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Pisanello (Antonio Pisano), Reclining River God with Two Putti, ca. 1431-33 or 1440s, Berlin, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Kupferstichkabinett.
Pisanello must have seen this statue on a visit to Rome where it remained, on the Quirinal Hill near the Horse Tamers, throughout the Middle Ages. In the 15th century it was thought to represent Saturn.
The River Tigris, second century CE, marble, Rome, Capitoline Museums.
Workshop of Benozzo Gozzoli, A Nude Young Man Seated on a Block, ca. 1460, metalpoint over stylus, grey-brown wash, heightened with white, on prepared paper, London, British Museum.
Here the live model has been posed like the famous Greco-Roman sculpture of the Spinario, a practice which would become widespread in later centuries.
Andrea Mantegna, Drawing after the Relief on the Arch of Constantine, late 15th century, black chalk with brown ink, Vienna, Albertina.
Leonardo da Vinci, Profile of a Warrior in a Helmet, ca. 1472, silverpoint on paper, London, British Museum. on paper, London, British Museum.
This drawing was probably drawn by Leonardo during his seven-year apprenticeship to Verrocchio who was then the leading sculptor in Florence.
Attributed to Andrea del Verrocchio, Publius Cornelius Scipio, ca. 1475, marble, Paris, Musée Du Louvre.
Andrea Mantegna, Three Divinities, 1495-1500, pen and brown ink, brown wash, London, British Museum.
Albrecht Dürer, Standing Male Nude Holding a Bow ("Poynter Apollo"), 1501-3, pen and brown and black ink, New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art.
This drawing reflects Dürer's admiration for antique sculpture – in particular, the Apollo Belvedere, which had been recently discovered and was considered the supreme example of male beauty. Although Dürer did not travel to Rome, it was known to him through drawings and was a source of inspiration in his search for the perfect anatomy.
Enea Vico, after Baccio Bandinelli, The Academy of Baccio Bandinelli, ca. 1545-50, engraving.
The celebrated sculptor Baccio Bandinelli (1493-1560) saw himself as Michelangelo’s rival, and in this work he is depicted as a man of learning, surrounded by books and antiquities and wearing a knight’s badge. One of his achievements was to secure from Pope Leo X (r. 1513-21) space in the Belvedere Courtyard at the Vatican for young artists to draw small models of Rome’s classical sculptures.