Disegno: Drawing in Europe 1520-1600
The basis of all arts was once the art of drawing. As the Italian painter and theorist Giorgio Vasari stated in 1568: `…drawing was the father of painting, architecture and sculpture`. The Florentines gave great importance to the idea of form, compostion and expression in their artistic designs. The concept of ´disegno´, the ability to make a suitable form or design, became very strong among Florentine artists of the late Quattrocento and really took off in the 16th century. The Italians made it fundamental for a succesful concept or artwork, because only with improving designs the arts would remain in development. And that was what had been the basis of the Renaissance concept of art.
The Cinquecento masters first had great influence on their fellow artists in the region, but soon the idea of disgeno and the possibiliy to make your statement as an artist received great attention elsewhere. Spreading throughout Europe, sometimes through prints but often by travelling artists, the importance of a good design found an echo in Prague, Fontainebleau and even in the Low Countries.
image: The J. Paul Getty Museum, 2011.25, Toussaint Dubreuil about 1589–1602.Pen and brown ink with black chalk, 27.1 x 17 cm)
The exhibition showed where these various designs took form. It gives attention to the different schools that got in touch with the Florentine concept and how they used it. Doing so it shows 16th century European drawing where names like the ones of Goltzius, Spranger, Pontormo and Rosso Fiorentino are introduced. ´Disegno´ had become an influencial Italian export concept in the 16th century, an interesting period famous for its vigorous artistic form.
The J. Paul Getty Museum
Disegno: Drawing in Europe 1520-1600
until 3 February 2013