Perspectival Drawing of a Column Base with Cube

Peter Flötner German

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For Renaissance artists, the representation of geometry was often a means of testing and perfecting their ability to work convincingly in perspective. A common trope was to rotate forms or stack them against or atop one another as a means of displaying the maker’s skill at visualizing an object from multiple angles within a single image. Here, a hollow rectangular cuboid balances on an ornamental plinth, presenting perspectival geometry as the modern paradigm of beauty and proportion.

Perspectival Drawing of a Column Base with Cube, Peter Flötner (German, Thurgau 1485–1546 Nuremberg), Pen and black ink, brush and gray wash

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Perspectival Drawing of a Column Base with Cube, Peter Flötner (German, Thurgau 1485–1546 Nuremberg), Pen and black ink, brush and gray wash
Perspectival Drawing of a Column Base with Cube, Peter Flötner (German, Thurgau 1485–1546 Nuremberg), Pen and black ink, brush and gray wash

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