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| Amico Aspertini Sketchbook - cover with flap open ca. 1535 vellum British Museum |
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| Amico Aspertini Sketchbook - Inside front cover Sketches of antique figures and ornaments ca. 1535 drawings on vellum British Museum |
Giorgio Vasari described Amico Aspertini (1474/75-1552) as, "an eccentric man of extravagant brain, whose figures, executed by him throughout all Italy, but particularly in Bologna, where he spent most of his time, are equally eccentric and even mad, if one may say so. If, indeed, the vast labour which Amico devoted to his drawing had been pursued with a settled object, and not by caprice, he might perchance have surpassed many whom we regard as rare and able men."
The British Museum preserves two intact sketch books used by Amico. The one sampled here, entirely of vellum, is thought mainly to have been executed in Rome during 1535. "Diverse opinions are found in the literature about the purpose of Aspertini's drawing books," according to curators at the museum. "There is unanimity in accepting that Aspertini did travel to Rome on several occasions and indeed made records of some of the antiquities found there, but some believe that [the surviving sketchbooks] have not been drawn in front of the monuments, rather that they are later rielaborations by the artist."
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| Amico Aspertini Sketchbook - double-page opening Antique Statues displayed in the Belvedere Courtyard at the Vatican The Nile (front and back views), Apollo Belvedere, Venus Felix ca. 1535 drawings on vellum British Museum |
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| Amico Aspertini Sketchbook - double-page opening Antique Statues displayed in the Belvedere Courtyard at the Vatican The Tiber, Sleeping Ariadne, Laocoön ca. 1535 drawings on vellum British Museum |
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| Amico Aspertini Sketchbook Antique Statues displayed in the della Valle collection, Rome Woman in mantle, Hercules, Nude Man with mantle, Orpheus, Bacchus, Putto on Marine Monster ca. 1535 drawings on vellum British Museum |
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| Amico Aspertini Sketchbook Antique Statues displayed in the della Valle collection, Rome Woman in profile, Youth with pipes, Bacchus, Ganymede with Jupiter as Eagle, Venus Pudica ca. 1535 drawings on vellum British Museum |
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| Amico Aspertini Sketchbook Antique Statues displayed in Rome and/or in Mantua Venus, Woman in mantle, Venus, Apollo or Bacchus, Woman in Doric chiton, Group of two women ca. 1535 drawings on vellum British Museum |
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| Amico Aspertini Sketchbook Antique Statues called The Dioscuri or Horse Tamers on the Quirinal Hill, Rome ca. 1535 drawing on vellum British Museum |
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| Amico Aspertini Sketchbook Relief sculptures of an Amazonomachy from antique sarcophagus used as a fountain at the Vatican ca. 1535 drawing on vellum British Museum |
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| Amico Aspertini Sketchbook Relief sculptures of a Battle scene from Trajan's Column, Rome ca. 1535 drawing on vellum British Museum |
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| Amico Aspertini Sketchbook Relief sculpture of Romans fighting barbarians from a sarcophagus owned by artist Giulio Romano ca. 1535 drawing on vellum British Museum |
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| Amico Aspertini Sketchbook Relief sculpture of Meleager carried to the Tomb from lost sarcophagus - Statue group of The Three Graces ca. 1535 drawings on vellum British Museum |
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| Amico Aspertini Sketchbook Relief sculptures of Men on Horseback hunting Bulls and Centauromachia, both from lost sarcophagi ca. 1535 drawings on vellum British Museum |
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| Amico Aspertini Sketchbook - Inside back cover Relief sculpture of Hercules and Nemean Lion - Sculpture of Horse attacked by Lions - Various inscriptions ca. 1535 drawings on vellum British Museum |