Illustration and Text from Dürers Vier Bucher von Menslicher Proportion, Nuremberg, 1528
1528
Medium
Woodcut
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Bequest of James Clark McGuire, 1930
Accession Number
31.54.106
Tags
Art Historical Context
Albrecht Dürer, the preeminent German artist of the Northern Renaissance, published his groundbreaking *Vier Bücher von Menschlicher Proportion (Four Books on Human) in Nuremberg in 1528. This wood illustration and accompanying text, featured in the Metropolitan Museum of's Drawings and Prints collection, exemplifies Dürer's quest to codify the ideal human form through geometry and empirical observation. Drawing from classical antiquity and his own meticulous studies—undertaken during travels to Italy—Dürer sought to equip artists with precise proportions for realistic figure drawing, bridging...
About the Artist
Albrecht Dürer · 1471–1528
Albrecht Dürer (1471–1528) stands as the preeminent figure of the Northern Renaissance and arguably the most influential artist in the history of printmaking. Born in Nuremberg on May 21, 1471, and dying in the same city on April 6, 1528, Dürer revolutionized the status of the artist in Northern Europe, transforming printmaking from a commercial craft into an independent fine art and establishing ...