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| 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)
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| Pordenone Martyrdom of St Peter ca. 1526-28 drawing Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence |
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| Leonardo da Vinci Drapery study late 15th century drawing Louvre |
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| Leonardo da Vinci Drapery study ca. 1503-1517 drawing Louvre |
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| Raphael Psyche offering Venus the water of Styx 1517 drawing Louvre |
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| Raphael Study of Christ for handing over of keys ca. 1514 drawing Louvre |
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| Daniele da Volterra David beheading Goliath ca. 1550-56 drawing Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence |
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| Michelangelo Madonna and Child 1529-30 drawing Louvre |
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| Michelangelo Study for Crucifixion ca. 1552-54 drawing Louvre |
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| Michelangelo Figure study ca. 1501-02 drawing Louvre |
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| Francesco Primaticcio The Nile 1540s drawing École des Beaux-Arts, Paris |
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| Luca Cambiaso Flight of Aeneas with Anchises ca. 1555-60 drawing Hermitage, Saint Petersburg |
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| Parmigianino Circe with the companions of Ulysses ca. 1527 drawing Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence |
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| Correggio The Three Graces 1518-19 fresco Camera di San Paolo, Parma |