Description
Maps of the heavens and earth were one of the first printed instruments to be turned into three-dimensional objects—as globes. These began with functional two-dimensional diagrams that were cut out in elongated globe-gore strips and pasted onto spheres. While Dürer’s maps of the northern and southern skies were not meant to be mounted in this way, they were copied hundreds of times for this purpose. Produced as a presentation gift along with a view of the terrestrial globe for a humanist advisor to Emperor Maximilian, the dual view depicts the heavens as if the viewer were observing them from space.
Accession Number
106549
Medium
Woodcut in black on ivory laid paper
Dimensions
Image: 43.1 × 43.3 cm (17 × 17 1/16 in.); Sheet: 58.5 × 46.3 cm (23 1/16 × 18 1/4 in.)
Classification
woodcut
Credit Line
Clarence Buckingham Collection