Model Books – Giovannino de Grassi to Giovanni Bellini: tradition & innovation / Italian Renaissance Drawing: Design, Form and Function

We will demonstrate how behind every great Renaissance painting is an equally astounding drawing. Artists were judged firstly not by the quality of their paintings, but by their skill in drawing. We will bring together some of those paintings with their accompanying drawings to demonstrate the importance of drawing upon the Renaissance without which there could be no Renaissance. You will examine how these, at first purely functional objects, were made and how they would eventually be regarded as works of art in their own right.

Drawing animals and complex decorative costumes especially ‘exotic’ costumes had always been a challenge for artists especially if they were unavailable. How could an artist include them in his works? But if animals were around, how could he keep them still enough to draw? You will see how this was achieved, including the use of model books, how they were used to populate works, and how this is evident when looking at paintings and fresco.