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A pen and ink with brown wash gestural drawing of Christ’s body being taken down from the Cross by his followers and Mary. The faceless figures create a pyramid form.
Luca Cambiaso, Descent from the Cross. Gift of Miss Ellen D. Sharpe

Design and Description

Renaissance and Baroque Drawings
January 27 - April 9, 2006
A pen and ink with brown wash gestural drawing of Christ’s body being taken down from the Cross by his followers and Mary. The faceless figures create a pyramid form.
Luca Cambiaso, Descent from the Cross. Gift of Miss Ellen D. Sharpe

Introduction

Beginning in the early Renaissance (ca. 1400), artists and their patrons sought new ways to make art and its subject matter correspond more directly to the world of their viewers. In the pursuit of increasingly naturalistic art, drawing became a regular part of artistic practice.

The Italian word for drawing, disegno, also may be translated as “design.” In artists’ workshops and emerging art academies in Renaissance Italy, young apprentices were taught to follow clearly defined steps in the design of frescos, panel paintings, sculpture, and prints. Artists began with free-form sketches that explored compositional ideas and also with studies from life or antique sculpture. These were followed with drawings that explored the effects of light, shadow, and spatial illusion. Lastly, artists created fully realized drawings to integrate all of these design elements into models (called modelli) for the final works.

In Germany and the Netherlands, preparatory drawings became common only in the 1550s. Instead, drawings were presented to patrons as finished works or as contractual agreements. They were also used in instruction: artists often made drawings of completed paintings to use as workshop examples. For these reasons, many early Northern drawings are highly finished, emphasizing the descriptive detail, texture, and reflective effects of light for which Northern painters were known.

By the 17th century (Baroque period), artists from all over Europe traveled to Italy for part of their training. As a result, the Italian tradition of systematic design permeated artistic practice throughout the continent. As well, new genres such as landscape emerged with emphasis upon sketching on site.

The Renaissance and Baroque reliance on drawing carried through to the art academies of later centuries, continuing today at RISD as the foundation upon which students base their artistic training.

Emily Peters

Exhibition images

Selected Objects

Pieter Jansz. Pourbus

Study for The Last Judgment

Valentin Lefebvre

Adoration of the Shepherds

Rembrandt van Rijn

Landscape (Farm Buildings at the Dijk) (recto); Partial Landscape with Trees and Fence (verso)

Unknown Maker, Italian

Double-sided sheet: Recto: studies of skulls; Verso: studies of draperies
A sheet with various pen and ink study drawings. At left is a nude Hercules. At right are various annotations and sketches, including of a man wearing a plumed helmet.

Giovanni Battista Bertani

Double-Sided Sheet: Study for Hercules Victorious over the Hydra (recto); Study of Hercules a Roman Soldier’s Head, and Ornament (verso)
An ink and wash drawing of scenes from Saint Joseph’s life, including Jesus’ birth and childhood. The scenes are presented within an ornate wall with figurative sculptures at the top.

Marco Tullio Montagna

Scenes from the Life of Saint Joseph
A black chalk study of Malchus and the apostle Peter. An anguished Malchus stretches rightward as he fights against Peter’s outreached hand, which appears from off sheet on the left.

Anthony van Dyck

Study for Malchus
A pen and ink drawing of King David riding a lion in profile. David seems oblivious to King Samuel behind him, who is poised to ambush him with a spear.

Maerten van Heemskerck

Study for The Triumph of David
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Exhibition Checklist

Design and Description : Renaissance and Baroque Drawings

January 27 - April 9, 2006
View Checklist pdf
View Checklist pdf
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