Monday, October 17, 2016

Life-Drawing from 17th-century Europe

attirbutetd to Jan Asselijn
Artist sketching
17th century
drawing
Morgan Library, New York

He who cannot draw has no worth:
Where there is no grace, there is no beauty;
Where there is no salt, there is no taste.
But with drawing, he has grace and beauty,
Decorum, grandeur, conceits, and art,
Such that he is the means by which we scale great heights,
Everyone [should] make his drawings on paper,
So that painting succeeds all the better,
And measure now the whole, now each part.

Chi Disegno non hà, non hà valore;
Dove gratia non è, non è bellezza;
E dove non è sal, non è sapore.
Ma col Disegno s'hà gratia, e vaghezza,
Decoro, maestà, concetti, ed arte,
Ch'egli ci è scala ad ogni grand'altezza.
Faccia ciascun gli suoi dissegni in carte,
Che meglio riesce la Pittura,
E misuri hor'il tutto, hora la parte.

– from a poem of 1605 by painter Federico Zuccaro (1541-1609) called The Lament of Painting (Il lamento della Pittura) reprinted in Julian Brooks's book about the Zuccaro brothers in late-Renaissance Rome published by the Getty Museum in 2007

Adriaen van Ostade
Baby in doorway
17th century
watercolor
Morgan Library, New York

Claude Lorrain
Two men tending an ox
17th century
drawing
Morgan Library, New York

Jacob Koninck
Farm scene with hay barn
17th century
drawing
Morgan Library, New York

Remigio Cantagallina
Lock in Tuscany
17th century
drawing
Morgan Library, New York

Francesco Allegrini
Figures before a pyramid
17th century
drawing
Morgan Library, New York

Anonymous French artist
Architectural sculpture court
17th century
drawing
Morgan Library, New York

Alessandro Magnasco
Peep Show
17th century
drawing
Morgan Library, New York

Anthonie Waterloo
Woodland scene with hunter
17th century
drawing
Morgan Library, New York

Anthonie Waterloo
Wooded river landscape
17th century
watercolor
Morgan Library, New York

Abraham Rutgers
Road by a canal
17th century
drawing
Morgan Library, New York

Francesco Montelatici
St John the Baptist
17th century
drawing
Morgan Library, New York

Francesco Montelatici
Standing youth
17th century
drawing
Morgan Library, New York

Francesco Montelatici
Man carrying candelabra and frightened by dog
17th century
drawing
Morgan Library, New York