Page 294 - Art In The Age Of Exploration (Great Section on Chinese Art Ming Dynasty)

borrows its introduction from Euclid's Elements,
gives an account of linear geometry while the
second covers two-dimensional figures. The third
is more practical, illustrating the application of
geometrical principles to architecture and various
crafts, including typography, mapmaking and the
manufacture of scientific instruments. The final
Book deals with the construction of three-dimen-
sional bodies, emphasizing the stereometric
approach which underlines his own so-called late
style evident in works dating from 1519 onwards.
It has often been pointed out that Diirer's appara-
tuses for drawing objects in perspective, which are
described and illustrated at the end of his book,
constitute his main contribution to perspective
theory as developed by Italian writers; they also
best reflect his practical mind.
The apparatus depicted in this drawing seems
to have been invented by Diirer. The visual rays
intersecting the "window," the plane between
the eye and the object, are represented by a piece
of string, with a weight at one end and a pin at the
other, which passes through the eye of a needle
driven into the wall. This needle stands for the (1520-1521) —more, in fact, than for any other The theme of Saint Jerome in his study was
eye of the notional viewer. The pin held by an of his prints. The print is remarkable for its developed in northern Europe in the fifteenth
assistant is put at different places on the object perspectival construction based on a central century in works such as the Belles heures of Jean,
while his companion measures, for each position, vanishing point and two lateral points for con- duke of Berry, painted by the Limbourg Brothers
the exact point at which the piece of string inter- vergence of the diagonals. Diirer defined this or the little Eyckian panel now in Detroit. There,
sects the frame. These points are then recorded method later in his treatise on measurement (Un- as in Diirer's engraving, we find the saint por-
by two movable threads, and their positions are terweysung der Messung) of 1525. trayed as a patron of humanism. Diirer strikes a
entered on the piece of paper hinged to the frame,
yielding a foreshortened image on the paper.
J.M.M.

198
Albrecht Dtirer
Nuremberg, 1471-1528
SAINT JEROME IN His STUDY
1514
engraving
5
3
24.7 xi8.8 (9 /8xy / 8)
references: Parshall 1971; Washington 1971, 146-
147, no. 60, fig. 60; Behling 1975; Strauss 1976,
no
212-215, - 77'' New York and Nuremberg 1986,
314-315, no. 133; Kemp 1990, 60-61, figs. 105-107
The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City,
Missouri, Gift of Robert B. Fizzell

In Diirer's time Saint Jerome was generally repre-
sented as a penitent or as a scholar, his main
achievement being his translation of the Bible into
Latin (the so-called Vulgate version) which was
commissioned by Pope Damasus.
The 1514 engraving shown here is often con-
sidered Diirer's most technically perfect effort in
this medium; Diirer's own satisfaction with it
may explain why he sold or gave away so many
examples during his trip to the Netherlands

EUROPE AND THE MEDITERRANEAN WORLD 293