Vivante Drawings

Viewing Tilt

January 9th, 2012 § 1 comment § permalink

The Getty has a nice online presentation of Federico Zuccaro’s series of drawings chronicling Taddeo’s formative years. They were exhibited as a group in 2007/08 and the multi-media supplement comes out of the exhibition. Some of the twenty sheets show Taddeo drawing: drawing by the light of the moon, at work on a study of an antique relief, drawing the Loggia of Psyche frescoes by Raphael and his school at the Farnesina, then the Laocoön, and finally Michelangelo’s Last Judgement. Wherever, Taddeo is very earnestly studying his subject and making marks on his drawing board.

Federico Zuccaro | Taddeo Copying Raphael's Frescoes in the Loggia of Villa Farnesina, Where He Is Also Represented Asleep | Pen and brown ink, brush with brown wash, over black chalk and touches of red chalk | 423 x 174 mm | Getty Museum

When I was looking at the drawings, it came to me that he was drawing at an angle–not on a entirely horizontal or vertical surface, but gentler angles between the two–the sort of angle I prefer to look at drawings. In most galleries drawings are hung vertically, even ramrod vertical. This, combined with the disruptions of plexiglas and artificial light, does not make for ideal viewing.

When people talk about sculpture in the round, they talk about the different views and optimal views. With drawing is there a right tilt and is it the tilt at which the drawing was drawn? Readers with portable devices can try out all the angles.

Art Newspaper Photo of Louis-Antoine Prat | September 2010

Season’s Greetings

December 22nd, 2011 § 0 comments § permalink

All best wishes for the holidays and 2012

Color Notes

December 11th, 2011 § 1 comment § permalink

I wanted to read about drawings in India, and found this drawing through a search involving the words India preparatory drawing. It had been in a Christie’s sale a few years ago, and it reminded me more of an underdrawing than a drawing made in preparation of another work. The catalogue didn’t go into detail (relatively low value work with a $2-3,000 estimate), but it looked to me like an early stage of a collaborative effort. The overall design had been roughed out in brush and gray color (looking like graphite) and wonderful color touches were applied in paint. (The cataloguer wrote “transparent and opaque pigments” which seems like a more sensible way of putting it – better than worrying about whether to write watercolor or watercolour and choosing between gouache or bodycolor or tempera.) The touches of color look like they are meant as a guide for the next artist in an assembly line.

India, Kotah, 18th century | Preparatory Drawing of a Seated King | Opaque and transparent pigments on paper | 330 x 277 mm | Christie's NY 20 March 2008, lot 206

After this I was thinking of written notations about color in drawings and there seem to be two main reasons for their inclusion: as memory aids for artists and as guides for collaborators. The drawing below, from an album (now dismantled) at the British Museum, gives both painted indications for color and written indications for color and fabric types for the costume makers who would have to execute the garments.

Stefano della Bella | Ballet Costume Study for a Gardener | Pen and brown ink, with brown wash and watercolour, over graphite | 276 x 202 mm | British Museum

As an example of memory aid color notes, I found this completely atypical drawing of Ingres. Atypical because he usually draws in the most controlled way. Instead, here it is all about registering the colors in a cloud formation quickly. Gris, bleu tendre, clair and the other words are dashed off as rapidly as the cloud outlines. M. Ingres was in such a rush that rather than write clair again, he used id.

Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres | Cloud Study | Graphite | 202 x 182 mm | Musée Ingres, Montauban

Filippino Lippi and Sandro Botticelli Exhibition at the Scuderie del Quirinale

October 18th, 2011 § 0 comments § permalink

Italy’s 150th anniversary year is being celebrated, and many exhibitions have been devoted to the founding of the Republic. Birthdays for people last just one day, but for countries with centenaries and sesquicentenaries they last a year–way too long. The current government makes it all feel like a cruel joke. The Filippino Lippi and Sandro Botticelli show at the Scuderie del Quirinale is something to celebrate. It opened on 5 October and runs through 15 January 2012.

Filippino Lippi | Head of a Young Woman | Metalpoint with white heightening on unevenly grounded rose paper | 245 x 184 mm | Uffizi

Although the exhibition is called Filippino Lippi e Sandro Botticelli, it is much more of a Filippino Lippi show. There are documents in display cases throughout the exhibition that cover his earliest childhood, his early work with his father at Spoleto, his apprenticeship in Sandro Botticelli’s shop (Filippino’s early work was mistaken for Botticelli’s, then ascribed to the “Amico di Sandro” an invention of Berenson, before being correctly attributed to the young Filippino), letters of recommendation, detailed contracts, and at the end an inventory of the contents of house after his death. In the exhibition there are also works by Filippo Lippi, Benedetto da Maiano, Rafaellino del Garbo, Piero di Cosimo and others.

Filippino Lippi | Study for the Figure of St. Bernard | Metalpoint and white heightening on rose-ivory grounded paper | 212 x 131 mm | Uffizi

Most of the 20+ drawings in the exhibition are from the Uffizi, although there are some loans from France and the UK. The drawings are interspersed with the paintings in the galleries, and it’s wonderful to see a picture within eye shot of a preparatory drawing. The drawings are nearly all by Filippino, and are mostly metalpoints with white heightening. The papers are prepared and in shades of rose or gray or “light hazelnut” as it says in the catalogue. In some cases there are more white lines than stylus lines. What seems most extraordinary is the sense of movement, the animation of the figures. Metalpoints of many other artists are staid and serene. Filippino’s pen and ink drawings also have a wonderful feeling of being rapidly done and that rapidity emphasizes the rush and purposefulness of the figures.

Filippino Lippi | Study of a Catafalque Bearer | Metalpoint with white heightening on rose grounded paper | 180 x 132 mm | Christ Church, Oxford

Alessandro Cecchi, Director of the Pitti Gallery in Florence, curated the exhibition and wrote the biographical essay for the cataglogue. Its title Filippino Lippi, un pittore per tutte le stagioni or in English, Filippino Lippi, a Painter for All Seasons, sums it up. From a quick reading of what’s online for the press, these were some of the points, Filippino was liked by the different factions in Florence; counted Lorenzo il Magnifico, the Strozzi, the Del Pugliese as patrons; worked on sacred and profane subjects; didn’t fall into Savonarola’s web as Botticelli did; was held in such esteem that he was asked to complete Masaccio’s Brancaccio Chapel fresco cycle; produced designs for decorative arts and temporary funerary works; worked in and out of Florence–importantly at the Carafa chapel in Santa Maria Sopra Minerva here in Rome. The hardcover catalogue costs €49 (€39 if bought at the exhibition) and I’m hoping it will come out in paperback.

Bomarzo, Mugnano, and Chia Drawings

September 8th, 2011 § 0 comments § permalink

My father bought an apartment in Bomarzo in the 70s. It’s a tiny place, and very old. The building appears in a 1520 drawing and was already a few hundred years old when the drawing was made. It’s the house with the stepped outside staircase in the foreground, and it has changed very little. The stairs are so worn and bowl-like that it is hard to go up or down them without feeling you might lose your step. Still, they reinforce ideas of time.

The drawing is in Siena’s Biblioteca Comunale degli Intronati, and is part of a sketchbook known as the Taccuino Senese which contains drawings associated with Baldassare Peruzzi (1481-1536). Peruzzi and his half-brother were hired by the Orsini family to build a wing for the palace, the Orsini Palace, in Bomarzo and for the building of the road leading south to Soriano nel Cimino and Viterbo. The drawing concerns the road project. It is the road which skirts the town on the left side of the sheet. A couple of workmen are engaged in roadwork – they are almost stick figures and can be seen below the collection mark.

Bomarzo's Corso Meonia and Piazza della Repubblica

Bomarzo’s terrain is uneven and the town itself is built on a massive outcrop. The rock is volcanic and is called “peperino,” referring to the color of black pepper. Bomarzo is most famous for its garden, Orsini’s Sacro Bosco, now often known as the Parco dei Mostri or Monster Park, which makes use of the great boulders that are naturally present. The genius of the garden is that it makes use of what many people would consider a hindrance – the rocks – transforming them to fantastic sculpture. The steep hill at nearby Villa Lante, similarly, works a liability into an advantage.

There is still a lot of mystery about the Sacro Bosco. Pier Francesco Orsini, known as Vicino Orsini (1523-1583) had the garden built sometime after the death of his wife in 1557. The name of the architect Pirro Ligorio is sometimes advanced, but there is nothing sure there. Here is a link to the BHA/RILA page on the subject.

The draftsman most associated with the Bomarzo area is the Dutchman Bartholomeus Breenbergh (1598-1657) who spent about ten years living in Rome, starting in 1619. That Breenbergh was in the employ of the Orsini is probable, although undocumented. Most of Breenbergh’s existing 200 or so drawings figure Italian views. Below are some of Breenbergh’s views from Bomarzo, Mugnano, and Chia.

Tortoise at Bomarzo's Sacro Bosco | Photo by Michael Miller | 2009

Pegasus Fountain and Tortoise at Bomarzo's Sacro Bosco | Photo by Michael Miller | 2009

MUGNANO

Mugnano in Teverina is a hamlet with a population of about 300 people and is, governmentally, part of Bomarzo (c. 1,800 for entire pop.). As an aside, Angelo, Bomarzo’s bar owner and font of every type of information, let us know about a recent discovery–the bricks used to make Rome’s Pantheon, the Baths of Caracalla and other important Rome monuments came from Mugnano kilns. Here is a link to an article on the topic, with a photo of a beautifully designed and very 1960s looking brick maker’s mark. Mugnano is very close to the river Tiber, which was navigable in the Roman period.

This past weekend I walked around Mugnano with my son. We were hoping to find a similar view, but couldn’t. The same road is still used to access the town, but the huge rocks have been incorporated into the buildings, so that you can hardly see them anymore. Either that, or the Albertina drawing isn’t of Mugnano. Google’s Street View, jut below, is only vaguely related. The height of the rock is very different.

Mugnano's Via Porta Antica leading to Via Goffredo Mamelli | Google Maps Street View

CHIA

Locally, the tower below is often called the Torre di Pasolini because of Pier Paolo Pasolini, the poet and film director who first rented the medieval complex in the 60s and then bought it in 1970. It’s more correctly called the Torre di Chia. Chia is not part of Bomarzo, but part of Soriano nel Cimino. Fortunately, the ruins are not much changed from the early 17th century when Breenbergh drew them.

Bartholomeus Breenbergh | Vue de Castel Bomarzo en Etrurie | Pen and bistre, brush and wash | 323 x 475 mm | Ecole nationale supérieure des beaux-arts, Paris

Tower at Chia (or Pasolini's Tower) | Photo by Michael Miller | 2009

Michael Miller’s photographs can be seen here: michaelmillerphoto.com

Box and Boxwood Drawing Supports

July 31st, 2011 § 0 comments § permalink

At Villa Lante, about an hour north of Rome, there are beautiful box hedges and parterre. Box, like birch bark, has been used as a surface for drawing. Some of the box hedges at Villa Lante are very tall, and if you look into the center of the hedges, you’ll see trunks thicker than you would imagine–wide enough for small rectangular drawing supports.

Villa Lante | Box and Watercourse for Fountains | Bagnaia, Italy

Early draftsmen used boxwood to make model-books where they could record successful compositions, poses, and subjects for future use. Boxwood, because of its great density and because it could be smoothed to a high degree, was the wood of choice. Parchment, fig wood, and paper were also used. Cennino Cennini, writing in circa 1400, tells of how to prepare a boxwood drawing surface in Chapter V of his Libro dell’arte (English here) and and in Chapter VI he talks of fig wood, specifying that the fig wood should be old. To make a little panel, he calls for pieces of wood as high and wide as “un sommesso.” According to the 1612 Crusca dictionary, a sommesso is the width of a fist with the thumb extended, as in the hitchhiking gesture. For me, that is about 6 inches (I’ve seen some translations of Cennini say 9 inches, which seems too much. There’s a limit to box trunk width.) Whether box or fig, he says to clean it well, smooth with a cuttlebone, dry, and then coat with well ground bone dust and spittle.

There are too few examples of model books, and especially boxwood ones. I don’t think there are any early drawings on fig wood tablets. The drawing on box just below is given to a Jaques Daliwe. The attribution to Daliwe is based solely on an inscription on one of the 12 pages that make up the Berlin model book. The inscription might also refer to an owner of the model-book. There are a total of 22 drawings, mostly in metalpoint with white heightening. A couple of the drawings are based on illuminations of the Limbourg Brothers, though this one is not. If boxwood grew to be bigger, would they have wanted larger drawings, or were they happy to have a book that was so easily transportable to bring along to their various jobs?

Jaques Daliwe | Head Studies | Metalpoint, brush and white heightening on grounded boxwood panel | 89 x 130 mm | Liber picturatus A 74 Staatsbibliothek Berlin

Two Leonardo Drawings at Windsor for a Salvator Mundi

July 9th, 2011 § 0 comments § permalink

Being just as curious as the next guy about the recently attributed panel picture to Leonardo, I thought I’d post images from Windsor of two red chalk preparatory drawings by Leonardo for a Salvator Mundi. Links to the Royal Collection allow for enlargement of the images.

LINK to Leonardo’s Studies of Drapery for a Salvator Mundi at Windsor

LINK to Leonardo’s A Study of Drapery for a Salvator Mundi at Windsor

The picture below has just popped up on the internet, a good deal changed, and more believable than the pre-conservation photo.

After the Antique

June 27th, 2011 § 0 comments § permalink

“After the Antique” like “Allegorical Subject” have to be among the most useful titles. Right up there with the 20th century favorite “Untitled.” The drawing by the Danish artist Melchior Lorck, just below, shows a group of draped figures (“draped figure” is also terrifically generic and useful). Lorck drew it in 1552, the year he visited Rome. The figures are fragmentary, all are headless and many have lost their arms, making them more difficult to identify. The Muse Melpomene at the center of the drawing holds a theatrical mask and as a consequence is much easier to recognize than the others. Since the mask is part of the main shaft, and not an extremity, it has survived. Often, people who study classical art are good at identifying figures even if they are without heads and attributes. The stance, and dress tell a lot.

The table below has some electronic resources for studying ancient sculpture and drawings (documents as they’re called by scholars of the antique). I hope to add more links here.

Resource LINK	Institution Behind Project	Detail
Bibliotheca Hertziana	Bibliotheca Hertziana, Rome	Digital library to digitized books to Antike Kunst. Works by Pietro Santo Bartoli, Domenico Augusto Bracci. Adding
Census of Antique Works of Art and Architecture Known in the Renaissance	Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften	Combined with corpus of ancient art known in the Middle Ages and Winkelmann, Corpus
Monumenta Rariora: La fortuna della statuaria antica	Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa	Giovan Battista Cavalieri, Girolamo Franzini, Lorenzo and Andrea Vaccaro, François Perrier, Paolo Alessandro Maffei, and Dominic Magnan
Musei Capitolini, Rome	Musei Capitolini, Rome	25,000 images and adding
Speculum Romanae Magnificentiae	Univ. of Chicago	Publisher Antonio Lafreri's 1570s engravings after Roman art and architecture. +1,000 prints

Often draftsman would not be copying any specific work, but instead found broad inspiration in the antique. “All’antica” is what it’s called and the danger is that one could be looking for a sculpture that never existed in the first place.

Accademia Nazionale di San Luca, Rome

May 31st, 2011 § 0 comments § permalink

Ramps, if they’re beautiful and designed by Francesco Borromini, are less tiring than stairs. That’s how it seemed last week when we visited the Accademia di San Luca’s permanent collection on the top floor of Palazzo Carpegna. The galleries containing paintings, the self-portraits of members, casts, terracotta bozzetti, and the temporary exhibitions of drawings have reopened after too long. The installation hasn’t been completed, but somehow there was something very satisfying about the way the “Lavori in Corso” gallery looked. There was a gallery of drawings with mostly architectural sheets. The Accademia has about 3,500 architectural drawings, and 2,000+ figure drawings. The weekly l’Espresso, in this article (undated) reported that some drawings went missing, noting especially drawings by Palma Giovane.

http://www.accademiasanluca.it/

Lavori in Corso | Door with Cutout | Accademia di San Luca | Rome

Lavori in Corso Room | Closer

Anatomical Drawings | Accademia di San Luca | Rome

Architectural Drawings | Accademia di San Luca, Rome

Casts Gallery | Accademia di San Luca, Rome

Morelli and Some Verrocchio Ears

May 2nd, 2011 § 0 comments § permalink

Giovanni Morelli (1816 – 1891) trained as a doctor in Germany, but never practiced. Instead he was drawn to art and aesthetics, and to government. He served 4 terms in Italy’s newly formed government, helping to draft laws curtailing the export of art. Morelli was a collector of paintings and drawings, and his collection was left to the Accademia Carrara in Bergamo, his native city. It wasn’t until after his political career, at the age of 60, that he started publishing on what’s known as the Morellian Method, where art works are linked by seemingly small details. The 1911 Brittanica has a good entry on Morelli written by Constance Jocelyn Foulkes, a translator of Morelli’s work. In it she says of Morelli:

Studying one day in the Uffizi, it suddenly struck him that in a picture by Botticelli containing several figures the drawing of the hands was remarkably similar in all; that the same characteristic but plebeian type, with bony fingers, broad square nails, and dark outlines, was repeated in every figure. Turning to the ears, he observed that they also were drawn in an individual manner, and that in the numerous figures in which the ear was visible the same typical form recurred. Having noted these fundamental forms, he proceeded to an examination of other works by this painter, and found that the same forms were exactly repeated, together with other individual traits which seemed distinctive of the master: the characteristic type of head and expression, the drawing of the nostrils, the vitality of movement, the disposition of drapery, harmony of colour (where it had not been tampered with by the restorer), and quality of landscape.

Verrocchio and Morelli were on the same plane in their thinking on isolating parts of the body for study. Vasari tells of Verrocchio’s casting hands, feet, knees, legs, arms, and torsos.

I thought I’d see how this Morellian Method works by assembling some Andrea del Verrocchio ears. Pretty early on I realized it would be important to know the words to describe an ear, so here’s a link to a diagram of an ear. Morelli’s study of medicine and anatomy, of course, helped him a lot with this. The one thing I can really say about the ears below is that Verrocchio liked nicely round antitraguses.

	"Head of a Young Woman" at Christ Church, Oxford LINK
	"Grotesque Dancer" at Uffizi, Florence LINK
	"Old Man Dancing" at Uffizi, Florence LINK
	"Four Nude Babies and the Head of Baby" at the Louvre, Paris LINK
	"Madonna and Child" in Gemäldegalerie, Berlin LINK
	"Madonna and Child" in Gemäldegalerie, Berlin LINK
	"Putto with Dolphin" at Palazzo Vecchio, Florence LINK

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