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| Hans Baldung Ecstatic Christ ca. 1510-11 drawing Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
"The subject of this drawing is highly unusual. Christ is represented after the Crucifixion, as the wounds on his hands and feet indicate, but in a moment before his death, his uplifted head and heavenward gaze evidently signifying a spiritual communion with God the Father. No textual source has been identified for this unprecedented subject and it is possible it was invented by Baldung himself. The formal source of the supine figure of Christ may lie in ancient Roman representations of dying heroes, known to Northern artists through widely circulated drawn copies."
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| Marco Dente Galatea escaping Polyphemus (from series Ancient Bas-reliefs) ca. 1510-25 engraving Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (Achenbach Foundation) |
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| Giovanni Antonio da Brescia Seated man with forked staff ca. 1510-20 engraving Museum of Fine Arts, Boston |
"It is possible that Giovanni Antonio da Brescia based this engraving on a lost drawing by Michelangelo for the figure of Obed in one of the lunettes below the Sistine ceiling (ca. 1508-1512)."
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| Albrecht Dürer Cain slaying Abel 1511 woodcut Museum of Fine Arts, Boston |
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| Albrecht Dürer David in Penitence 1510 woodcut Museum of Fine Arts, Boston |
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| Rosso Fiorentino Bust of a woman with an elaborate coiffure ca. 1530 drawing Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
"Rosso intended this drawing as an ideal representation of a beautiful young woman in response to the genre of teste divine (divine heads) that Michelangelo made famous in drawings of the 1520s and 1530s. Here, Rosso invented elegant "s" shaped rhythms for the figural pose. The woman is seen in bust-length from the back, her head turned in profile, slightly lowered, to gaze directly at the viewer, while the exquisite complexity of details of her fashionable dress soften her pose with airy curves and twists. Her fantastic coiffure is laden with braids curled around a pair of ram's horns, while her artfully puffed-up dress, with layers of agitated drapery, is fastened on the back with a mask-like brooch. Although minor passages are touched up with ink and the figure was silhouetted with wash at a later time, the characteristic clarity and precision o f Rosso's original drawing in chalk are plainly evident. The delicately ornate mount and the pen inscription below, telling the colorful apocryphal story about the presumed subject of the drawing, are both due to the British collector John Talmann, who incorrectly thought this to be a portrait of Giulia Gonzaga (1513-1566), Countess of Fondi, a famous beauty of her day."
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| attributed to Pierre Milan after Rosso Fiorentino Mars and Venus ca. 1530-40 etching Museum of Fine Arts, Boston |
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| Giulio Romano Battle of the Horatii ca. 1538 drawing Museum of Fine Arts, Boston |
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| Francesco Salviati Christ disputing with the Doctors in the Temple ca. 1539 drawing Philadelphia Museum of Art |
"An important Mannerist painter, Salviati provided decorative works in fresco and oil for churches and palaces in Rome, Florence, and Venice. The composition of this drawing is taken directly from an earlier famous monument in Florence that was created between about 1400 and 1424, one of Lorenzo Ghiberti's bronze relief panels on the doors of the city's venerable Baptistery. , , , The artist took minor liberties with his model. . . . He added a convergence of onlookers in the background and exaggerated the pose and facial expression of Christ's mother to suggest her surprise."
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| Baccio Bandinelli Holy Family with the infant St John the Baptist ca. 1550 drawing Los Angeles County Museum of Art |
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| Adamo Scultori Hercules at the cross-roads, with female personifications of Virtue and Vice ca. 1563-65 engraving Museum of Fine Arts, Boston |
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| attributed to Adamo Scultori Head of Satyr ca. 1566-80 drawing Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| Nicolas Beatrizet Bas-relief from the Arch of Constantine - Battle of the Romans with the Dacians before 1565 engraving Harvard Art Museums |
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| Niccolò dell' Abate Frieze portraying a musical party before 1571 drawing Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
– quoted texts based on curator's notes at the respective museums