Italian Renaissance Drawing: Design, Form and Function

This course will look at the powerhouse behind the Italian Renaissance – the drawing.

Looking at a variety of drawings across 300 years you will see examples of the practise from Verrocchio, Raphael, and Ghirlandaio. There will also be individual classes dedicated to Leonardo and Michelangelo. The course 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. The 8 lectures will be complemented by 2 visits to the Prints and Drawings Departments of the Royal Collection, Windsor and the British Museum.

Michelangeldo – Presentation and Commission Drawings (morning lecture)

In this morning lecture, you will see that nowadays drawings are seen as great works of art, but this was not always so. Drawings were at the outset purely functional. So when did drawings become works of art? You will look at this phenomenon, pioneered by Leonardo and ultimately perfected by Michelangelo. Also what was it that constituted a presentation drawing; the nature of Michelangelo’s relationship through those that received these presentation drawings (Tomasso, Quaratesi, Colonna etc) and his architectural commission drawings for his most important patrons.

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