Villard de Honnecourt
The surviving portfolio of drawings (ca 1230s?) by Villard de
Honnecourt, possibly a 13th century itinerant master-builder of
Picardy in northern France, is in the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris
(MS Fr 19093). It appears to be a model-book, with a wide range
of religious and secular figures suitable for sculpture, and architectural
plans, elevations and details, ecclesiastical objects and mechanical
devices, with copious annotations.
In many respects, the work of Villard de Honnecourt, such as "Constructions",
"The Wheel of Fortune", and most particularly his "Lion
and Porcupine" (all c. 1235) represent a tentative move from
the universal to the particular, a conceptual breakthrough of sorts.
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