Durer's Nude Woman with Zodiac. Albrecht Durer (1471-1528) was a German artist. His skillful use of perspective and mathematical proportions made him one of the outstanding artistic figures of the early 16th century. This woodcut depicts the figure of a nude woman holding an armillary sphere. This is an astromical device that shows the circles of the celestial sphere surrounding the earth. One of these circles (the ecliptic) is marked with the signs of the zodiac. This woodcut was published with Stabius' Prognisticon (1503- 4). Taken from Dr Willi Kurth's The Complete Woodcuts of Albrecht Durer (1936).