Italian Renaissance Drawings

Technical Examination and Analysis

Edited by Janet Ambers Edited by Catherine Higgitt Edited by David Saunders

Book cover: Italian Renaissance Drawings

Extent: 184 pages

Publisher: Archetype Publications Ltd 

Subjects: Art & Art History, Early Modern & Renaissance Studies, Italian Studies

Language: English

Paperback (Published)

(May 2010)

ISBN: 9781904982586

8.27 x 11.65 inches

Price: $85.00

In stock

Published in association with the British Museum, this volume presents technical studies of 47 outstanding Italian Renaissance drawings featured in the 2010-2011 exhibition Fra Angelico to Leonardo: Italian Renaissance Drawings. Using non-invasive analytical methods, the book goes beyond material identification to explore how these drawings functioned within Renaissance workshops and reflect broader artistic practices across 15th-century Italy. It offers new insights into the working methods of artists such as Leonardo and Fra Angelico, and the cultural context of their creative processes.


The drawings discussed in this book, published in association with the British Museum, were included in the exhibition, Fra Angelico to Leonardo: Italian Renaissance Drawings, held at the British Museum, London and the Uffizi Gallery, Florence in 2010-2011. Technical studies of 47 of the British Museum’s finest Italian Renaissance drawings are given based on non-invasive and non-contact examination and analysis. Great emphasis has been placed on how the results from such examination and analysis can be interpreted in a manner that goes beyond simply determining the materials employed by artists, to draw conclusions about their role in the Renaissance workshop and the patterns of use across fifteenth-century Italy.

Foreword

Janet Ambers, Catherine Higgitt and David Saunders

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Hugo Chapman

Methodology

Satoko Tanimoto, Giovanni Verri, Janet Ambers, Jenny Bescoby and Judith Rayner

Drawings in the Renaissance workshop

Catherine Higgitt

Supports and preparations

Jenny Bescoby and Judith Rayner

Dry drawing media

Jenny Bescoby, Judith Rayner and Satoko Tanimoto

Inks and washes

Giovanni Verri, Satoko Tanimoto and Catherine Higgitt

Watercolour, bodycolour and heightening

Satoko Tanimoto and Catherine Higgitt

Revealing stratigraphy

Giovanni Verri and Janet Ambers

Function and collecting of drawings: visual evidence

Jenny Bescoby and Judith Rayner

Appendix 1 Example of a typical pro forma document

Appendix 2 Experimental and methodological details

Appendix 3 Tables

  • Edited by Janet Ambers
  • Edited by Catherine Higgitt
  • Edited by David Saunders

"Italian Renaissance Drawings: Technical Examination and Analysis is to be recommended to drawing scholars of every stripe as a practical tool in the "mastery" of drawing. Not only does it present new information derived from the visual examination, technical imaging and instrumental analysis of drawings, but, more importantly, it introduces a methodology that already has and, one hopes, will continue to be emulated." "This is a truly pioneering publication which...demonstrates the richness and depth of Renaissance drawings; showing them to be every bit as multi-layered and complex as paintings of the period." The Picture Restorer 38 (Spring 2011) 51-52
—

This is a truly pioneering publication which...demonstrates the richness and depth of Renaissance drawings; showing them to be every bit as multi-layered and complex as paintings of the period.

—

Italian Renaissance Drawings: Technical Examination and Analysis is to be recommended to drawing scholars of every stripe as a practical tool in the "mastery" of drawing. Not only does it present new information derived from the visual examination, technical imaging and instrumental analysis of drawings, but, more importantly, it introduces a methodology that already has and, one hopes, will continue to be emulated.

—