Albrecht Dürer, Study for 'Nemesis'

This drawing was made in preparation for the figure of Fortunein Dürer’s masterful engraving 'Nemesis' [1895,0915.346]. He constructed the figure according to strict rules of proportion formulated by the ancient Roman theorist Vitruvius, and the grid of squares he incised with a stylus is still visible underneath. But Fortune’s wings offered much more freedom for experimentation and Dürer tried out two types with completely different characters. There is also a correction to the buttocks, which Dürer erased and placed on the line above. The wing on the left is much closer to the final engraving, rotated ninety degrees and reversed in printing.