Drawing the Old Masters
Percy Moore
My goal in this project was to study the way that Renaissance old masters used drawing throughout their creative processes. I wanted to understand the use of drawing throughout the Italian Renaissance, and how it has changed over time. I began by researching drawing as a general practice in the time period. I chose three well-known Renaissance artists to study and chose certain drawings from each of them to study and copy. I attempted to emulate the style as closely as I could, using the same materials when possible.
Although drawing has always been a part of the artistic process, it was not seen as an art form on its own prior to the mid-Renaissance. Before 1500, drawings in Central Italy were not usually preserved or signed by the artist.1 This did vary by region. In North Italy, for example, drawings were more likely to be finished, preserved objects. A shift away from this view began in the early sixteenth century, with da Vinci’s cartoon of Virgin and Child with Saint Anne and Michelangelo’s Battle of Cascina cartoon. These highly finished drawings attracted public viewing and praise.2 This contributed to the recognition of drawings as their own works of art. The more consistent use of paper in the fifteenth century was a factor of this as well. As paper became more common and less expensive, more drawings survived. Overtime, drawing developed as its own practice, and the drawings of artists were preserved.3 Cenino Cenini’s Il Libro dell’Arte, a handbook for artists, preserves common techniques used by artists of the time.4 Cenini recommends drawing as a way to train new artists and pass along skills, traditions, and style. He encourages young artists to learn by drawing from nature and copying their teacher’s drawings.5
The first artist I chose to focus on was Leonardo da Vinci. As one of the most famous Renaissance artists, he is nearly as well known for his drawings as he is for his painting. As an engineer, a painter, and a studier of anatomy, drawing was integral to his creative and learning processes. His drawings record original compositions and observations of the world, develop ideas, and work out layout, proportions, and construction for different projects.6 Leonardo thought that drawing should be a basic practice for artists, and he encouraged learning by drawing from nature in order to be able to draw from memory.7 Leonardo’s most used medium was pen and ink, but he also used chalk and charcoal to create the smoky sfumato effect that is characteristic of his drawings. He was probably the first artist to use red chalk as a “creative drawing” medium.8 His pen and ink drawings are intricately detailed, with the use of hatching to indicate form.
In order to study Leonardo da Vinci’s drawing style, I chose to focus on his Virgin and Child with Saint Anne and John the Baptist, also called the Burlington House Cartoon (Figure 1). This highly finished drawing is assumed to be connected to Leonardo’s painting Virgin and Child with Saint Anne, even though it does not exactly match the final painting. In the early 1500s, written accounts from Giorgio Vasari and Friar Pietro da Novellara describe a cartoon done by Leonardo that had been attracting public interest. The description of this cartoon seems to be very similar to the Burlington House Cartoon, but does not match it exactly. Because both this cartoon and the finished painting are the most similar works to the Burlington House Cartoon that are known, it is often assumed that the Burlington House Cartoon was part of the process of the development of the painting in some way.9 The principal medium is charcoal, which was the most common medium for cartoons.10It is done on tinted paper, with white heightening to create highlights. I chose this piece because I feel that it is representative of Leonardo’s style in several ways. Firstly, it is a good example of his sfumato technique, which gives the drawing its smoky appearance. The modulation of light and shadow create the forms and are accomplished by smudging the soft chalk and charcoal. Secondly, the drawing shows Leonarodo’s figure drawing style. The faces of Mary and Saint Anne demonstrate the soft, rounded shapes seen in Leonardo’s other drawings and paintings. Their faces are naturalistic and detailed, and their bodies feel genuinely volumetric. I used chalk and charcoal to recreate the appearance as closely as possible. I tinted my drawing surface with watercolor. White heightening was commonly done with white lead, but I substituted white chalk. Replicating Leonardo’s sfumato style was the most challenging part of this recreation.
The second artist I chose to focus on was Sandro Botticelli. Botticelli, like Leonardo, is known to have used drawing proficiently throughout his creative process. He likely learned this trait from his teacher Fra Filippo Lippi, who is credited with being “among the first to adopt drawing in a systematic way throughout his creative process.”11 Botticelli originally trained as a goldsmith, a trade that would have taught him line drawing. His later drawing style reflects the influence of this training.12 Botticelli is known to have produced a large quantity of drawings, but only twenty-four survive.13 His surviving drawings reflect his linear style. There is great emphasis on outlines, with less attempt to indicate form in his pen-and-ink drawings. He uses hatching very minimally to create form, and his drawings are mostly smooth, curving lines. His early figure drawings are very sculptural in appearance, with his later drawings becoming more stylized and less focused on anatomical accuracy.
As I studied Botticelli, I chose to focus on his drawing of The Coronation of the Virgin (Figure 2). This drawing is a compositional drawing for a section of his San Marco Altarpiece. This drawing does not appear to have been transferred, and it does not exactly match the finished product, so it was likely not a cartoon. It was probably part of a drawing that would have been submitted to the patron for approval. Botticelli likely used it as modello, or a “reference study,” throughout the painting process. This drawing was done with a pen and two shades of brown ink, over a black chalk underdrawing on tinted paper. I adapted this slightly for my copy by only using one shade of brown ink.14I used a watercolor wash to tint the paper. I chose this piece because it is a good example of a compositional drawing and also representative of Botticelli’s style. It is an interesting drawing because it clearly shows the composition of the finished altarpiece, but does not match it exactly. It seems to have been used as a middle stage in the drawing process. It also is clearly indicative of Botticelli’s graceful, but geometric style. The character’s poses and faces were created with clear outlines, and the shading is much simpler and less smooth than that on Leonardo’s cartoon.
The third artist I focused on was Raphael. Raphael was the son of painter Giovanni Santi. He worked in his father's workshop and in the workshop of Pietro Perugino.15 His first commissioned work, Coronation of Saint Nicholas of Tolentino for the church of Sant’Agostino, was in 1500, when he was only seventeen years old.16 Like Botticelli, Raphael was a proficient draughtsman, who used drawings at all stages of his creative process. He used drawings to practice details and develop his final works.17 Raphael was proficient with silverpoint and seemed to prefer it, although he also used pen-and-ink and chalk. One technique that is often seen in his drawings is the use of blind stylus. This technique involves using a stylus to leave barely visible lines into the paper that can be used to sketch initial compositions, and then covered up with drawing materials.18 He used this technique very frequently, but was not the only artist to use it. Leonardo da Vinci used it for similar purposes.
For my study of Raphael, I chose two pen-and-ink drawings to copy. Compared to the drawings I copied from Leonardo and Botticelli, these are rough and unfinished. Both are initial studies for figures that would be painted in the Stanza della Segnatura. The first drawing I focused on was a study for a drawing of the Muse Melpomene (figure 3).19 The second was a study for one of the allegorical figures painted on the Stanza ceiling (figure 4). This one was probably Theology, due to the book on her lap.20 The drawing for the Muse is slightly more finished than the one for Theology. Both drawings are done with pen-and-ink on printed paper, over a blind stylus underdrawing. I chose these drawings because they would allow me to look at drawings that were used at an earlier stage of the creative process than the drawings I did for Leonardo and Botticelli. These were quick, rough sketches that capture the pose, appearance, and expressions of the figures. These drawings are also representative of Raphael’s figure drawing style. They demonstrate the grace and idealized beauty that Rapahel emphasizes in his figures.
This contract project was an opportunity to study the drawing process of Renaissance artists. I learned about the history of drawing and how it was used by artists throughout the years. Studying the individual drawings allowed me to work with mediums and styles that I do not normally use. The most important thing I learned through this project is that drawing has always been integral to the work of artists, even though styles have changed.
Figure 1: Leonardo da Vinci. Virgin and Child With Saint Anne and John the Baptist (Burlington House Cartoon). 1499-1500. Black charcoal and white heightening on tinted paper. 141.5x104.6cm.
Figure 2: Sandro Botticelli. The Coronation of the Virgin. 1488-1492. Pen and brown ink, brown wash, black chalk, white heightening, on tinted paper. 22.5x 38.1cm.
Figure 3: Raphael. Melpomene: Study for the Parnassus, Stanza della Segnatura. c. 1508. Pen and ink on paper. 330x219mm
Figure 4: Raphael. Theology, study for the Vault, Stanza della Segnatura. c. 1510. Pen and ink on paper. 201x143mm.
Endnotes
1 Francis Ames-Lewis, Drawing in Early Renaissance Italy (London: Yale University Press, 1981), 2. 2 Ames-Lewis, 3-4.
3 Ames-Lewis, 15.
4 Francis Ames-Lewis, Drawing in Early Renaissance Italy (London: Yale University Press, 1981), 1.
5 Ames-Lewis, 15.
6 Alan Donnithorne, Leonardo da Vinci: A Closer Look (London: Royal Collection Trust, 2019), 9. 7 Serge Bramly, Leonardo: Discovering the Life of Leonardo da Vinci (New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1991), 255-257.
8 Donnithorne 126
9 Walter Isaacson, Leonardo da Vini (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2017), 317 - 320.
10 Alan Donnithorne, Leonardo da Vinci: A Closer Look (London: Royal Collection Trust, 2019), 126 11 Furio Rinaldi, Botticelli Drawings (California: Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, 2023), 4. 12 Rinaldi 7.
13 Furio Rinaldi, Botticelli Drawings (California: Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, 2023), 4.
14 Furio Rinaldi, Botticelli Drawings (California: Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, 2023), 204. 15 Bette Talvacchia, Raphael (London: Phaidon Press Limited, 2007), 18.
16 Bette Talvacchia, Raphael (London: Phaidon Press Limited, 2007), Talvacchia, 23.
17 Talvacchia, 158.
18 Catherine Whistler and Ben Thomas, Raphael: The Drawings (Oxford: Ashmolean Museum, 2017), 23-24. 19 Whistler and Thomas, 156.
20 Whistler and Thomas, 164-165.
Work Cited
Ames-Lewis, Francis. Drawing in Early Renaissance Italy, revised edition. London: Yale University Press, 1981.
Bramly, Serge. Leonardo: Discovering the Life of Leonardo da Vinci. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1991.
Donnithorne, Alan. Leonardo da Vinci: A Closer Look. London: Royal Collection Trust, 2019. Isaacson, Walter. Leonardo da Vinci. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2017. Rinaldi, Furio. Botticelli Drawings. California: Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, 2023. Talvacchia, Bette. Raphael. London: Phaidon Press Limited, 2007.
Whistler, Catherine and Ben Thomas. Raphael: The Drawings. Oxford: Ashmolean Museum, 2017.