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| Paolo Farinati Ornamental frieze of musical instruments, with putti late 16th century drawing Royal Collection, Windsor |
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| Paolo Farinati Minerva and Prometheus ca. 1560-80 drawing Royal Collection, Windsor |
Paolo Farinati (1524-1606) made oil paintings and frescoes like other Renaissance masters of Mannerism, but the uniqueness of his work consisted especially in these monochrome wash drawings.
"Although he was a painter's son, Paolo Farinati trained under another local painter, according to Giorgio Vasari. His master's eccentric manner encouraged Farinati to emphasize line over color and to restrict his palette to grays, browns, mauve, and rust. Farinati worked mostly in his native Verona, but a 1552 painting commission for the Mantua Cathedral altered his approach. In Mantua, Farinati studied Guilio Romano's complex, energetic frescoes and soon adopted his animated figure types and elaborate, imaginary architecture. He also adopted Paolo Veronese's chiaroscuro and less polished brushwork and Michelangelo's muscularity, which he had studied in reproductions. Farinati kept a detailed journal from 1573 until his death. In it, he outlined his wide range of projects: painting frames; designing costumes; decorating headboards, doors, horse trappings, and missal covers; and prestigious commissions for altarpieces and frescoes for churches and villas. His chiaroscuro drawings on tinted paper are particularly notable; he often used them to plan his paintings, and more than five hundred survive. Very soon after his death, they became collector's items."
– from curator's notes at the Getty Museum
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| Paolo Farinati Solomon and Isaiah holding tablets late 16th century drawing Royal Collection, Windsor |
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| Paolo Farinati Vestal Claudia pulling ship up the Tiber with statue of Cybele as holy cargo late 16th century drawing Royal Collection, Windsor |
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| Paolo Farinati Bellona late 16th century drawing Royal Collection, Windsor |
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| Paolo Farinati Entombment late 16th century drawing Royal Collection, Windsor |
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| Paolo Farinati Monk casting out a demon from a sufferer late 16th century drawing Royal Collection, Windsor |
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| Paolo Farinati King David with harp (seated on architectural bracket) late 16th century drawing for mural Royal Collection, Windsor |
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| Paolo Farinati Julius Caesar seated on triumphal car late 16th century drawing for mural Royal Collection, Windsor |
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| Paolo Farinati Figure of Victory late 16th century drawing Royal Collection, Windsor |
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| Paolo Farinati Alexander the Great late 16th century drawing Royal Collection, Windsor |
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| Paolo Farinati Alexander the Great in Persian costume late 16th century drawing Royal Collection, Windsor |
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| Paolo Farinati Alexander the Great in Persian costume late 16th century drawing Royal Collection, Windsor |
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| Paolo Farinati Neptume driving his chariot late 16th century drawing Royal Collection, Windsor |
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| Paolo Farinati Neptune and Medea late 16th century drawing Royal Collection, Windsor |
The 17th-century portrait painter and art collector Sir Peter Lely (1618-1680) was the original English owner of several Farinati drawings before they entered the Royal Collection under Charles II. These also are among the works recently rephotographed at the Royal Collection, which explains why such manifestly brilliant creatures have not appeared here earlier.