUREMBERGER TRAVELLING ITALY
Albrecht Dürer (1471–1528) revealed a fair amount about
himself. The son of a goldsmith, he was born in Nuremberg in 1471, and
as a child he worked in his father's workshop. His father recognised
Albrecht's immense talent and enabled him to pursue an education in art.
Returning home after his travels, he married Agnes Frey, a patrician's
daughter from Nuremberg. The couple remained childless. After being
widowed, Dürer's mother lived together with them until her death.
Dürer's wife worked closely with her husband, sold his works on the
market and ran the workshop in his absence.
Dürer travelled to Italy twice and was heavily influenced by the
Italian renaissance. Religious pictures dominate his life's work, and
through their realistic illustration, they shaped the history of art in
the long term. His secular works are still known today. Dürer's teaching
of proportions was ground-breaking for the history of art. During his
teachings, he discussed the theory of perspectives and object
measurements, on which he later went on to write two books.
He spent at least two decades on the work considered here. He died
during the printing process, meaning that three out of the four books
were typeset as a result of the information he had provided.
The painter, printmaker and theorist Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528)
is generally acknowledged to be the most significant figure in the
history of European art outside Italy during the period of the
Renaissance. Dürer saw himself as a model whereby his
contemporaries in Northern Europe could combine their own empirical
interest in naturalistic detail with the more theoretical aspects
of Italian art. Artists across Europe especially admired and copied
his innovative and impressive prints, which ranged from religious
and mythological scenes to maps and exotic animals. Technically,
Dürer's prints are exemplary for their detail and precision.
After receiving basic training in the arts from his father, a
Nuremberg goldsmith, Dürer was apprenticed for three years with the
painter Michael Wolgemut. He later made two visits to Venice where
he was exposed to the artistic culture of the Italian Renaissance.
When Dürer returned from his last visit to Venice in 1507, it was
his intention to write a manual on the art of painting. However,
his energies were soon concentrated on studies related to the
proportions of the human form. From his work on the engraving of
'Adam and Eve' (1504) he had realised that the information given by
Vitruvius in 'De architectura' was insufficient to establish
universally valid laws of proportion. In order to progress towards
a more systematic description of the external appearance of the
ideal human body, Dürer began a study of nature using precise
measurements of large numbers of men, women and children.
Dürer used two methodologies for his research. In the first
instance, the distances between clearly defined points on the human
body were measured and expressed mathematically in relation to the
model's total height. By analysing the resultant data and
eliminating aberrant figures, he was able to obtain typical values.
Using the second method, Dürer divided the height of the human
figure into six equal parts in order to obtain a mathematical gauge
that was then used for all subsequent measurements. This gauge, or
unit of measurement, would differ from one model to the next.
Although Dürer's research was largely completed by 1523 it was
not until 1528, the year of his death, that the 'Vier Bücher von
menschlicher Proportion' was published. This work, in four sections
or 'books', was the first published attempt to apply the science of
human anatomical proportions to aesthetics. The work is also
notable for its extraordinary series of over 100 anthropometrical
woodcuts.
In the first two books Dürer employs his research methodologies
to depict proper proportions of the human form. The third book
alters these proportions according to mathematical rules, giving
examples of extremely fat and thin figures. The third book also
features sections that focus on the construction of the head. In
the fourth book Dürer adds a theory of movement. However, his
concern is only with the external appearance of the body in motion,
as opposed to any attempt to teach anatomy. The woodcuts in the
fourth book feature the first employment of cross-hatching to
depict shades and shadows in wood engraving.
The National Library of Scotland owns books one and two from a
Latin 1532 edition, and books three and four from a Latin 1534
edition. Both of these editions have been bound together. In
addition, 24 Dürer engravings have been included at the end of book
four. These include such works as 'Melencolia I' (1514), 'Christ
driving moneychangers from the Temple' (1508-9), 'Crucifixion'
(1509) and the 'Bagpiper' (1514).
