Proportion Study of Human Figure by Durer Postcard

Proportion Study of Human Figure with Shield by Albrecht Durer, c. 1500, is a pen and ink with black ink wash drawing of a painstaking study of human proportions and anatomy. Modeled in confident contours silhouetted against a black background, this drawing illustrates the careful, quasi-scientific study of the human form that is a hallmark of the Renaissance. Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528) was a German painter of the Northern Renaissance whose work as an engraver, printmaker, mathematician and theorist secured his reputation as one of the greatest artists of Europe. His many paintings, portraits, altarpieces, watercolors, and engravings were the first in the Northern Renaissance to use classical motifs from antiquity and the Italian Renaissance. Durer’s unparalleled skill in drawing and engraving as well as mastery of perspective allowed him rapid execution of a range of motifs which elicit universal admiration to this day.