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Thinking on Paper: A Closer Look at Italian Drawings from the Princeton University Art Museum

Presented by Laura M. Giles, Heather and Paul G. Haaga, Class of 1970, Curator of Prints and Drawings, Princeton University Art Museum, and curator of the traveling exhibition 500 Years of Italian Drawings from the Princeton University Art Museum.

Beyond its chronological and stylistic sweep from the early Renaissance to early Modernism, this panoramic exhibition of 95 works provides dazzling examples of the pivotal role played by drawing, or “disegno”, in the Italian artistic process, encompassing both the mental formulation and the physical act of creation. In her talk, Laura will take a closer and contextualizing look at a select group of drawings by a wide range of artists, including Michelangelo, Guercino, and Modigliani, many of which convey the different stages of design for commissioned projects, from preliminary sketches through elaborate presentation sheets, while drawing as academic discipline is illustrated with examples of copies after prints and sculptures, and studies made from live models. At the same time, the growing status of drawing as an autonomous work of art is exemplified by a number of compelling portraits,landscapes, and genre scenes that hover between nature and fantasy.