Underweysung der messung mit dem zirckel un richt scheyt

Underweysung der messung mit dem zirckel un richt scheyt

Albrecht Dürer

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Published toward the end of Dürer’s life, Treatise on Measurement (1525) was intended, as the artist declared in its introduction, "not only for painters, but also for goldsmiths, sculptors, stonemasons, carpenters, and all those for whom using measurement is useful." The treatise synthesized a number of classical and contemporary mathematical texts with the knowledge of geometry Dürer had accumulated over a lifetime of artistic practice, in order to train German artists in precision drawing and, by extension, precision thinking.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Underweysung der messung mit dem zirckel un richt scheytUnderweysung der messung mit dem zirckel un richt scheytUnderweysung der messung mit dem zirckel un richt scheytUnderweysung der messung mit dem zirckel un richt scheytUnderweysung der messung mit dem zirckel un richt scheyt

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.