Written, designed, and illustrated by Dürer, this work is notable for its extraordinary series of anthropometrical woodcuts. The first two books deal with the proper proportions of the human form; the third changes the proportions according to mathematical rules, giving examples of extremely fat and thin figures, while the last book depicts the human figure in motion and treats of foreshortenings. Dürer’s work is the first attempt to apply anthropometry to aesthetics. The woodcuts represent the first attempt to employ cross-hatching to depict shades and shadows in wood engraving. Facsimile edition with commentary volume by M. Steck, Zurich, J.S. Dietikon, [1969]. Dürer’s manuscript prepared for the printer for the first part of the above work is preserved at Dresden along with many other anatomical studies by him. See The human figure by Albrecht Dürer. The complete “Dresden Sketchbook” edited with introduction, translation and commentary by W. L. Strauss. New York, 1972.

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