Document Type

Article

Publication Title

Storia dell’arte

Abstract

In 1591 Giovan Paolo Gallucci (1538-1621) published his Della simmetria def carpi humani (FIG. I), an Italian translation of the Four Books on Human Proportion, or Proportionslehre (1528), by Albrecht Durer (1471-1528).1 Though passed over in modem scholarship, and not as well-known as other publications from the last two decades of the Cinquecento, the encyclopedic treatment on human proportion theory in the new edition was widely read by artists and writers on art. A. Blunt demonstrated that Nicholas Poussin (1594-1665) made extensive use of Chapter LVII in the Libra quinto of Gallucci 's publication in his Osservazioni sopra la pittura printed by Giovan Pietro Bellori (1613-1696) in his Life of the artist. More recently, it has been cited that there was also an extensive reutilization oftl1e chapter, noted in a section on physiognomy in Vincenzo Carducho's (ca.1578-1638) Dialogos de la pintura (1633). While Durer's proportion studies had been translated into French (1557) and Latin (1532), the Italian version (reprinted in 1594) greatly expanded the artistic discourse and availability of information on human anatomy in Italy and remained the version most often cited in later treatises.

Publication Date

2010

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