Nino Nanobashvili

On a neapolitan drawing from the Staatliche Graphische Sammlung München, showing a saint being
lifted up by angels into the clouds, which appears pale and partly blurry. A closer look reveals that the hatchings were executed from upper left to lower right, thus suggesting left-handed workmanship. But the blurriness and upside-down hatchings as well as the flat impression of the lines indicate that the sheet is a counterproof.
The paper follows the question what is a counterproof and for which reasons it was used by the artists in the 17th century. The paper discusses different artists as the above mentioned drawing from the circle of Solimena, as well as a large number of counterproofs from the Venetian artists Filippo Esengren.

Begleitheft zur Ausstellung an der Staatlichen Graphischen Sammlung München. 13.10. - 10.05.2020

Max Klinger (1857 – 1920), der unter seinen Zeitgenossen als der „deutsche Michelangelo“ galt, war nicht nur für seine Skulpturen und Gemälde berühmt, sondern vor allem für seine Druckgraphiken. Seine Neuerungen auf diesem Gebiet wurden mit niemand geringerem als Albrecht Dürer verglichen. Zahlreiche Künstler des 20. Jahrhunderts beriefen sich auf das Werk Max Klingers, so unter anderem Max Beckmann, Käthe Kollwitz und Max Ernst.

Konzeption der Ausstellung und der Broschüre: Andreas Strobl mit Nino Nanobashvili

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Accompanying booklet for the exhibition at the Staatlichen Graphischen Sammlung München. 13.10. - 10.05.2020

Max Klinger (1857–1920), considered the ‘German Michelangelo’ by his contemporaries, was not only famous for his sculptures and paintings but also for his prints, in particular. His innovations in this field were compared to no one less than Albrecht Dürer. Numerous 20th-century artists, including Max Beckmann, Käthe Kollwitz and Max Ernst, drew on the works of Max Klinger.

Conception of the exhibition and the brochure: Andreas Strobl with Nino Nanobashvili

Seit jeher ist der Hund treuer Freund und Begleiter des Menschen. Kunst und Kulturgeschichte illustrieren diese enge Beziehung zum beliebtesten Haustier der Deutschen auf vielfältige Weise. Der Hund erscheint als Spielgefährte, Helfer und Statussymbol, aber auch Erotik, Humor und Gefühle spielen eine Rolle.

Mehr als 220 Objekte von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart eröffnen ein faszinierendes Spektrum. Prominente Hundehalter wie Friedrich der Große, Bismarck, Sisi, Thomas Mann, die Queen, David Bowie und Rudolph Moshammer sind ebenso vertreten wie Werke von Anthonis van Dyck, Loriot und Rudi Hurzlmeier und zwei Pudel-Diamantbroschen von Grace Kelly. Im Spiegel des Hundes erzählt die Ausstellung somit etwas über den Menschen selbst und unsere Vorstellung von Menschlichkeit.

Katalogeinträge:
Kat. 2.10 - Terry O’Neill: Diamond Dogs, S. 98-99
Kat. 2.17 - Pete Souza: Barack Obama, S. 104-105
Kat. 4.25 - Amit Elkayam: Big Dog in a Big City, S. 140-141
Kat. 5.7 - Unbekannt: Maria Elisabeth Haagn mit Malteserhund, S. 149-150
Kat. 5.17 - Sergei Chirikov: Angela Merkel und Wladimir Putin, S. 158-159
Kat. 6.25 - Rakete mit den beiden Raumfahrthunden, S. 191
Kat. 8.18 - Bud Fraker: Audrey mit Pudeln, S. 225-226
Kat. 10.2 - William Hogarth: The Bruiser, S. 254-256
Kat. 11.9 - Richard Hermann Strebel: Um den Besitz, S. 276
Kat. 12.15 - Thomas Theodor Heine: Siegfried, S. 296-297

From early modern to modern times, drawing was firmly anchored in the realities of European society as a cultural technique . Based on this fact, the present volume asks for the first time about the significance of drawing and drawing education in other cultural areas. Indigenous methods of drawing and sign-learning in Arabic, Asian, Latin American, North American and European countries are addressed, as well as historical transfer processes of didactic methods, aesthetic norms and educational institutions of drawing instruction.


CONTENTS:

Tobias Teutenberg
Introduction: Towards a Global Perspective on the History of Drawing and Drawing Education

Lamia Balafrej
Figural Line: Persian Drawing, c. 1390–1450

Nino Nanobashvili
The Epistemology of the ABC Method: Learning to Draw in Early Modern Italy

Peter M. Lukehart
Evidence of Drawing: Giovanni Battista Paggi and the Practice of Draftsmanship in Late Sixteenth-Century Italy

Alexander Klee
Forming a Common Language: The Teaching of Drawing in the Habsburg Empire from 1850

Johannes Kirschenmann, Caroline Sternberg
“You Have to Draw with More Attention, More Dedication”: The Relevance of Drawing for Artistic Education at the Academy of Fine Arts Munich and its Significance in International Contexts

Werner Kraus
Picture and Drawing Education in Nineteenth-Century Java

Elena S. Stetskevich
Drawing Education at the Russian Academy of Sciences in the First Half of the Eighteenth Century

Veronika Winkler
Drawing Books and Academic Demands in the Viceroyalty of Peru

Oscar E. Vázquez
Drawing, Copying and Pedagogy in Mexico’s and Brazil’s Art Academies

Harold Pearse
Drawing Education in Canadian Schools: Late Nineteenth to Mid-Twentieth Century as Seen Through Drawing Textbooks

Rikako Akagi, Kenji Yamaguchi
The Evolution of Drawing Education in Modern Japan: The Impact of Traditional and Introduced Methods on the Artworks of Elementary Students in the Meiji Era

Ok-Hee Jeong
A Historical Review of Cultural Influences on Korean Art Education

Xin Hu
Drawing in China: Art and Art Education in the Wake of Modern China

Judith Rottenburg
The École des Arts du Sénégal in the 1960s: Debating Visual Arts Education Between “Imported Technical Knowledge” and “Traditional Culture Felt from Within”

Charlotte Bank
Art Education in Twentieth Century Syria


Open Access Publikation: https://doi.org/10.17885/heiup.457


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Painting re-invented itself during the 15th century in Florence. Artists experimented in an innovative manner with pictorial subjects, forms and techniques and thus arrived at an unprecedented diversity of means of artistic expression. This volume tells in an interesting and nuanced manner of a unique creative development which permanently changed art in Europe.

Catalogue entries:

Cat. 2: Baccio Balcini, Planet Mercury, Engraving, Kunstsammlungen der Veste Coburg
Cat. 3: Lorenzo Ghiberti, Preparatory drawing for the flagellation, Albertina Vienna
Cat. 4: Anonymous, Doublesided drawing, Albertina Vienna
Cat. 5: Tro drawings by Benozzo Gozzoli and Fra Angelico, Albertina Vienna and Kupferstichkabinett Dresden
Cat. 6: Francesco di Simone Ferrucci, Doublesided drawing, Kupferstichkabinett Berlin
Cat. 7: Fra Bartolommeo, Landscape drawing, Albertina Vienna
Cat. 8: Giotto, Three panels from an altar, Alte Pinakothek München
Cat. 9: Agnolo Gaddi, Six Panels from an altar, Alte Pinakothek München
Cat. 10: Gherardo Starnina, Last judgment, Alte Pinakothek München
Cat. 24: Fra Angelico, Two panels from an altar, Alte Pinakothek München
Cat. 30: Francesco Rosselli, Gherardo Starnina, Antonio Sinibaldi, Book of hours of Lucrezia de Medici, Staatsbibliothek München
Cat. 31: Francesco Rosselli, Annunciation, Engraving, Albertina Vienna
Cat. 41: Antonio Pollaiuolo, Battle of the nudes, Engraving, Kupferstichkabinett Berlin
Cat. 42: Antonio Pollaiuolo, Naked archer, Drawing, Kupferstichkabinett Berlin
Cat. 45: Gherardo di Giovanni, drawing of a nude David, Kupferstichkabinett Dresden
Cat. 59: Fra Bartolommeo, Madonna with a child, Drawing, Graphische Sammlung München
Cat. 83: Fra Bartolommeo, Selfportrait, Drawing, Graphische Sammlung München
Cat. 87: Lo Scheggia, Desco da parto, Musée Jacquemart-Andre Paris
Cat. 88: Mariano del Buono and Piero di Benedetto Strozzi, Illuminated manuscript after Titus Livius, Staatsbibliothek München
Cat. 100: Filippo Lippi, Figure studies, Drawing, British Museum London
Cat. 101: Davide Ghirlandaio (?), Figure Studies, Drawing, Graphische Sammlung München

Die Zeichenkunst gehörte in der Frühen Neuzeit zu einer grundlegenden künstlerischen Arbeitspraxis. Seit dem 16. Jahrhundert begannen in Italien zunehmend auch Kunstliebhaber damit, sich das Zeichnen anzueignen. Nanobashvili stellt erstmals in der Studie die Lerntechniken von Künstlern und Dilettanti gegenüber. Auf diesem Weg werden entscheidende Erkenntnisse zur Kunsttheorie und Zeichenpraxis in den Jahren von 1560 bis 1630 erlangt. Dies erlaubt eine Neubewertung von Alessandro Alloris Ragionamenti delle regole del disegno, der Carracci-Akademie in Bologna sowie der Praxis des Aktzeichnens, ausgehend von den Werkstattbeständen des venezianischen Künstlers Filippo Esengren.


208 Seiten, 160 Farb- und 43 S/W-Abbildungen, Hardcover
ISBN 978-3-7319-0612-4

Online: https://doi.org/10.11588/arthistoricum.1051

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In the early modern period drawing was one of the main working practices of artists. Since the 16th century more and more dilettanti showed interest for learn drawing. For the first time Nanobashvili opposes learning techniques of artists and dilettanti, by which she can shed new light on drawing practices and theoretical questions. This approach allows a new understanding of Alessandro Alloris Ragionamenti delle regole del disegno, the Carracci-academy in Bologna, as well as the life drawing by examining an informal circle of venetian artist Filippo Esengren.

Online: https://doi.org/10.11588/arthistoricum.1051

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At the Accademia del Disegni in Florence the intellectual contect of drawing/disegno has been highlighted to emphasize the parallels between the artist's intellectual activity and the written language. This process is particularly evident in the writing process of Alessandro Allori's manuscript "Ragionamenti delle regole del disegno"

Alessandro Allori started writing his drawing manual "Ragionamenti delle regole del disegno" in 1565 for the Accademia Fiorentina, where he was admitted with an uncompleted text. In the following years Allori kept reworking his manual, trying to make it even more understandable and easy to handle for his reader, the dilettanti.
The paper does not follow the older dating of the text by Simona Lecchini Giovannoni and Roberto Ciardi, which claimed that Allori started his manual around 1562 and finished it in 1565. In opposite, by looking closer to all the five manuscript versions in the Biblioteca Nationale Centrale di Firenze it makes clear, that Allori started with a highly theoretical treatise for the Accademia Fiorentina in 1565 and he was still working on it when Bronzino died in 1572.
By comparing the five unfinished versions of Allori’s manuscript one can trace his working process and his failures. Similarly to his colleague Vincenzo Danti, as it was highly demanded around 1565, Allori also began writing an anatomical book for the Accademia. His text should start with the “boring” basics of drawing, as the ABC-Method, dedicating the main part to the anatomy on the example of Vesalius. Unfortunately, understanding and simplifying De humani corporis fabrica caused the biggest difficulties for Allori, even if he owned the treatise by himself. Every time he began explaining anatomical details, his text became random, full of correcting marks and finally broke up. After several tries Allori recognized his failure and changed his manual from an anatomical to a drawing manual.
The paper traces Allori’s iterative writing process, how he recognized difficulties and solved the problems step by step in the five versions, transforming his anatomical book to the new medium: An ABC drawing manual.

When the artist’s academy “Accademia del Disegno” was founded in 1563 in Florence, it was not only an important moment for the artists, but also for dilettanti and mostly for the Medici family. From the beginning of the foundation the artists started to work on their intellectual program, to present themselves officially and interacted in the events organized by the Medici’s. The members of the academy did not always share the same point of view, which lead to many conflicts. Giorgio Vasari, the head of the academy and a closely connected to the Medici family, was also not neutral to his colleagues. His biographies and further texts often bear many changed narratives.
The lecture was dealing with a painting “Christ between saints Cosmas and Damian” in Brussels by Alessandro Allori, who was a pupil and heir of Agnolo Bronzino. The painting contains many issues important for the academy in its founding years, even thou the painting was never mentioned in the texts published by this institution. In the following, Nanobashvili discussed Alloris role in the artistic circles, Michelangelo’s tradition in Florence and the fortune of this less known painting.

David Summers emphasized that a figure, which appears in a painting several times, should not only be understood as a paragone to the sculpture, but also in the context of varietà, temporality, and space. While Summers was exploring completed paintings, my aim is to step back and look at their preparation process. My question is, if there has been a special issue about observing a form – generally a life model – from different sides. The initial point of my considerations is a collection of little known drawings by Filippo Esengren, a painter, antiquarian and goldsmith, working in Venice from 1614 until his death 1631.

Mit fatto nel academia sind die kaum bekannten Zeichenkonvolute von Filippo Esengren überschrieben, der zwischen 1614 und 1631 in Venedig tätig war. Diese Mappen enthalten eine reiche Auswahl an Aktstudien und erlauben einen Einblick in die Praxis des Zeichnens nach dem lebenden Modell im ersten Drittel des 17. Jahrhunderts. Die Beschriftung der Konvolute verweißt auf die Entstehung dieser Blätter an einer informellen Akademie.
Denn Esengren verkehrte als Antiquar am Mantuaner Hof, gehörte zu dem gelehrten Kreis (der Accademia Desiosi) gemeinsam mit Loredano in Venedig und illustrierte 1615 unter seinem italienischen Name „Ferroverde“ die neue Ausgabe der Immagini de gli Dei  von Vincenzo Cartari. Die nachgestellten Haltungen von lebenden Modellen spiegeln sein breites Wissen der Antike sowie der zeitgenössischen Arbeiten (von Tizian, Palma il Giovane und Alessandro Vittoria) wieder. Darüber hinaus verwendete er bei der Erarbeitung der verschiedenen Körperhaltungen eine in damaliger Zeit wenig nachweisbare Praxis des Abklatsches, die er möglicherweise aus seiner Tätigkeit als Goldschmied übernahm und an seinem Herkunftsort nördlich der Alpen kennenlernte.
In dem Vortrag wird anhand von drei ausgewählten Beispielen die prozesshafte Entstehung dieser Zeichnungen beschrieben. Dabei soll die Transformation der Formen aus anderen Werken in den Zeichnungen nach dem zeitgemäßen Wissensstand thematisiert werden. Auch wenn über Esengren heute kaum noch etwas bekannt ist, wurde sein Wissen von den Teilnehmer der Akademie rezipiert und ist insbesondere in den Gemälden von Alessandro Varotari (gen. Padovanino) wiederzufinden. Die Rolle Esengrens bei diesen Treffen ist weniger als die eines Lehrers, sondern eines Anstifters neben seinen Gleichgesinnten zu betrachten, die von seiner Kennerschaft profitierten. Die Analyse der Aktzeichnungen erlaubt Parallelen zu den zeitgleich in ganz Italien existierenden informellen Akademien zu erkennen.

The intention of the paper is to show that the appearance of the first drawing manuals since the 16th century in central Europe could be explained through two complementary developments. On the one hand, these drawing books were created by the artists who tried to attract noblemen for new commissions and at the same time to present their intellectual skills to appeal to educated circles. On the other hand, these books appeared as the noblemen from higher society themselves aspired to recieve a better education, so they would be able to express themselves in a more noble way. Both – the artists as authors and noblemen as reader – aimed to earn the higher social recognition. In the following paper I will go into further detail of these two aspects.

Since the 15th and mostly 16th century, when artistic theories appeared about drawing, disegno was transformed from a manual tool for artists to a means of intellectual expression. At the same time, the artists produced besides the theoretical treatises also practical manuals (so-called drawing books), which united theoretical and practical debates. If we look closer at their authors, one can find that the artists produced these books at the beginning of their carrers. For example, Alessandro Allori started to write one of the first Italian drawing books after he came back to Florence in 1565 from an educational journey in Rome and became the member of the famous literary academy Accademia Fiorentina. By writing his manual, he aspired to be acknowledged in higher social circles and attract new patrons. We can find a similar situation in the case of other artists who were also in a contact with the noble society and tried to improve their positions. For this they tried different strategies. For example, Odoardo Fialetti published between 1606-1608 his drawing book together with a fencing manual to attract the same reader. And Palma il Giovanne wrote a drawing and writing book at the same time around 1611. Furthermore, the Venetian Painter Filippo Esengren published 1623 his manual in the printing shop of Pietro Paolo Tozzi in Padua, whose clients belonged to intellectual society. In this way, he could make sure to distribute Esengrens book to the right reader.

The demand by noblemen for drawing books was rising since the second half of 16th century. In the Artistotelian tradition, study of four disciplines – writing, wrestling, music and drawing –, was suggested to higher society. One can see that at the Gonzaga court in Mantua during the 15th century, these disciplines were already taught at the same time. The most famous publication for gentlemen, Baldassare Castiglione’s Il Cortegiano (1528) suggested them to learn drawing, not only to express themselve and derive pleasure, but also to be able to judge artworks. In these traditions, it seems that in the 16th century alongside the self- educational manuals for writing, reading, playing instruments and making sport, drawing manuals also appeared on the book market.

To sum up, this paper aims to show, as Ann Bermingham and Catherine Whistler have done it for other artists before, how process of exchange between artists and educated society promoted the new genre of the drawing books.

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International Conference organized by Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte in the cooperation with Akademie der Bildenden Künste, Munich;
When: 28 - 29 October 2016;
Locations: Akademie der Bildenden Künste, Historische Aula, Akademiestraße 2-4, 80799 Munich; Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte, Vortragsraum 242, II. OG, Katharina-von-Bora-Straße 10, 80333 Munich;
http://www.zikg.eu/drawing-education-worldwide

International Conference „Drawing Education: Worldwide!“

As a technique, drawing was a firmly entrenched feature of European culture and society from the Early Modern Period until the 20th century. In conjunction with writing, it was the central competence for the acquisition, organisation and communication of knowledge, as well as forming an essential component within the design and production processes found in the realms of art, trade and industry – not to mention its role in everyday leisure activities.
Within the context of the international conference “Drawing Education: Worldwide!”, questions of the historical and modern value of drawing, including relevant teaching methods and materials, will be considered from a global perspective. Which aesthetic standards and stylistic norms were established and maintained throughout the centuries via the teaching of drawing? Which theories of art as well as cultural and social premises form the basis of the different drawing techniques used? And not least, what effects drawing education had on the bodies and minds of the learner – from heightened coordination-skills to the ability to analytically observe the world?
A key element of focus will be not only on the exchange of methods and motives for drawing from the colonial period to the present, including the effects of globalisation, but also on the non-hegemonic forms of debate and development within the context of drawing history.

Concept: Nino Nanobashvili, Ulrich Pfisterer, Tobias Teutenberg
The participation is free of charge. Registration: episteme@zikg.eu




Internationale Konferenz „Drawing Education: Worldwide!“

Zeichnen war von der Frühen Neuzeit bis in die Moderne als Kulturtechnik fest in der Lebenswirklichkeit der europäischen Gesellschaft verankert. Neben dem Schreiben stellte das Zeichnen die zentrale Kompetenz für den Erwerb, die Ordnung und Kommunikation von Wissen dar, war elementarer Bestandteil von Entwurfs- und Produktionsprozessen der Künste, des Handwerks und der Industrie und nicht zuletzt eine weit verbreitete Freizeitbeschäftigung.
Im Rahmen der internationalen Tagung „Drawing Education: Worldwide!“ sollen die Fragen nach dem historischen und aktuellen Stellenwert des Zeichnens wie auch nach den Methoden und Lehrmitteln des Zeichenunterrichts nun in einen globalen Horizont gestellt werden: Welche ästhetischen Standards und stilistischen Normen konnten durch das Zeichnen und Zeichnen-Lernen ausgebildet bzw. aufrechterhalten werden? Welche kunsttheoretischen, kulturellen und gesellschaftlichen Prämissen lagen und liegen unterschiedlichen Zeichentechniken und -praktiken zu Grunde? Und nicht zuletzt inwieweit erfuhren Körper und Wahrnehmung der Menschen durch systematisches Zeichnen vergleichbare oder auch verschiedene Prozesse der Konditionierung? Ein Schwerpunkt wird dabei auch auf historischen Austauschbewegungen von Methoden, Motiven und Institutionen des Zeichnens in Zeiten von Kolonialisierung und Globalisierung liegen, aber auch nicht-hegemoniale Formen der Auseinandersetzung und Adaption werden thematisiert.

Konzeption: Nino Nanobashvili, Ulrich Pfisterer, Tobias Teutenberg
Die Teilnahme ist kostenlos. Anmeldung: episteme@zikg.eu



28TH OCTOBER 2016
AKADEMIE DER BILDENDEN KÜNSTE: HISTORISCHE AULA

9.00
Dieter Rehm (Akademie der Bildenden Künste, München)
Welcome

Ulrich Pfisterer (Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte / LMU München)
Introduction

9.30-11.00
Chair: Therese Weber (Fachhochschule Nordwestschweiz, Liestal)

Lamia Balafrej (Wellesley College, Wellesley, MA)
Between Knowledge and Sensation: Persian Drawing, ca. 1390-1550

J.P. Park (University of California, Riverside, CA)
Art by the Book: Painting Manuals and the Leisure Life in Early Modern China

COFFEEBREAK

11.30-13.00
Chair: Hans Jakob Meier (Humboldt-Universität, Berlin)

Peter M. Lukehart (CASVA, National Gallery of Art, Washington)
The Evidence of Drawing in Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century Italy

Nino Nanobashvili (Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte / LMU München)
Epistemology of ABC-Method. Learning to Draw in Europe

LUNCHBREAK

14.00-16.15
Chair: Barbara Lutz-Sterzenbach (Fachverband für Kunstpädagogik, Bayern)

Alexander Klee (Österreichische Galerie Belvedere, Wien)
Shaping a Common Sense – Drawing Education in the Danube Monarchy since 1850

Tobias Teutenberg (Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte, München)
The Rise of a Period’s Eye. Drawing Education and Visual Culture in 19th Century Germany

Rikako Akagi / Kenji Yamaguchi (Okayama University, Okayama)
The Evolution of Drawing Education in Modern Japan: Influences of Indigenous and Introduced Cultures

COFFEEBREAK

16.45-18.15
Chair: Ulrike Keuper (Akademie der Bildenden Künste, München)

Johannes Kirschenmann / Caroline Sternberg (Akademie der Bildenden Künste, München)
The Role of Drawing within Art Education at the Munich Art Academy, and its International Significance

Harold Pearse (University of Alberta, Edmonton)
Drawing Education in Canadian Schools: Late Nineteenth to Mid Twentieth Centuries

KEYNOTE

19.00-20.00
Chair: Ulrich Pfisterer (Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte / LMU München)

Jorinde Voigt (Akademie der Bildenden Künste, München)
The Shift

EVENING RECEPTION

29TH OCTOBER 2016
ZENTRALINSTITUT FÜR KUNSTGESCHICHTE: VORTRAGSSAAL

9.00
Tobias Teutenberg (Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte, München)
Welcome

9.15-10.45
Chair: Urte Krass (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, München)

Veronika Winkler (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, München)
The Trained Eye. Drawing and the Liberal Arts in the Viceroyalty of Peru

Oscar Vazquez (University of Illinois, Urbana, IL)
Drawn from Life: Pedagogy and Power in Mexico’s and Spain’s Art Academies

COFFEEBREAK

11.15-12.45
Chair: Nino Nanobashvili (Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte / LMU München)

Werner Kraus (Centre for Southeast Asian Art, Passau)
Drawing in a Remote Place: Drawing Education in 19th Century Java

Judith Rottenburg (Deutsches Forum für Kunstgeschichte, Paris / LMU, München)
L’École des Arts du Sénégal in the 1960s: Debating Visual Arts Education between “Universal Artistic Techniques” and “Traditional Culture felt from within”

CLOSING WORDS


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As drawing (disegno) was acknowledged as an intellectual tool shared by early modern artists, scientists, and dilettantes, theoretical and practical books were produced to address the different aspects of disegno. At the end of the sixteenth century — almost simultaneously — artists in Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Spain and England started to produce practical manuals that taught drawing, specifically intended for different audiences. These early drawing books aimed to summarize broad knowledge from anatomy to proportion and to visualize abstract content in an intelligible way. This panel aims to present the epistemic process of producing the drawing books, concentrating on questions about the authors of the manuals and on the transformation of ideas that subsequently became long-standing pedagogical tools.

Italian texts around 1600 (Mancini, Baldinucci) often mention meetings in which artists gathered to draw from life (dal vivo), but we know a great deal less about the practice itself. Over 200 extraordinary drawings, entitled Libro di Filippo Esegrenio fatto nel’Academia, now kept together in Padua, were made from life models around 1620. One can even recognize the same pose, sketched by several draftsmen from various points of view. From these early times we do not have a similarly undivided collection from any academy. The informal life-drawing meetings of Filippo Esengren (from German Eisen-Grün, also called Ferroverde in Italian) in Venice were probably attended by artists and dilettanti, for whom he also published a drawing manual with Gasparo Colombina (1623). The paper intends to discuss the diversity of poses, their similarity to artistic ideals, their theoretical context and parallels to other informal and official art academies.