Short Biography

Born in Berlin in 1964. 1985–92 Studied journalism and German literature  in Berlin and Paris, M.A. (“Der Allgemeine Deutsche Nachrichtendienst ADN”). 1993–94 Internship at the Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa. 1995–99 freelance journalist in London. 2004–12 part-time study of art history and medieval and modern history in Frankfurt a. M., M.A. (“Zur Rezeption von Dürers Proportionslehre: Gliederpuppen als ideale Menschen”). 2004–08 research assistant at the University Archives of the Goethe University, teaching assistant for Dr. Michael Maaser.

Since 2012 research assistant at the Verwaltung der Staatlichen Schlösser und Gärten Hessen. Since 2015 doctoral student under Prof. Dr. Jochen Sander with “Formfindung und Maßästhetik - süddeutsche Bildschnitzer und der (praktische) Nutzen von Dürers Vier Büchern von menschlicher Proportion (1528)”. 

In addition to my career, I research the significance and application of measurement-aesthetics in German Renaissance art. This is generally met with scepticism and avoided. Yet the findings of my master’s thesis showed that the Early Modern Period’s scientification of art also found resonance among German artists. This is true at least of the Master IP from Passau.

Several museums have made it possible for me to measure intricately carved articulated mannequins considered to have been produced by the sculptor himself. It can be verified that the small sculptures were created in accordance with the norm specifications of some of the body models in Dürer’s Four Books on Human Proportion (1528). The Master IP adopted Dürer’s suggestion "Without the right measure no one will realise anything good" literally. [1] The value of Dürer’s art theory for artistic praxis had previously been doubted or even denied.

/   The examination of Dürer’s head constructions assumes that the artist placed greater value on idealising strategies than has formerly been supposed. The Head of a Man in any case proves to be an experimental field of geometric form definition. The comparison with other heads yielded further evidence and prompted more thorough research.

Over the course of his intensive studies of proportion, Dürer long sought a reproducible schema for the construction of heads. In his proportion treatise of 1528, quite simple variants ultimately were used as teaching examples. But in his actual artistic praxis he apparently took a different path, for over three decades.  

[1] “Und ohne rechtes Maß wird niemand etwas Gutes erzielen.” Dürer in the so-called Aesthetic Discourse: Albrecht DÜRER / Berthold HINZ, Vier Bücher von menschlicher Proportion (1528). Mit einem Katalog der Holzschnitte, ed. and trans. into modern German with commentary by Berthold Hinz (Berlin, 2011), fol. T4v, 233.