ART REVIEW: “Invention and Design: Early Italian Drawings at the Morgan”“Invention and Design: Early Italian Drawings at the Morgan”, an exhibition at New York's Morgan Library and Museum, looks at a pivotal period in European drawing. It includes 90 works from the Morgan's extensive collection of Renaissance drawings and includes examples of works by masters such as Raphael, Botticelli, Mantegna, and Leonardo da Vinci.
Prior to the 14th century, artists were regarded as craftsmen, similar in status to carpenters and stone masons. However, during the 14th and 15th centuries, this view of artists began to change as people recognized the creative and intellectual aspect of making art. This change in status parallels a change in the artists' approach to drawing. Traditionally, an artist's studio would have a model book, which contained various images. This catalogue of images would be consulted and an appropriate image would be inserted into a painting whenever a certain subject was needed. Young artists received their training by drawing the images in the model book. Beginning in the 14th century artists began moving away from this training. Instead of the mechanical recreation of two-dimensional images, they began sketching three dimensional objects. Often these were studio assistants who posed acting as models for their colleagues. This process required the artist to observe and analyze the model. In addition, it required making decisions about composition. In short, drawing had become an intellectual process. As a result, the focus of art shifted to invention. It was not just about rendering observed reality but about what was inside the artist. While drawing skills remained important, the objective was now the creation of novel ideas. In this exhibition, the Morgan presents examples of early Italian Renaissance artists “thinking with their hands.” Often these are preparatory drawings of figures or a landscape that were used to develop ideas for a finished painting. However, the change in the role of drawing also led to drawings that were meant as finished works, particularly in portraiture. This, in turn, gave rise to connoisseurs who collected such finished drawings. This exhibition succeeds on two levels. First, it consists of beautiful drawings by master artists. However, it also succeeds by pointing out an important evolutionary step in the philosophical underpinning of drawing. |
Above: Correggio, "Head of A Woman Crying Out".
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Art review - Morgan Library and Museum - Invention and Design