Astronomical Images : Duerer's method to assist painters in capturing perspective (2)

Albrecht Duerer

Astronomical Images

<p style='text-align: justify;'>Albrecht Duerer (1471-1528), now widely famed for his painting, engraving and printmaking, was interested and proficient in the mathematical arts. In his <i>Institutiones geometricae</i> he married the mathematical art of geometry to the art of perspective and drawing, bringing Euclidean principles to bear on the theory and practices of visual representation. This is one of the two images that illustrate an instrumental aid to perspectival composition. Here, two men are shown working together to plot the shape of a lute onto a piece of paper using a string that is fixed at one end to a wall (to the right). One man (to the left) pins the other end of the string onto the edge of the lute with one hand, and with the other hand holds back a sheet of paper fastened along the edge to a frame which is constructed perpendicularly to the table on which the lute rests. Though it is difficult to see, the second man uses two strings on the frame to fix the point that the long string from the wall makes when passing through the frame. The long string is then released, the paper swung back into the frame, and the point defined as an intersection of the two strings is transferred onto the page. The scene shows a series of dots already transferred to the page outlining the shape of the lute.</p>