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| Artist | Beccafumi, Domenico (Italian painter, 1486-1551) |
| Title | Drawing after a Sculpture |
| Alternative/previous titles | Study of a Roman Head |
| Date earliest | about 1525 |
| Date latest | about 1540 |
| Material | oil on paper |
| Measurements | 24.5 x 17.3 cm |
| Description | In this sketch of a head Beccafumi used the oil medium in a limited palette of brown and beige. The use of oil is unusual in sketches of this period. The features of the figure suggest that it is a study after a classical or contemporary sculpture. By using limited colours, the artist could explore the way light fell on the three-dimensional object. The classical features of the subject reflect the important influence which antique art and culture had on the Renaissance, when many artists aspired to equal the quality of that period. |
| Subject | figure |
| Collection | Brighton Museum and Art Gallery |
| Current accession number | FA102326 |
| Acquisition details | Bequeathed by L. L. Bloomfield 1916. |
| Notes | See also inv. nos. FA102324 and FA102325. Beccafumi's interest in the possibilities offered by different media to create paintings, sculpture, prints and architecture, could be seen as a reflection of the ideas and interests of the Renaissance period. The use of oil to produce the sketches is very unusual for the period. A number of oil sketches by the artist survive and their production seems to have coincided with the artist's period of experimentation with woodblock printing in the 1520s and 1530s. Both media offered the artist the opportunity to convey depth through tone. For further examples of Beccafumi's studies of heads and figures, see: Torriti, P., Beccafumi, Milan, 1998. For Beccafumi's printing methods and drawings, see: Lincoln, E., The Invention of the Italian Renaissance Print Maker, New Haven, 2000. |
| Rights status | Brighton Museum and Art Gallery |
| Author | Bryony Bartlett-Rawlings |
