Thu Sep 27, 2018 07:00 AM

Morning Modelbuch (9/27/2018)

These prints are from _Ein Frembds und wunderbards Kunstbuechlin_ published in 1538 by Heinrich Vogtherr the Elder. There are column capitals and bases, oodles of hats, and parade armor and shields as well as lots of hands. https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/338890 Vogtherr tries to cover all the bases by adding that these are “very useful for painters, woodcarvers, Goldsmiths, stonecutters, carpenters, armourers, and cutlers,” in the title. He goes on to add silk embroiderers in his reasoning for why the book is necessary:

” because the good lord, through divine ordinance, has brought about a marked reduction of all ingenious and liberal arts here in Germany, causing so many to turn away from art and try other trades, that in a few years painters and woodcarvers one seem to have all but disappeared. To prevent painters, Goldsmiths, Silk embroiderers, stonecarver, cabinet makers, and so on from giving up and tiring, I Heinrich Vogtherr, painter and citizen of Strassburg, have assembled an anthology of exotic and difficult details that should guide the artists who are burdened with wife and children and those who have not traveled. It should store stupid heads and inspire understanding artists to higher and more ingenious arts until art comes back to its rightful honour and we lead other nations.?