Dürer’s work on human proportions is called the Four Books on Human Proportion (Vier Bücher von menschlicher Proportion) of 1528. The first book was mainly composed by 1512/13 and completed by 1523, showing five differently constructed types of both male and female figures, all parts of the body expressed in fractions of the total height. Dürer based these constructions on both Vitruvius and empirical observations of “two to three hundred living persons”, in his own words. The second book includes eight further types, broken down not into fractions but an Albertian system, which Dürer probably learned from Francesco di Giorgio’s De harmonica mundi totius of 1525. In the third book, Dürer gives principles by which the proportions of the figures can be modified, including the mathematical simulation of convex and concave mirrors; here Dürer also deals with human physiognomy. The fourth book is devoted to the theory of movement.

(Wikipedia)

Scan at Archive.org

  • JohnnyEnzyme@piefed.socialEnglish
    31·
    22 days ago

    ˙ɥɔɐoɹddɐ ,llɐ sʇᴉɟ ǝɔɐɟ-ǝuo, ɐ op oʇ pǝɯǝǝs ǝɯᴉʇ sᴉɥʇ punoɹɐ sʇsᴉʇɹɐ ʎuɐɯ ʍoɥ ƃuᴉɹǝpᴉsuoɔ ʎllɐᴉɔǝdsǝ 'ʇɐ ʞool oʇ ɟɟnʇs unɟ ʎllɐǝɹ ˙sʇuǝɯᴉɹǝdxǝ / ʞɹoʍ ɹɐlᴉɯᴉs ƃuᴉop opɹɐuoǝ˥ llɐɔǝɹ oʇ ɯǝǝs I

    • ɯᴉuoʇuɐ@lemmy.dbzer0.comOPEnglish
      3·
      22 days ago

      (Let’s turn this conversation upside down, shall we?)

      Not 100% related to your point, but I showed this picture to a family member who studied painting, and she also compared him with Leonardo’s drawings, but also noted that she found that Dürer still wasn’t nearly as good with representation of muscles. You can flip through the book on archive.org (link in OP) and see for yourself how he drew complete bodies. Leonardo cutting up corpses gave him intimate knowledge of the anatomy, whereas Dürer’s observations were still limited to what’s visible from the outside, and according to the family member he could outright invent some muscles that would look alright but weren’t anatomically correct.

      I take it you compare these drawings to Vitruvian Man, mainly? Because IIRC da Vinci’s caricatures were much more organic, or at least never used this sort of scheme/proportions as the basis.

      • JohnnyEnzyme@piefed.socialEnglish
        2·
        22 days ago

        I take it you compare these drawings to Vitruvian Man, mainly?

        Hehe, probably, maybe… I’m not sure!
        But honestly… I just don’t know. To me, these are absolutely the super-greats of the super-greats, so to ask a bumbling moron what he things about it all… lol.

        At least I’m pretty good at doing vocal impressions, anyway, such as PeeWee Herman’s.