The intimacy and immediacy of Renaissance drawing
The Royal Collection dips into its vast treasure trove of Italian art for a fabulous new exhibition
The artistic vitality of the Renaissance masters owes much to Johannes Gutenberg’s printing press. Before the 1450s, paper was precious and drawing was a limited tool in medieval workshops. Then, as demand for book printing soared, so did the supply of paper for artists. For the first time, Italian artists could experiment on paper, using new materials, such as chalks. They quickly became more and more adventurous as drawing became a central pillar of their works.
Now, more than 160 of those drawings from 1450-1600 are on display in Drawing the Italian Renaissance at the King’s Gallery in London. At least 30 have never been displayed before. Together, they “show just how dynamic and exciting drawing became during this period,” explains curator Martin Clayton. “A great attraction of drawing is their immediacy.” A partial fingerprint is still visible in one corner of a drapery sketch by Leonardo da Vinci, likely where he or another member of his workshop handled the paper without cleaning their hands of the chalk and ink they used every day.
I was in London and able to attend the exhibition’s media preview. I’ve always enjoyed drawings and the Renaissance, so it’s no surprise that I loved the new exhibition. The space – three main rooms – means that this isn’t a massive showstopper of an exhibition, yet the size is perfect for showcasing works on paper that invite visitors to lean forward and really examine their details.
The Royal Collection has one of the best collections of Renaissance drawings in the world, and those on display are works from more than 80 artists. While Clayton emphasizes that “the exhibition aims to shine a light on lesser-known artists,” the Renaissance superstars are well represented, including Leonardo and Michelangelo.
The artists who created these sketches would likely be stunned that they survived the centuries and are the subject of such an exhibition. Most weren’t meant to last. Only a “tiny proportion were intended to be displayed,” explains Clayton, pointing out one prime example: Taddeo Zuccaro’s Studies for St Paul and a fleeing bystander. The sketch had been ripped and discarded centuries ago. As the gallery description card explains, “The sheet was deliberately torn into four, presumably by Taddeo himself, perhaps dissatisfied with the similarities to Raphael’s composition. A member of his workshop must have saved the fragments and pieces them back together.” The repairs are so skilled that the lines separating the four quadrants of the reassembled sheet can only be seen from one side.
Another work that has been in the Royal Collection for more than two centuries but never on display is The Virgin and Child by Bernadino Campi. He drew the large-scale image on poor-quality paper. It was never intended to be kept after being transferred onto a painting’s surface, the Royal Collection explains. Over the years, its surface became badly creased and wrinkled due to being attached to a canvas. It needed 120 hours of conservation treatment to remove that old backing and support weak sections so it could finally be displayed.
What makes this exhibition such a joy to behold is the sheer variety of drawings. The artists in the workshops of Italy turned their talents to designing anything and everything, whether paintings, tapestries, architecture, or metalwork. If a benefactor wanted a massive floor candelabrum – they’d design one. If they wanted a coat of arms? No problem. A spectacular design for a ceiling? Sure! And all those works began on paper.
Sometimes, the drawings were meant to seal a deal – Camillo Procaccini used red chalk to create an elaborate drawing, An old man and a youth, which seems to have been needed to convince the administrators of San Propero in Reggio Emilia that he was capable to creating his masterpiece fresco of the Last Judgment.
The artists also used posed models so they could study musculature and figure out exactly how clothes were draped on a body, such as Leonardo’s The muscles of the trunk and the leg. He used pen and ink with a wash over black chalk to show the superficial muscles of the body from neck to ankle. Sometimes the models were animals. Though Titian almost certainly drew a flamingo from a real-life animal, Leonardo’s dragon, hidden in a sheet filled with cats and lions, is definitely imaginary.
“Viewing these drawings up close gives us an intimate insight into the artist’s mind and creative process, almost as if we are looking over their shoulder and watching them work,” notes Clayton. To enhance that effect, the King’s Gallery features something new for this exhibition: artists in residence in association with the Royal Drawing School. One artist is Joshua Pell, who was working on his version of Lelio Orsi’s Crossbowman for three hours on the day of the media preview. That detailed study caused Pell to discover reason why the sketch is so powerful: “Everything is a diagonal leading to the tip of the crossbow.”
Another artist in residence is Sara Lee Roberts. “I love strangeness,” she says as she deftly uses a red chalk pencil to begin sketching Leonardo’s An allegory with a dog and an eagle, which features an eagle perched on top of a globe while a dog pilots a strange craft, which has a tree for a mast, perhaps the personal device of an unknown patron. Her eye is also drawn to an intricate finished drawing, A children's bacchanal, that Michelangelo gave to one of his lovers. “From the drawings there’s a strong feeling of love for the human body. The marks are caressing the bodies,” she explains, pointing to the details in the sketch. “It’s genuine love”
Some of the items are working drawings featuring grid lines or tiny holes pricked along profiles and other features so that a dabbing of charcoal dust would allow those outlines to appear on a wall or canvas. Others are cartoons, that final stage of finished drawing before being transferred onto another medium. Indeed, some of the best cartoons of the Royal Collection can be found in London at the nearby Victoria & Albert Museum, which has seven enormous designs for tapestries painted by Raphael. They were commissioned by Pope Leo X for the Sistine Chapel.
The more intimate drawings at the King’s Gallery form the first major exhibition of the Royal Collection’s vast stores of Renaissance drawings since its blockbuster in 2019 marking the 500th anniversary of Leonardo da Vinci’s death. Right now, the King’s Gallery is open only five days a week, down from the seven days a week of the summer tourist season.
After the exhibition closes in March, it’s expected that around two-thirds of the drawings will move to the smaller exhibition space at Holyroodhouse Palace in Edinburgh. Then, they’ll vanish back into the archive — the centuries-old paper is that fragile. “These drawings cannot be on permanent display for conservation reasons, so this is a once-in-a-generation chance to see such a breadth of Italian Renaissance masterpieces together in one exhibition,” explains Clayton. So be sure to see this exhibition if you have a chance.
Drawing the Italian Renaissance (Nov. 1 to March 9, 2025 at the King’s Gallery at Buckingham Palace in London)