Underweysung der Messung
Albrecht Dürer.
Underweysung der Messung, mit dem Zirckel und Richtscheyt, in Linien Ebnen unnd gantzen Corporen… mit zů gehörigen Figuren.
Nuremberg: [Albrecht Dürer], 1525. (BRA1017/B)
In this treatise Dürer explained the basic principles of “the art of measurement, without which no one can become a true artisan.” Illustrated with Dürer’s woodcuts throughout, the book concerns linear geometry, two-dimensional figures, geometric solids, methods of rendering linear perspective, and various applications of measurement to architecture, engineering, and decoration. The final two woodcuts, exhibited here, show (at the left) how to stabilize the artist’s eye at a single viewpoint for the drawing of a portrait, and (at the right) how to plot various points on the surfaces of a lute, or any complex geometric solid, by marking its contours by means of a string extended from a fixed point.