Albrecht Dürer

“ The letter H is to be formed of two broad, great, & vertical limbs of the height of the square, in such fashion that their extremities, being produced exteriorly, shall touch the four angles of the square, a. c. and b. d. respectively. Now in what fashion the projections of the broader limbs of letters are to be rounded out at top and bottom and on either side, you have been instructed; for in any letter you please, any broad and vertical limb is to be depicted at top and bottom thrice as broad as at its middle: provided always it is not joined to a narrower limb. ”

“ In our Germany, most excellent Wilibald, are to be found at the present day many young men of a happy talent for the Art Pictorial, who without any artistic training whatever, but taught only by their daily exercise of it, have run riot like an unpruned tree, so that unhesitatingly and without compunction they turn out their works, purely according to their own judgment. But when great and ingenious artists behold their so inept performances, not undeservedly do they ridicule the blindness of such men ”

“ X you shall construct from I. Append from top angle to the right a diagonally set square, as you did before in R; and at the bottom draw an acute tail to the left from the diagonal, and at the middle of the vertical limb describe a transverse, in such way that the former is cut before and aft by the latter's diagonal; let the hither and lower angle be terminated as far in front of the upright as would measure one-half of the cutting diagonal, which at top shall just touch the upright; but to the right let the transverse at top project to a point just below the angle of the oblique square ”

“ Now, although in our own time, and amongst ourselves, the Art Pictorial is in ill repute with some, as being held to minister incitement to idolatry, yet a Christian man is no more enticed to superstition by pictures or images, than is an honest man girt with a sword to highway robbery. ”

“ Now the sole reason why painters of this sort are not aware of their own error is that they have not learnt Geometry, without which no one can either be or become an absolute artist; but the blame for this should be laid upon their masters, who themselves are ignorant of this art. ”

“ Certes he would be a witless creature who would willingly adore either pictures or images of wood or stone. On the contrary, a picture is the rather edifying and agreeable to Christian religion and duty, if only it be fairly, artificially, and correctly painted. ”

“ The anterior limb of P make like L inverted; but the posterior like the standard of I: at bottom, however, you are not to add an oblique square, but amputate the limb diagonally, & draw at the bottom a broad transverse limb, which likewise is to be cut off diagonally, so that the lower point shall project to the left, a distance of half the breadth of the limb. ”

“ Afterwards you shall add the extension, which you shall make this way: take before f. in the line e. f., a point g. no farther distant from f. than the breadth of the narrower limb; on this point set one leg of your compass, & let the other be extended to the angle d., from which let it be guided back along the broad but invisible blind limb: thence will result the lower convexity of the tail you seek; but its upper concavity look for in this way: divide f. d. in its middle point h.; on this set one leg of your compass, and with the other describe an arc passing through d. ”

“ Then let it be drawn out, beyond the angle d. to the length of the entire diameter, and in a downward direction, yet so that it curves while it slopes, & that its tip shall not fall lower than a third of the side below the lowest side of the square, and shall tend, as it nears the point, to grow sharper little by little, and at length end in a very fine point indeed. ”