Lumen Picturae: A Classical Drawing Manual - Hardcover

De Wit, Frederick

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0062048880 ISBN 13: 9780062048882

Publisher: Harper Design, 2011

Synopsis

First published in Amsterdam between 1660 and 1675, "Lumen Picturae" is a lavishly illustrated guide to classical figurative drawing as taught in the Dutch Golden Age. The complete version, as presented here, is an excellent introduction to 17th Century aesthetics, as well as a useful guide for any artist (professional or novice) to learn the basic principles of composition. Each page provides a step-by-step tutorial to drawing the human figure (breaking it down into heads, hands, feet, anatomy, and then reassembling them into full figures), as well as animal forms (quadrupeds, birds, and mythological creatures). Because this manual is presented without any words beyond the introduction, "Lumen Picturae" evokes a classical learning style based in the timeless tradition of copying the great masters of yesteryear. Through this guide, art students and lovers from the 21st Century are invited to emulate and admire the beautiful engravings of the de Wit Family, honoring an era upon which every genre of art, whether Impressionist, Expressionist, Cubist or Contemporary, draws.

About this title

Product Description:

Rare Book

About the Author:

Frederick de Wit published his work Lumen Picturae in Amsterdam between 1660 and 1675. It is a book of great historic value that falls within the tradition of the treatises on illustration, which were an essential element in any artist's education up to the impressionist revolution. The complete version of this work, as we present it here, is an excellent introduction to the aesthetic developed in the seventeenth century. It enables us to take up the trail of the education and evolution of a painter in the Dutch Golden Age, characterized by hitherto unknown cultural prosperity and a blossoming of the arts.

This work brought de Wit renown and always featured in the publishing house's catalogue. Even today it is fascinating for the great artistic quality of the tables that contributed to the lasting fame of its author, an undisputed master in the arts of printing, engraving, illustration, and painting.

About this edition

• Publisher: Harper Design
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 0062048880
• ISBN 13: 9780062048882
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 171