DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.48092#0243
220
durer’s literary remains.
[chap.
reproduction of this set of plans, accompanying the present
volume, may enable someone, minutely conversant with the
Palaces of Venice, to identify the house with one actually
existing.
From this long digression we must now return to the con-
sideration of the contents of the Fourth Book of the Doctrine of
Measurements. They deal mainly with Perspective. The reader
is informed that there are three kinds of solid bodies, which can
be drawn by rule and compass : those that are ‘ straight like
columns,’ or ‘ pointed like cones,’ and those bounded by certain
plane figures, which are enumerated. Diirer proceeds to de-
scribe the solids of Euclid’s eleventh book, and tells how to draw
them in perspective. Then follows a long dissertation upon
perspective, applied to every possible position of a cube, the
method of shadows being employed. This is succeeded by
some general principles of perspective and a description, illus-
trated by woodcuts, of two instruments, by means of which it is
possible to fix, upon the plane of the drawing, the correct
relative positions of visible points in the object to be drawn1.
From the foregoing abstract it is clear that the 1 Teaching of
Measurement ’ was not written to propound any theory of art-
practice, but is simply a collection of hints, which Dtirer found
useful himself, and therefore published for the help of young
artists. The part dealing with Perspective is quite unmethodical,
and makes no attempt to treat the science in a scientific manner.
At the time of Durer’s death, Camerarius tells us, it was the
artist’s “ intention to write and publish at greater length and
more clearly about perspective than he had done before,” but it
is doubtful whether he could ever have produced a methodical
treatise on the subject. He had a practical knowledge of it, but
it is questionable whether he clearly separated in his mind the
fundamental principles from the individual instances of their
application.
“Herewith, gracious Master, will I make an end of my writing. If
God grant me grace, as time passeth on, to print the books I have
written about Human Proportions and other matters pertaining there-
to. ...I intend to reprint this book with large and copious additions.”
1 The original drawing for this woodcut is in the Brit. Mus. MSS. Vol. in. i6g.
durer’s literary remains.
[chap.
reproduction of this set of plans, accompanying the present
volume, may enable someone, minutely conversant with the
Palaces of Venice, to identify the house with one actually
existing.
From this long digression we must now return to the con-
sideration of the contents of the Fourth Book of the Doctrine of
Measurements. They deal mainly with Perspective. The reader
is informed that there are three kinds of solid bodies, which can
be drawn by rule and compass : those that are ‘ straight like
columns,’ or ‘ pointed like cones,’ and those bounded by certain
plane figures, which are enumerated. Diirer proceeds to de-
scribe the solids of Euclid’s eleventh book, and tells how to draw
them in perspective. Then follows a long dissertation upon
perspective, applied to every possible position of a cube, the
method of shadows being employed. This is succeeded by
some general principles of perspective and a description, illus-
trated by woodcuts, of two instruments, by means of which it is
possible to fix, upon the plane of the drawing, the correct
relative positions of visible points in the object to be drawn1.
From the foregoing abstract it is clear that the 1 Teaching of
Measurement ’ was not written to propound any theory of art-
practice, but is simply a collection of hints, which Dtirer found
useful himself, and therefore published for the help of young
artists. The part dealing with Perspective is quite unmethodical,
and makes no attempt to treat the science in a scientific manner.
At the time of Durer’s death, Camerarius tells us, it was the
artist’s “ intention to write and publish at greater length and
more clearly about perspective than he had done before,” but it
is doubtful whether he could ever have produced a methodical
treatise on the subject. He had a practical knowledge of it, but
it is questionable whether he clearly separated in his mind the
fundamental principles from the individual instances of their
application.
“Herewith, gracious Master, will I make an end of my writing. If
God grant me grace, as time passeth on, to print the books I have
written about Human Proportions and other matters pertaining there-
to. ...I intend to reprint this book with large and copious additions.”
1 The original drawing for this woodcut is in the Brit. Mus. MSS. Vol. in. i6g.