HIGHLIGHTS | Drawing the Italian Renaissance – The King’s Gallery

Featuring nearly 160 drawings from the Royal Collection at Windsor Castle, here are a selection of my favourites in the Drawing the Italian Renaissance exhibition:⁠

Giovanni Stradanus‘ (Jan van der Straet) study for The Alchemist’s Laboratory (1570), one of two paintings decorating Francesco I de’ Medici’s studiolo in the Palazzo Vecchio, Florence.⁠

Striking head of the Virgin by Bartolomeo Montagna, probably preparatory for the Virgin and Child enthroned with St. Andrew, St. Monica, St. Ursula and St. Sigismund (1499; Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan), painted for the Squarzi family chapel in San Michele, Vicenza.⁠

Polidoro da Caravaggio‘s design for a carved rock crystal, executed by Valerio Belli for Pope Clement VII. Depicting the Betrayal of Christ, it was intended to be affixed to the foot of a crucifix.⁠

One of the first drawings to catch my eye, Daniele da Volterra‘s weighty study of a seated man, perhaps to become one of Christ’s disciples. The meticulous rendering of drapery has the feeling of sculpted marble.⁠

A rare surviving drawing by Fra Angelico, possibly a head study for his frescoes of the life of St Lawrence in the chapel of Pope Nicholas V in the Vatican.⁠

Lelio Orsi‘s crossbowman appears to have been a study for the decorated facade of his brother’s house in Reggio Emilia. As such, the figure would’ve entered our space as he aimed at passersby on the street.⁠

A copy after Gentile Bellini of a dromedary. The thin, precise mark-making is utterly remarkable.⁠

Very unique application of blue bodycolour in this Adoration of the Shepherds, attributed to the little-known Neapolitan artist Leonardo Castellani.⁠

Parmigianino‘s study of a marble portrait head (or plaster cast) of Julius Caesar. The sensitivity and precision of his line is unmatched.⁠

A massive, full-scale design for a candelabrum, attributed to Marco Marchetti da Faenza. Its assymmetrical nature suggests it had the mix-and-match function of offering the patron or bronze-founder a wide-ranging choice of motifs.