Thursday, December 15, 2016

Italian Renaissance Master Drawings

Benvenuto Cellini
Juno
ca. 1540
drawing
Louvre

"Drawing was at the core of any artist's education, the means by which goldsmiths, sculptors and painters learned to train their eyes and transcribe what they saw into works of art. Cennini's description of making a wooden tablet and practicing on it for an entire year before picking up a pen is evocative of workshop training, but this may not have been the only method of learning to draw. Alberti discounted the usefulness of these tablets, stressing the importance of large-scale drawings because in small ones weaknesses might be hidden, but in big drawings they must be addressed. Whatever the method, young artists were trained in making drawings after nature and copies after works by other artists. ... Alberti urged the young artist to copy sculptures as well as paintings because whereas the former merely enabled an artist to acquire another's style, the latter encouraged more naturalistic imitation of three-dimensional forms and the fall of light upon them. He wrote: 'He who does not understand the relief of the thing he paints will rarely paint it well.'"

 from Master Drawings of the Italian Renaissance by Claire van Cleave (British Museum and Harvard University Press, 2007)

Pordenone
Martyrdom of St Peter
 ca. 1526-28
drawing
Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence

Leonardo da Vinci
Drapery study
late 15th century
drawing
Louvre

Leonardo da Vinci
Drapery study
ca. 1503-1517
drawing
Louvre

Raphael
Psyche offering Venus the water of Styx
1517
drawing
Louvre

Raphael
Study of Christ for handing over of keys
ca. 1514
drawing
Louvre

Daniele da Volterra
David beheading Goliath
ca. 1550-56
drawing
Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence

Michelangelo
Madonna and Child
1529-30
drawing
Louvre

Michelangelo
Study for Crucifixion 
ca. 1552-54
drawing
Louvre

Michelangelo
Figure study
ca. 1501-02
drawing
Louvre

Francesco Primaticcio
The Nile
1540s
drawing
École des Beaux-Arts, Paris

Luca Cambiaso
Flight of Aeneas with Anchises
ca. 1555-60
drawing
Hermitage, Saint Petersburg 

Parmigianino
Circe with the companions of Ulysses
ca. 1527
drawing
Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence

Correggio
The Three Graces
1518-19
fresco
Camera di San Paolo, Parma