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| Pellegrino Tibaldi Sibyl ca. 1549 drawing British Museum |
Jonathan Richardson Senior (1667-1745) was a professional London portrait painter who earned a fortune in the early 18th century by means of a "tight, formal style" that pleased the taste of his aristocratic clientele. He is better remembered today as one of the earliest English writers on art theory, publishing titles such as An Essay on the Whole Art of Criticism as it Relates to Painting, and an Argument in Behalf of the Science of the Connoisseur (1719). Richardson is also remembered as an inspired collector of Old Master drawings and prints. More than a thousand of these – from his "cabinet of drawings in Europe" – were sold in 1747 after his death. Of that thousand, more than four hundred entered the British Museum, where they have since remained.
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| Antonio da Trento after Parmigianino St John the Baptist ca. 1520-50 chiaroscuro woodcut British Museum |
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| Domenico Beccafumi Apostle 1540s drawing British Museum |
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| Domenico Ghirlandaio Costume study, standing woman ca. 1485 drawing British Museum |
Curators at the British Museum offer an engaging interpretation of the drawing above – "This individual figure study is from the final stages of Ghirlandaio's preparation for the Tornabuoni chapel in Santa Maria Novella, Florence, painted between 1485-90. The related figure in the 'Birth of the Baptist' scene is a portrait. This drawing is a study of her costume, with the dress probably loaned to the artist by the woman depicted in the fresco and probably modeled here by a boy apprentice. Ghirlandaio's fastidious study of every detail was a practice that Michelangelo took away form his brief time in the studio."
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| attributed to Raphael Putto restraining eagle early 16th century drawing British Museum |
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| Niccolò dell'Abbate Jupiter and Semele ca. 1550 drawing British Museum |
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| Correggio Architectural frame for an altarpiece ca. 1525-30 drawing British Museum |
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| Jacopo Zanguidi Bertoja Women fleeing ca. 1559-74 drawing British Museum |
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| Andrea Schiavone Antique figure from behind ca. 1548-50 drawing British Museum |
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| Marcantonio Raimondi Pietà ca. 1515-20 engraving British Museum |
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| attributed to Lodovico Carracci Académie late 1580s drawing British Museum |
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| circle of Giulio Romano Fragment of tapestry cartoon 16th century watercolor and body color British Museum |
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| Michelangelo Anselmi Seated man early 16th century drawing British Museum |
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| Giovanni Francesco Grimaldi Landscape with classical figures mid-16th century drawing British Museum |
I am grateful to the British Museum for making these images available.