From drawing to silver: Translating sixteenth-century designs

This article examines the relationship between drawing and design for sixteenth-century silver objects as a process of translation from two-dimensional objects into complex three-dimensional forms. The works of Albrecht Dürer and Wenzel Jamnitzer will serve as protagonists, since Dürer was particularly known for his masterful skills in drawing, while Jamnitzer excelled in both drawing and goldsmithing. Drawing as an artistic endeavour has been overshadowed in the literature of the goldsmithing process, despite its significant value to sixteenth-century metalworkers. Drawn designs of sixteenth-century objects such as those by Dürer were collected as prized possessions, but many were also discarded or re-worked as fashions changed throughout the centuries. Drawings for silver objects by both Dürer and Jamnitzer epitomize the meaningful role of this medium on the craft of goldsmithing.