Thursday, January 11, 2018

Agostino Carracci - Drawing-Book Pattern-Prints (part II)

Agostino Carracci (designer)
Drawing-Book Pattern-Print
Studies of ears
ca. 1600-1630
engraving by Luca Ciamberlano
British Museum

Agostino Carracci (designer)
Drawing-Book Pattern-Print
Studies of feet
ca. 1600-1630
engraving by Luca Ciamberlano
British Museum

Agostino Carracci (designer)
Drawing-Book Pattern-Print
Studies of hands
ca. 1600-1630
engraving by Luca Ciamberlano
British Museum

"Drawing was at the core of any artist's education, the means by which goldsmiths, sculptors and painters learned to train their eyes and transcribe what they saw into works of art.  . . .  Copying examples by accomplished artists represented another phase of learning to draw.  Leonardo recommended that copying exempla enabled the young artist to confirm the rules that he learned while studying nature.  . . .  Young artists made copies after model-books, compilations of accomplished drawings that were used as patterns for drawings and paintings.  . . .  The process of learning to draw never ceased: even an accomplished artist would have continued to hone his skills through drawing for the duration of his career, much as a talented pianist continues to practise his scales."

 Claire Van Cleave, Master Drawings of the Italian Renaissance (Harvard University Press, 2007)

Agostino Carracci (designer)
Drawing-Book Pattern-Print
Studies of arms
ca. 1600-1630
engraving by Luca Ciamberlano
British Museum

Agostino Carracci (designer)
Drawing-Book Pattern-Print
Studies of arms
ca. 1600-1630
engraving by Luca Ciamberlano
British Museum

Agostino Carracci (designer)
Drawing-Book Pattern-Print
Studies of legs and feet
ca. 1600-1630
engraving by Luca Ciamberlano
British Museum

Agostino Carracci (designer)
Drawing-Book Pattern-Print
Studies of legs and feet
ca. 1600-1630
engraving by Luca Ciamberlano
British Museum

Agostino Carracci (designer)
Drawing-Book Pattern-Print
Studies of feet
ca. 1600-1630
engraving by Luca Ciamberlano
British Museum

" . . . I shall rest my argument on one single thing concerning the great mind of Carracci, and this is that in his honored profession he was a judicious imitator of natural and artificial things and thus merited his fame as a great and admirable painter.  Not without reason do I call him a judicious imitator: for since he considered that the object of painting is to bring delight, he always aimed at imitation of the best, guarding against the error of the many people who prefer simple resemblance, even when it concerns the worst or ugliest things, to a beauty that is free of every defect." 

 from the Oration of Lucio Faberio, upon the death of Agostino Carracci, reprinted in Malvasia's Life of the Carracci, edited and translated by Anne Summerscale (Pennsylvania State University Press, 2000)

Agostino Carracci (designer)
Drawing-Book Pattern-Print
Studies of hands
ca. 1600-1630
engraving by Luca Ciamberlano
British Museum

Agostino Carracci (designer)
Drawing-Book Pattern-Print
Studies of hands
ca. 1600-1630
engraving by Luca Ciamberlano
British Museum

Agostino Carracci (designer)
Drawing-Book Pattern-Print
Studies of eyes, ears, mouths
ca. 1600-1630
engraving by Luca Ciamberlano
British Museum

Agostino Carracci (designer)
Drawing-Book Pattern-Print
Study of woman in profile
ca. 1600-1630
engraving attributed to Luca Ciamberlano 
British Museum

Agostino Carracci (designer)
Drawing-Book Pattern-Print
Study of woman in profile
ca. 1600-1630
engraving attributed to Luca Ciamberlano
British Museum

Agostino Carracci (designer)
Drawing-Book Pattern-Print
Study of women in profile
ca. 1600-1630
engraving attributed to Luca Ciamberlano
British Museum