Exhibition overview
Drawn from the two foremost collections in
the field, this major exhibition features 100 exquisite drawings by
Italian Renaissance artists including Raphael, Leonardo,
Michelangelo and Verrocchio.
A unique collaboration between the Uffizi in Florence and the
British Museum, the display charts the increasing importance of
drawing during this period, featuring works by Leonardo da Vinci,
Fra Angelico, Jacopo and Gentile Bellini, Botticelli, Carpaccio,
Filippo Lippi, Mantegna, Michelangelo, Verrocchio and Titian.
In 15th-century Italy there was a fundamental shift in style and
artistic thinking in the use of preparatory drawings. What began as
a means of preserving artistic ideas became the ideal way to
perfect more naturalistic forms and perspective – a new approach by
painters, sculptors and architects.
Infrared and other technology used in conservation research
provide fresh insights into how drawing allowed painters to
experiment and explore with a freedom not always reflected in their
finished works. Examples in the exhibition show the trend towards
depiction of movement and expression of emotion, often inspired by
classical antiquity.
This exhibition is a unique opportunity to discover the
evolution of drawing which laid the foundations of the High
Renaissance style of Michelangelo and Raphael.
Read more on the
exhibition blog
Anonymous Lombard (Workshop of
Giovannino de'Grassi),
Two studies of a cheetah, 1410 (detail).
© Trustees of the British Museum
