Italian Drawings

Here we are given a close view of the Holy Family, separated by a wicker fence from the sweeping landscape beyond. The drawing's technique is wide ranging, from the precise hatching employed for Joseph and Mary to the free, more loosely drawn shepherds. The artist has worked confidently, moving from left to right. He did, however, make changes as he went. For instance, the ox's tail was drawn over the dog.

Perched on a window ledge, a mother turns from her book to look at her son. Only the haloes and the crown held by the toddler indicate that this is Mary and the infant Christ. The mood is domestic and almost impromptu, as if the sitters have been captured unawares. The back of this sheet (at right) holds another study by the Venetian painter of the Virgin with the Christ Child and Saint John.

This large study depicts a young boy dressed in the humble apron and breeches of a workshop assistant or garzone. He poses in a gesture of fear, one hand curled into a fist in front of his mouth, his hollow eye sockets and direct gaze amplifying the psychological charge. The stains on the paper suggest that it was kept in the artist's studio.

Michelangelo's complex allegory shows an idealized nude youth surrounded by worldly vices. A winged being approaches with a trumpet as if to awaken him to a new life. Michelangelo may have presented this drawing to his beloved friend, the young Roman nobleman Tommaso de' Cavalieri. The work immediately became famous among collectors and artists, who copied it numerous times and, exceptionally for a drawing, it acquired a title when the Renaissance biographer Giorgio Vasari named it in 1568.

As his biographer Carlo Ridolfi noted, Tintoretto loved to "draw from the live model in all sorts of poses, endowing them with grace." This study is executed in Tintoretto's preferred medium of black chalk on coarsely fibered paper. The model could not have held this position for long, and supports himself with a stick. He was probably also kneeling on a stool, but Tintoretto chose not to represent this prosaic prop in his dynamic drawing.

In 1664, Bernini took part in a competition to design the east façade of the palace of the Louvre in Paris, which Louis XIV wished to complete. This freehand drawing shows Bernini's initial proposal for the façade, featuring a central oval pavilion. Bernini's unusually animated design was rejected in favor of Claude Perrault's plan for a linear row of columns on a raised pavilion.

In 1746, Canaletto traveled to England and over the following decade produced a record of mid-Georgian London. In this finished work, drawn as a collector's item, London is seen from above the terrace of Old Somerset House, designed by Inigo Jones in the 1630s (and, since 1989, home to the Courtauld Institute). Stairs lead to the Thames. In the distance at right are the arches of Old London Bridge, while St. Paul's Cathedral towers above a skyline dotted with spires.