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More Metalpoint

Metalpoint Drawing through the Centuries

Note: dimensions are given in inches, followed by centimeters in parentheses. Height precedes width.

Italian Renaissance, c.1450–1515

The use of metalpoint in fifteenth-century Italy was centered in the work- shop, where artists found it particularly suitable for figure studies. They were sometimes intended for direct use in paintings, but more often they functioned as both preparatory study and studio exercise, blurring the distinction between the two: an artist practicing life drawing simultaneously created a stock of figures for possible later use in works in other media. Many of these drawings were executed on colored ground and highlighted with white paint, as artists strove to extend silverpoint’s tonal range and to convey volume.

Some Italian Renaissance artists also used metalpoint to make rapid sketches or explore different poses, their flow of ideas uninterrupted by the need to refill a pen or sharpen chalk. Leonardo da Vinci (1452 –1519) advised aspiring artists to carry a sketchbook of tinted paper and record the world around them, but on the whole Italian Renaissance artists were less likely to use metalpoint sketchbooks than were their german counterparts.

Raphael (1483 –1520) was the last major Italian artist to work extensively with silverpoint. Its use in Italy ceased almost completely after about 1515. Most sixteenth-century artists preferred the more fluid and expressive materials of pen and ink or chalk.

Four drawings of faces and bodies are affixed onto a larger vertical album page, on which architectural decorations have been drawn on to act as frames. Three vertical drawings are spaced along the top half of the ivory-colored album page, and one larger horizontal drawing fills the bottom half. Drawn with brown ink and gray washes, the frames resemble moldings and scrolls around each drawing, with garlands flanking the bottom sketch. The three drawings in the top zone are done with metalpoint on gray or mauve paper and are highlighted with touches of white. The metalpoint technique creates faint silvery-gray lines. In the top left drawing, a nude man stands facing us. In the center, the face of a cleanshaven young man with curling hair beneath a cap looks down and to our left. Below the face, a forearm and hand clutching a rock appears next to another study of a hand. In the drawing to our right, a man wearing a toga-like robe leans on a walking stick, facing our left in profile. The drawing at the bottom is done with gray metalpoint lines and white strokes against golden yellow paper. A person sits and twists up in a spiral to our left. In the center of this drawing are three studies of muscular legs. Then, to our right, a man sits on a throne holding a spear or scepter and globe, facing our right in profile. An inscription in the frame below the bottom drawing reads, “Filippo Lippi Pitt: Fior:”
Italian Renaissance

Filippino Lippi (Italian, 1457 - 1504), Sandro Botticelli (Italian, 1446 - 1510), and Raffaellino del Garbo (Italian, 1466 - 1524), Page from “Libro de’ Disegni,” drawings probably 1480 – 1504; compiled and mounted on an album page by Giorgio Vasari (Italian, 1511 - 1574) after 1524, silverpoint, leadpoint, and various media with decoration in pen and brown ink, brown and gray wash, on paper, 22 5/16 × 18 (56.7 × 45.7), National Gallery of Art, Woodner Collection, Patrons’ Permanent Fund, 1991.190.1.
Italian Renaissance

Raffaellino del Garbo (Italian, 1466 - 1524), Risen Christ and Studies of Hands, on a Page from “Libro de’ Disegni,” c. 1495/1497, mounted on an album page by Giorgio Vasari (Italian, 1511 - 1574), silverpoint heightened with white over blind stylus on gray prepared paper with decoration in pen and brown ink, 14 7/8 × 10 1/16 (37.8 × 25.5), On loan from The British Museum, London © The Trustees of the British Museum, London, Pp,1.32.
Italian Renaissance

Master of the Pala Sforzesca (Italian, active c. 1490 – c. 1500), Head of a Young Woman, c. 1490/1500, metalpoint (probably silverpoint), heightened with white, on greenish-brown prepared paper, 9 1/2 × 6 5/16 (24.2 × 16), On loan from The British Museum, London © The Trustees of the British Museum, London, 1895,0915.475.
Italian Renaissance

Giovanni Antonio Boltraffio (Italian, 1467 - 1516), Study for a Drapery for the Risen Christ, c. 1491, black chalk (figure and outline of drapery) and silverpoint, heightened with white, on blue prepared paper, 7 1/16 × 6 1/8 (18 × 15.5), On loan from The British Museum, London © The Trustees of the British Museum, London, 1895,0915.485.
Italian Renaissance

Lorenzo di Credi (Italian, c. 1457/1459 - 1536), Head of a Boy, c. 1485/1495, metalpoint (probably silverpoint), heightened with white, the outlines partly indented, on pale brown prepared paper, 9 1/8 × 7 13/16 (23.1 × 19.9), On loan from The British Museum, London © The Trustees of the British Museum, London, 1895,0915.460.
Italian Renaissance

Domenico Ghirlandaio (Italian, 1449 - 1494), Head of an Elderly Man, c. 1484/1494, metalpoint (probably silverpoint), heightened with white, on pink prepared paper, 6 9/16 × 5 1/16 (16.7 × 12.9), On loan from The British Museum, London © The Trustees of the British Museum, London, Pp,1.3.
Italian Renaissance

Attributed to Benozzo Gozzoli (Italian, c. 1421 - 1497), A Nude Man with a Horse, c. 1447/1449, silverpoint with gray-black wash, heightened with white, on blue prepared paper, 14 1/8 × 9 11/16 (35.9 × 24.6), On loan from The British Museum, London © The Trustees of the British Museum, London, Pp,1.18.
Italian Renaissance

Leonardo da Vinci (Italian, 1452 - 1519), A Bust of a Warrior, c. 1475/1480, silverpoint on cream prepared paper, 11 5/16 × 8 5/16 (28.7 × 21.1), On loan from The British Museum, London © The Trustees of the British Museum, London, 1895,0915.474.
Italian Renaissance

Fra Filippo Lippi (Italian, c. 1406 - 1469), Standing Woman, c. 1460/1469, silverpoint, black chalk, and brown wash, heightened with white, over blind stylus on pink prepared paper, 12 1/16 × 6 9/16 (30.7 × 16.6), On loan from The British Museum, London © The Trustees of the British Museum, London, 1895,0915.442.
Italian Renaissance

Filippino Lippi (Italian, 1457 - 1504), Two Male Figures, c. 1485/1488, silverpoint and leadpoint, heightened with white, over blind stylus on gray prepared paper, 10 3/16 × 7 5/16 (25.9 × 18.5), On loan from The British Museum, London © The Trustees of the British Museum, London, 1858,0724.4.
Italian Renaissance

Giovanni di Pietro, called Lo Spagna (Italian, 1465 - 1528), Study for a Dead Christ, c. 1515, metalpoint (probably silverpoint) heightened with white, on cream prepared paper, 7 3/8 × 6 1/4 (18.8 × 15.9), On loan from The British Museum, London © The Trustees of the British Museum, London, 1860,0616.73.
Italian Renaissance

Pietro Perugino (Italian, c. 1450 - 1523), Head of a Man, c. 1496/1500, metalpoint (probably silverpoint), heightened with white, the outlines indented, on cream prepared paper, 7 3/16 × 4 15/16 (18.3 × 12.5), On loan from The British Museum, London © The Trustees of the British Museum, London, 1895,0915.597.
Italian Renaissance

Raphael (Italian, 1483 - 1520), Head of the Virgin, and Four Studies of Heads (by a childish hand), c. 1502, silverpoint over blind stylus on warm white prepared paper, 10 3/16 × 7 1/2 (25.8 × 19.1), On loan from The British Museum, London © The Trustees of the British Museum, London, 1895,0915.611.
Italian Renaissance

Raphael (Italian, 1483 - 1520), Studies for an Infant Christ, c. 1509, silverpoint on pink prepared paper, 6 5/8 × 4 11/16 (16.8 × 11.9), On loan from The British Museum, London © The Trustees of the British Museum, London, Pp,1.72.
Italian Renaissance

Raphael (Italian, 1483 - 1520), The Heads of the Virgin and Child, c. 1509, silverpoint on pink prepared paper 5 9/16 × 4 3/8 (14.2 × 11.1), On loan from The British Museum, London © The Trustees of the British Museum, London, 1866,0714.79.
Italian Renaissance

Studio of Filippino Lippi, A Standing Man and a Seated Man, c. 1485/1495, silverpoint heightened with white, the outlines indented, on purple prepared paper, 8 1/16 × 8 3/4 (20.4 × 22.2), On loan from The British Museum, London © The Trustees of the British Museum, London, Pp,1.24.