At 8:45 PM -0500 5/11/05, Roman Turovsky wrote: > > albrecht durer used a lute to demonstrate a drawing >> devise he made from a frame bisected with equally >> spaced, horizontal and lateral wires. by looking >> through the wire grid the artist could accurately >> gauge the lute's difficult perspective. >Which is no indication that Duerer used it himself, and the drawing in >question says nothin about the purpose of the action contained therein. >Duerer was the greatest draftsman that ever lived, and he was capable of >producing any object's perspective not only without an aid of optical >devices, but he also could do it directly in pen&ink with amazing precision >without any preliminary sketching in chalk. <snip>
Yes, this was part of a treatise on the art of measuring, and Durer himself says at one point of another such a device "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.' Which reinforces Gernot's point about the real, but surmountable, difficulties of becoming a good draughtsman. I wrote about this picture some time ago and the problems it raises if you take it literally. http://www.vanedwards.co.uk/month/jul99/month.htm scroll down to the end to see Dürer's wonderful joke at expense of the poor artist! Best wishes, David -- The Smokehouse, 6 Whitwell Road, Norwich, NR1 4HB England. Telephone: + 44 (0)1603 629899 Website: http://www.vanedwards.co.uk To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
