|
|
Da Vinci, Raphael, Michelangelo: Italian Sketches
From Leonardo to Piranesi:
|
|
|
Da Vinci's three most famous works are Mona Lisa, The Last Supper and Vitruvian Man. The last work is a sketch. He wasn't a prolific painter often taking years to finish a work. He was, however, a prolific draftsman. |
Many of his journals survive today; recording his acute observations. It is here that many of his preparatory drawings for his paintings are found. Da Vinci made sketches of people who he thought had interesting facial characteristics. He would follow the person around for the rest of the day observing them, after first spotting the individual.
Raphael
Title: Kopf eines Cherubs / Head of a Cherub, 1505-1512
Artist: Raphael (Raffael) Sanzio (Italian 1483 - 1520)
Medium: Black Chalk
Dimensions: 298 x 234 mm
Photographer: Christoph Irrgang
Permanent Collection: © Hamburger Kunsthalle / bpk
Image Courtesy: Hamburger Kunsthalle
Considered one of the finest draftsman in the history of art, Raphael meticulously planned his paintings through his preparatory sketches. There are over forty sketches for one of his Vatican frescoes, The Disputa.
Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael and Michelangelo: the Trinity of Renaissance artists. Any exhibit that features one would be a draw; each of the three have sketches included in the Hamburger Kunsthalle's exploration of Italian Drawings. Michelangelo's sketches are perhaps the rarest: he was known to destroy his preparatory papers.
Federico Zuccari
Title: Die Verleumdung des Apelles, 1572
Artist: Federico Zuccari (Italian 1540/41 - 1609)
Medium: Feder und Pinsel in Braun, laviert, über Spuren von Bleistift.,
Dimensions: 400 x 530 mm
Photographer: Christoph Irrgang
Permanent Collection: © Hamburger Kunsthalle / bpk
Image Courtesy: Hamburger Kunsthalle
Federico Zuccari was born in Sant'Angelo Vado located near Raphael's home town of Urbino, Italy. When he was about 10 years old Zuccari moved to Rome to begin working with his older brother, Taddeo Zuccari, an established painter. Federico was commissioned to work on various frescoes both in Rome and beyond. He worked on the Casina Pio IV and the Pucci Chapel in Rome; Dome of Santa Maria del Fiore, Florence; and the Cathedral of Orvieto.
Zuccari created portraits of Mary Queen of Scots, Queen Elizabeth I of England, and Sir Francis Walsingham among others during a 1574 trip to England. The portrait of Elizabeth Tudor was done as a sketch and survives to this day.
Domenico Tintoretto
Title: Die Eroberung Konstantinopels durch die Venezianer, ca. 1598
Artist: Domenico Tintoretto (Italian 1560 - 1635)
Medium: Tusche und Tempera auf bräunlichem Papier, mit schwarzer Kreide quadriert
Dimensions: 406 x 465 mm
Photographer: Christoph Irrgang
Permanent Collection: © Hamburger Kunsthalle / bpk
Image Courtesy: Hamburger Kunsthalle
Domenico Tintoretto followed in the footsteps of his father, noted Venetian painter Jacopo Robusti Tintoretto. Jacopo was considered to be among the finest Venetian artist of his time second only to Titian. During his father's later years Domenico became the foreman of Jacopo's studio.
Giovanni Battista Piranesi
Title: Architekturphantasie (Imaginative Architecture), ca. 1750
Artist: Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720 - 1778)
Medium: Feder in Braun, Rötel, braun laviert
Dimensions: 153 x 217 mm
Photographer: Christoph Irrgang
Permanent Collection: © Hamburger Kunsthalle / bpk
Image Courtesy: Hamburger Kunsthalle
Hailing from Venice Piranesi almost all of his artistic career in Rome. Giovanni Battista Piranesi is perhaps best remembered for the Vedute, his spectacular etchings of both the ancient and then modern architecture of Rome. The artist in his renditions, altered the scales of the buildings, to make them appear even grander to the eye.
English writer Horace Walpole advised artists to "study the sublime dreams of Piranesi, who seems to have conceived visions of Rome beyond what it boasted even in the meridian of its splendor," in his 1765 publication Anecdotes of Painting in England.
Piranesi's imaginative architecture would later influence the surrealists. He created a series of imaginary prisons called Carceri d'invenzione, that had imposing staircases, underground vaults and oversized machines.
Geramny's Hamburger Kunsthalle hosts an exhibition looking at Italian drawings from 1450-1800. Da Vinci, Raphael, Michelangelo and Piranesi! Need we say more?
From Leonardo to Piranesi:
Italian Drawings from 1450 to 1800
Hubertus-Wald-Forum
Hamburger Kunsthalle:
October 24 2008 to February 1 2009