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| Michelangelo Study of Mourning Woman ca. 1500-1505 drawing Getty Museum, Los Angeles |
"This powerful study of a mourning woman encapsulates Michelangelo's extraordinary talent for monumental figural conceptions. It is characterized by dense crosshatching in pen and brown ink (a technique he learned from his time in the studio of Domenico Ghirlandaio), creating a solid form that is sculptural in effect; indeed the hatched penwork recalls Michelangelo's use of the claw chisel to model the surfaces of his marble sculptures. Combining elements of both his early copies and his more dynamic original preparatory studies datable to the early 1500s, the Mourning Woman documents Michelangelo's shift from his youthful studies to his iconic independent works, notably the Florentine Battle of Cascina mural project of c. 1504. The figure appears to be dressed in a peplum, a full-length robe worn by women of antiquity as depicted in Renaissance painting. The pose and attitude of the woman is one that would typically have been found in a composition of the Deposition from the Cross or a Lamentation. No such project is known to have been undertaken by Michelangelo at this stage of his career yet early copies of this drawing indicate such a possibility. Michelangelo's Mourning Woman was discovered in 1995 by Sotheby's specialist Julien Stock within an album of otherwise nondescript drawings in the library of Castle Howard, Yorkshire, England. Its sale at auction in July 2001 was widely reported and as a result this drawing achieved international fame. [In 2017 it was purchased by the museum from a private collector]."
– from curator's notes at the Getty Museum
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| Parmigianino Group of Nine Standing Figures ca. 1524-27 drawing Art Institute of Chicago |
"This drawing exemplifies the style Parmigianino developed after his stay in Rome (1524-27), where he would have been exposed to Raphael's frescoes in the Vatican. It may be a preparatory drawing for a painting of a religious subject; the composition has been linked to the Marriage of the Virgin and a representation of six apostles. Parmigianino's image has been copied many times by other artists, including Count Antonio Maria Zanetti, who bought this and other drawings by Parmigianino from the Earl of Arundel."
– from curator's notes at the Art Institute of Chicago
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| Francesco Salviati Roman Officiant at a Sacrificial Altar (after an antique relief) ca. 1531-32 drawing Art Institute of Chicago |
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| Giorgio Gandini Draped Male Figure before 1538 drawing British Museum |
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| attributed to Battista Franco Two Standing Draped Figures ca. 1540-60 drawing Art Institute of Chicago |
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| follower of Pirro Ligorio Anger and Sloth (Two Standing Female Allegorical Figures) ca. 1550-1600 drawing Art Institute of Chicago |
Resurge
Come forth, O Man, from darkness into light,
Renounce the dust, break through thy sordid bars,
For ever leave the crawling shapes of Night,
And move erect among thy native stars.
No longer grovel in a fœtid cell
When all the spaces of the sky are thine,
With Sloth and Want no more a beggar dwell
When thou canst claim a heritage divine.
Awake and live! nor dream the dreams of death
That brood, fantastic, fearful, o'er thy grave,
Thou art not of the stuff that perisheth,
Nor unto Fate and Time art thou a slave.
Thy power extends beyond the starry Pole,
And worlds and suns revolve within thy soul.
– William Gay (1894)
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| Moretto da Brescia Study for the Prophet Isaiah before 1554 drawing British Museum |
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| Bernardino Gatti Reclining Sibyl with Putto supporting a Tablet (study for fresco) before 1576 drawing Victoria & Albert Museum |
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| attributed to Girolamo Siciolante da Sermoneta Drapery Study before 1580 drawing Minneapolis Institute of Art |
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| Andrea Boscoli Studies of Two Standing Female Antique Statues in Rome ca. 1580-84 drawing Art Institute of Chicago |
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| Bernardino Poccetti Female Figure in Spandrel (Study for Allegory of Modesty) ca. 1583-85 drawing Minneapolis Institute of Art |
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| Pirro Ligorio Woman walking to the right before 1583 drawing Harvard Art Museums |
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| Cavaliere d'Arpino Standing Draped Figure 1589-90 drawing Art Institute of Chicago |
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| attributed to Ferraù Fenzoni Seated Prophet ca. 1591 drawing Art Institute of Chicago |