Friday, October 7, 2016

Figure drawings from 16th-century Italy

Fra Bartolomeo
Recumbent Child with raised arm
16th century
drawing
Morgan Library, New York

Anonymous artist
Study of a foot
early 16th century
drawing
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

"The demands of late medieval religion, centered as it was on a suffering human god, undoubtedly inspired this emphasis on the human figure in art, but the impact spilled beyond the field of religion. Renaissance artists and their public increasingly considered the human figure the principal element of art and consequently the focal point for display and appreciation of artistic skill, regardless of the subject illustrated. Of this we find economic evidence in the fact that artists were often remunerated according to the number of figures a picture contained. Similarly significant is the curious advice of the Venetian painter Paolo Pino who, in his Dialogo di Pittura (1548), enjoined his colleagues to include in their narrative composition "at least one wholly mysterious figure, that is forced and difficult, in order to be recognized as a good painter by those who understand the perfection of this art."  

 François Quiviger, The Sensory World of Italian Renaissance Art (London : Reaktion Books, 2010)

Anonymous artist
Studies of limbs and a Bust
16th century
drawing
British Museum

Anonymous artist working in Florence
Anatomical studies of an arm
16th century
drawing
British Museum

Anonymous artist
Foreshortened head from below
16th century
drawing
British Museum

Anonymous artist working in Venice
Studies of heads
16th century
drawing
British Museum

Anonymous artist working in Siena
Studies of heads
16th century
drawing
British Museum

Anonymous artist working in Bologna
Figure studies
16th century
drawing
British Museum

Anonymous artist working in Venice
Figure study
16th century
drawing
British Museum

Parmigianino
Decorative figure bearing lamp and vase
ca. 1518-42
drawing
British Museum

Anonymous artist
Hercules defeating Cerberus, after an antique carved gem
16th century
drawing
British Museum

Anonymous artist
Roman statue of seated nymph
16th century
drawing
British Museum

Anonymous artist working in Bologna
Studies of women
16th century
drawing
British Museum

Anonymous artist
Skull of a Horse
16th century
drawing
British Museum

Anonymous artist
Dolphin sketches
16th century
drawing
British Museum