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| Titian Group of trees 16th century drawing Metropolitan Museum of Art |
"Michelangelo and Vasari, going one day to visit Tiziano in the Belvedere, saw in a picture that he had executed at that time a nude woman representing Danaë, who had in her lap Jove transformed into a rain of gold; and they praised it much, as one does in the painter's presence. After they had left him, discoursing of Tiziano's method, Buonarroti commended it not a little, saying that his coloring and his manner much pleased him, but that it was a pity that in Venice men did not learn to draw well from the beginning, and that those painters did not pursue a better method in their studies. 'For,' he said, 'if this man had been in any way assisted by art and design, as he is by nature, and above all in counterfeiting the life, no one could do more or work better, for he has a fine spirit and a very beautiful and lively manner.'"
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| Francesco Vanni Standing warrior late 16th century drawing British Museum |
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| Francesco Salviati Female figure 16th century drawing British Museum |
"Francesco [Salviati] was by nature melancholy, and for the most part he did not care to have anyone about him when he was at work. But nevertheless, when he first began that undertaking, almost doing violence to his nature and affecting an open heart, with great cordiality he allowed Tasso and other of his friends, who had done him some service, to stand and watch him at work, showing them every courtesy that he was able. But when he had gained a footing at Court, as the saying goes, and it seemed to him that he was in good favor, returning to his choleric and biting nature, he paid them no attention. Nay, what was worse, he used the most bitter words according to his wont (which served as an excuse to his adversaries), censuring and decrying the works of others, and praising himself and his own works to the skies."
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| Correggio Standing figure early 16th century drawing British Museum |
"Many things might be said of the works of this master [Correggio], but since, among the eminent men of our art, everything that is to be seen by his hand is admired as something divine, I will say no more. I have used all possible diligence in order to obtain his portrait, but, since he himself did not make it, and he was never portrayed by others, for he always lived in retirement, I have not been able to find one. He was, in truth, a person who had no opinion of himself, nor did he believe himself to be an able master of his art, contrasting his deficiencies with that perfection which he would have liked to achieve."
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| follower of Raphael Studies of ancient sculpture and lioness early 16th century drawing British Museum |
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| Jacopo da Pontormo Figure face downwards 16th century drawing British Museum |
"The occasion having thus presented itself to Pontormo, by means of these moneys, to set his hand to the fitting up of his house, he made a beginning with his building; but did nothing of much importance. Indeed, although some persons declare that he had it in mind to spend largely, according to his position, and to make a commodious dwelling and one that might have some design, it is nevertheless evident that what he did, whether this came from his not having the means to spend or from some other reason, has rather the appearance of a building erected by an eccentric and solitary creature than of a well-ordered habitation, for the reason that to the room where he used to sleep and at times to work, he had to climb by a wooden ladder, which, after he had gone in, he would draw up with a pulley, to the end that no one might go up to him without his wish or knowledge. But that which most displeased other men in him was that he would not work save when and for whom he pleased, and after his own fancy; wherefore on many occasions, being sought out by noblemen who desired to have some of his work, and once in particular by the Magnificent Ottaviano de' Medici, he would not serve them; and then he would set himself to do anything in the world for some low and common fellow, at a miserable price."
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| attributed to Luca Cambiaso St George and dead dragon 16th century drawing British Museum |
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| attributed to Giovanni Alberti Figure studies ca. 1550-1600 drawing Prado |
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| attributed to Cesare Nebbia Noli me tangere 16th century drawing Prado |
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| Giambologna Design for pilaster-capital with Hercules & Cacus 16th century drawing Prado |
"... much in favor with our Princes for his talents is Giovan Bologna of Douai [Giambologna], a Flemish sculptor and a young man truly of the rarest, who has executed with most beautiful ornaments of metal the fountain that has been made recently on the Piazza di S. Petronia in Bologna, opposite to the Palazzo de' Signori, in which there are, besides other ornaments, four very beautiful Sirens at the corners, with various children all around, and masks bizarre and extraordinary. ... The same master – not to speak at present of all the works that he has executed in clay, terracotta, wax, and other mixtures – has made a very beautiful Venus in marble, and has carried almost to completion for the Lord Prince a Samson large as life, who is combating on foot with two Philistines. ... But if up to the present he has executed many works, he will do many more in the future, and most beautiful, for recently the Lord Prince has had him provided with rooms in the Palace, and has commissioned him to make a statue of a Victory of five braccia, with a captive, which is going into the Great Hall, opposite another by the hand of Michelangelo ..."
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| follower of Michelangelo Studies of an ancient statue 16th century drawing British Museum |
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| Federico Zuccaro Semi-reclining woman 16th century Morgan Library, New York |
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| Taddeo Zuccaro Two women carrying a corpse 16th century drawing British Museum |
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| Leonardo da Vinci Figure with staff ca. 1504 drawing British Museum |
"He [Leonardo] went to Rome with Duke Giuliano de' Medici, at the election of Pope Leo, who spent much of his time on philosophical studies, and particularly on alchemy; where, forming a paste of a certain kind of wax, as he [Leonardo] walked he shaped animals very thin and full of wind, and by blowing into them, made them fly through the air, but when the wind ceased they fell to the ground. On the back of a most bizarre lizard, found by the vine-dresser of the Belvedere, he fixed, with a mixture of quicksilver, wings composed of scales stripped from other lizards, which, as it walked, quivered with the motion; and having given it eyes, horns, and a beard, taming it, and keeping it in a box, he made all his friends, to whom he showed it, fly for fear."
– quotations are from the Lives of the Painters, Sculptors and Architects (1550) by Giorgio Vasari, translated by Gaston C. de Vere (1912)