DOI issue:
VI. Architectural Sketch and Verses
DOI issue:VII. The Human Figure incribed within Circle and Square
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.72806#0014
batt einer so viel Silben als der ander, und ich meinet, ich hatts wol
troffen, als hernach steht:
Du alien Engel Spiegel und Erloser der Welt,
Dein grosse Marter sei far mein Sund ein Widergelt."
Durer had, probably, just as good reason to be satisfied with the present
example, though it has fewer syllables to the line:
" Welcher mensch ein neydig hertz hat
Dz pringt Jm awffghawften unrat."
Durer's standard of versification was regrettably low, but we need
not take him too seriously to task for his lapses into rhyming. The
three poems published by him, with woodcut illustrations, in the year
1510, have already appeared in the portfolios of the Durer Society.
VII.
The Human Figure inscribed within Circle and
Square.
British Museum {Add. MS. 5230, fol. 2). Pen and ink, the writing and drawing
nearly black, with additions-—the X-like diagram within the circle and the second
(upper) position of the arms within the square—in a paler brown ink. Size oj
sheet, 29.7 by 21.8 cm.,11^ by 8^ in.; size of drawings, diam. 8 and 6.3 by 7.1 cm.
respectively.
The text belonging to these drawings is printed complete by Lange
and Fuhse, p. 314. Only the two paragraphs in which the drawings
are actually described are reproduced along with them.
Vitruvius, says Durer, states that if a man be stretched on the
ground, with hands and feet laid down, and the point of a compass be
placed upon his navel, the circle drawn with the compass will touch
the extremities of his hands and feet. From this he argues that the
scheme for a round building may be deduced from the proportions of
a man.
Similarly, if a man be measured from the feet to the top of his
head, the measurement will correspond to that of the outstretched arms
and hands. In this Vitruvius sees the principle of a square building.
Both Zahn and Lange and Fuhse remark that the mention of the
horse in the introductory paragraph (not reproduced here) proves that
the passage was written rather early, before Durer had decided that
the work on proportion was to deal with the proportions of the human
body only; probably, therefore, before 1513.
12
troffen, als hernach steht:
Du alien Engel Spiegel und Erloser der Welt,
Dein grosse Marter sei far mein Sund ein Widergelt."
Durer had, probably, just as good reason to be satisfied with the present
example, though it has fewer syllables to the line:
" Welcher mensch ein neydig hertz hat
Dz pringt Jm awffghawften unrat."
Durer's standard of versification was regrettably low, but we need
not take him too seriously to task for his lapses into rhyming. The
three poems published by him, with woodcut illustrations, in the year
1510, have already appeared in the portfolios of the Durer Society.
VII.
The Human Figure inscribed within Circle and
Square.
British Museum {Add. MS. 5230, fol. 2). Pen and ink, the writing and drawing
nearly black, with additions-—the X-like diagram within the circle and the second
(upper) position of the arms within the square—in a paler brown ink. Size oj
sheet, 29.7 by 21.8 cm.,11^ by 8^ in.; size of drawings, diam. 8 and 6.3 by 7.1 cm.
respectively.
The text belonging to these drawings is printed complete by Lange
and Fuhse, p. 314. Only the two paragraphs in which the drawings
are actually described are reproduced along with them.
Vitruvius, says Durer, states that if a man be stretched on the
ground, with hands and feet laid down, and the point of a compass be
placed upon his navel, the circle drawn with the compass will touch
the extremities of his hands and feet. From this he argues that the
scheme for a round building may be deduced from the proportions of
a man.
Similarly, if a man be measured from the feet to the top of his
head, the measurement will correspond to that of the outstretched arms
and hands. In this Vitruvius sees the principle of a square building.
Both Zahn and Lange and Fuhse remark that the mention of the
horse in the introductory paragraph (not reproduced here) proves that
the passage was written rather early, before Durer had decided that
the work on proportion was to deal with the proportions of the human
body only; probably, therefore, before 1513.
12