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Italian Renaissance Drawings Exhibited at Princeton University Art Museum
Exhibition Dates: February 19 through June 17, 2001
PRINCETON -- "Italian Renaissance Drawings," an exhibition from the Princeton University Art Museum's collection, is on view through June 17, 2001. The exhibition, which accompanies "Italian Renaissance Painting and Sculpture," a course taught by Visiting Associate Professor Elizabeth Pilliod of Oregon State University, includes works by Michelangelo, Frederico Barocci, Jacopo Bertoia, Girolamo Macchietti, Battista Naldini, and Il Tintoretto.
The drawings demonstrate the evolution away from highly controlled workshop studies, such as Saint Jerome in the Desert, attributed to the workshop of Perugino (ca. 1445-1523), when artists traditionally followed a standardized drawing procedure. According to Calvin Brown, Museum preparator, "Drawings were begun with a light application of charcoal, or black chalk that could be dusted away as the composition developed. The contours often were reinforced in pen and ink and tonal areas were established with ink washes and white heightening. In the next generation of artists after Perugino and Leonardo da Vinci, drawing styles changed radically. Red chalk began to be employed because of its tonal possibilities, and freer, bolder drawings that exhibited clear personal styles were not only produced, but began to be collected on their own merits."
Professor Pilliod, in the introduction to the exhibition, writes, "Drawing has long been considered a relatively inexpensive and convenient method for capturing and manipulating ideas. As recently as the fifteenth century, however, paper was expensive and difficult to obtain. In the early Renaissance, precious supports such as parchment were reserved for fully considered images, whereas reusable wax tablets and wooden and slate boards were employed for workshop training, and also for developing compositions and perfecting individual figures.
"The Italian Renaissance revolutionized these standard practices. As paper became more available, artists were freed to make rapid sketches and numerous revisions before beginning the final product. Drawings were still considered expendable by-products of the artistic process, however, and therefore routinely thrown out. This situation changed in the sixteenth century with the advent of collecting -- an important outcome of the rise of art-historical criticism and connoisseurship in Renaissance Florence."
The works on view were selected by Professor Pilliod and Mr. Brown.
The Art Museum is open to the public without charge. Free highlights tours of the collection are given every Saturday at 2:00 p.m. The Museum is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and on Sunday from 1:00 to 5:00 p.m. It is closed on Monday and major holidays. The Museum Shop closes at 5:00 p.m.
The Museum is located in the middle of the Princeton University campus. Picasso's large sculpture Head of a Woman stands in front. For further information, please call (609) 258-3788.
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