Dürer, Underweysung der Messung, Nürnberg 1525
Second edition published by Hieronymus Formschneider in 1538 after Dürer's death in 1528
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Dürer published a book about the art of measurement in 1525 shortly before his death in 1528. However several of the illustrations in the second edition of 1538, published by Hieronymus Formschneider, were said on the titlepage of this edition to have been done by Dürer 'while he was still on earth' "als er noch auf erden war". Among them is this wonderful device for painstakingly constructing a correct perspective. The imaginary eye is physically represented by the ring in the wall and the point where each part of the subject appears in the picture plane is measured from the taut string and then transferred to the picture as a dot. Imagine how long this procedure would take and what you would have to do with the string each time the picture is swung back into position to be marked up! It must surely be an imaginary machine designed to make a theoretical point. Much as JS Bach's Art of Fugue has been thought of as theoretical music it seems as if the great man wished to distil his knowledge in abstract form towards the end of his life.
The lute itself is a perfectly representative example of a sixteenth century lute. It could almost be a drawing of the six course Gerle lute which has survived and is currently in Vienna Kunsthistorisches Museum, though this lute appears to have nine ribs whereas the Gerle has eleven. The end of the endclasp has the same design as several of the Laux Maler lutes. Notice too the deep neck, again like the Gerle, which has proved to be so comfortable for six course lutes, and suggests a style of holding with the left hand far removed from the twentieth century guitar style which used to be universally used until a few years ago. Eight tied frets on the neck and space for another; compare this with the Gerle which has the equivalent of 8.66 frets. A nice chunky little pegbox set at a right angle to the neck completes a very convincing portrait of the contemporary lute.
The date would be right for it to be a medium sized Laux Maler or Hans Frei lute, none of which have survived. It is hard to judge the comparative width of the lute, even though it is in a treatise on perspective, but maybe it is one of those small long form lutes which are so noticeable by their absence from museums and from pictures of the period, as I mentioned in my last Picture of the Month; but which we surmise must have existed. In this sense it is a pity it wasn't shown in plan view!
To round off this survey I thought you might be interested in a couple of the other illustrations from the treatise, which show different devices for rendering perspective by artists who lacked confidence or maybe skill and knowledge! As he says by one illustration: "Solchs ist gut allen denen, die jemand wollen abconterfeien und die ihrer Sache nicht gewis sind" 'such is good for all those who want to make a portrait and who are not confident of their skill.'
And especially this wonderful image of the jobbing artist confronted by abundant life! Dürer has a marvellous and little appreciated sense of humour. In the circumstances who could fail to be impressed with the phallic nature of the sight-vane and the fierce gaze of the artist, unconscious of the total effect?
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If anyone has any comments about these pictures which differ from or expand
on mine, please do either email me direct or submit them to the lutenet at antispam/lute@cs.dartmouth.edu and I will add them to this page. Do please adjust this address by hand to remove antispam/ |
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Copyright 1999 by David Van Edwards
