Thursday, March 24, 2016

16th-century drawings from Italy I

Lelio Orsi
Centaur before a maze
16th century
drawing
Morgan Library, New York

"The debate over the hierarchy of the arts, a distinctive feature of 16th-century treatises, is summarized and concluded by Vasari, beginning with the very title of his Lives. Painters, sculptors and architects were elevated to a higher social and intellectual status because of the importance of 'ideas' in their work, expressed through design. Ceramists, cabinetmakers, goldsmiths, tapestry weavers, and even engravers, by contrast, were relegated to the level of specialized technicians, because the work they did demanded, first of all, a mastery of the materials, instruments, equipment, and practices of the workshop. There were further distinctions among the various materials and subjects within the larger heading of the 'fine arts.'  According to Michelangelo, fresco painters were held in higher esteem and considered more 'virile' than those who merely painted panels and canvases; 'true' sculpture was that which was executed 'through the process of removal' by painstaking chipping away at marble. Materials that could be worked more easily, such as wood or terracotta, were considered less noble from then on. Michelangelo thought an artist should pursue the most elevated subject: the human body, or even better, male nudes, either in isolation or within the context of a narrative episode of great exemplary worth. Religious scenes and austere literary and mythological subjects were considered 'elevated,' as were celebratory portraits of illustrious personages."

 from European Art of the Sixteenth Century by Stefano Zuffi, translated by Antony Shugaar (Getty Museum, 2005)

Lelio Orsi
Apotheosis of Hercules
16th century
drawing
Morgan Library, New York

Nosadella
Kneeling old man
16th century
drawing
Metropolitan Museum of Art

Bartolomeo Neroni
Reclining nude
16th century
drawing
Morgan Library, New York

Francesco Morandini
Studies of an infant head, after a cast
1572-74
ddrawing
Metropolitan Museum of Art

Francesco Morandini
Laughing boy
16th century
drawing
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

Lattanzio Gambara
Female figure di sotto in su
16th century
drawing
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

Marco Marchetti
Design for a Fountain
16th century
drawing
Morgan Library, New York

Marcantonio Raimondi
Captive
16th century
drawing
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

Andrea Lilli
Half-length male figure
16th century
drawing
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

Pirro Ligorio
Seated sibyl and attendant genius
ca. 1540
drawing
Metropolitan Museum of Art

Leone Leoni
Profile studies for the head of Andrea Doria and sketches of a horse tamer
16th century
drawing
Morgan Library, New York

Anonymous Italian artist
Studies of eagles
ca. 1500
drawing
British Museum

Anonymous Italian artist
Draped kneeling figure
ca. 1520-40
drawing
British Museum