Throughout his lifetime, Albrecht Dürer investigated the proportional arrangement of human bodies and the depiction of objects in space, although he only began to publish the conclusions of his studies in 1525, the same year that Nuremberg’s city council formally adopted Protestantism. This lecture examines Dürer’s evolving conception of the significance of measurement, how this concern connected to his Christian faith, and how his published treatises – first issued in German between 1525 and 1528, and posthumously in Latin translations between 1532 and 1538 – held a potential ecumenical appeal for diverse audiences, at a time when so many other aspects of image-making sparked deep confessional divisions.

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About the picture: Church Interior with Christ Preaching to a Congregation, attributed to Cornelis van Dalem and Jan van Wechelen, 1545–1570 (image: Rijksmuseum Amsterdam).