The High Renaissance of the early 16th century was the age of Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and Raphael, three geniuses whose dynamic, monumental, and psychologically incisive compositions changed the course of art. It was also then that drawing achieved full recognition as an art form in its own right. Leonardo interspersed his codices with drawings on many subjects, some observed from life, others from his imagination. Michelangelo was known as Il Divino for his gift for combining powerful imagery and technical virtuosity. Raphael – who came into contact with both – developed his own, exquisite style which lent itself to drawing female subjects as well as male. Perhaps the most immediately influential would be Michelangelo whose drawings were translated into sculpture by artists around Europe, and whose muscular forms shaped the vocabulary of Late Renaissance artists such as Tintoretto.

 MICHELANGELO & RAPHAEL

Although they had radically different approaches, both Michelangelo and Raphael (whose full name was Raffaelo Sanzio) aimed not only to emulate Antique sculpture but to surpass it, adding to its idealised naturalism a sense of the emotions experienced by real human beings. Both artists moved to Rome just as magnificent ancient sculptures like the Laocoön were excavated and placed in the Vatican’s new Belvedere Courtyard. Michelangelo - who Vasari tells us burnt large numbers of his drawings so that no one could witness his creative process - particularly admired the so-called Belvedere Torso. Raphael - commissioned by Pope Leo X with producing drawings of Rome’s ancient monuments - depicted with almost scientific accuracy sculptures like one of the horses on the Quirinale. Some of these images circulated widely as engravings, contributing to the standardisation of ideal types. Michelangelo, in contrast, saw his task as interpreting rather than recording, believing that the artist “should grasp the divine genius of the [original] sculptor rather than trying to make an imitation.’ He also disregarded the proportions established by Vitruvius, believing that it was up to him and indeed each artist to judge and create ideal beauty. The drawings below include studies for figures from life and after Antique sculptures, detailed compositions for frescoes, and an independent work, The Dream by Michelangelo.

 LEONARDO & ANATOMY

Leonardo is best known for his paintings, but he was also a prolific draughtsman and polymath interested in anatomy, mechanics and many other subjects. The twelve-volume Codex Atlanticus, started in 1478, includes sketches of inventions from flying machines to hydraulic pumps. By the early 1500s, Leonardo was famous throughout Europe, and the commission to produce the Battle of Anghiari in Florence’s Palazzo Vecchio turned into a competition with Michelangelo who was tasked with producing a companion piece, the Battle of Cascina. Neither fresco survives but preparatory drawings provide tantalising glimpses. Leonardo’s numerous anatomical drawings follow Alberti who recommended that artists construct the human figure from the skeleton and musculature outwards. Vasari suggested that Antonio del Pollaiuolo – whom Leonardo probably met during his apprenticeship with Verrocchio - was one of the first artists to undertake anatomical investigations. Michelangelo was also interested, as we see in works such as his Three Studies of a Leg. The study of anatomy would become part of the artist’s curriculum over the course of the next century.

 LATE RENAISSANCE

Raphael died in Rome in 1520, but Michelangelo lived on until 1564, producing some of his finest drawings in the intervening decades. By then a new generation of painters was emerging, including some from other parts of Europe - such as the Dutch Maarten van Heemskerck (1498-1574) and Spanish Gaspar Becerra - who took back model drawings of Roman works back to their home countries. Although the importance of drawing in Venice was questioned by Vasari, the few drawings by Titian (1490-1576) that survive, such as the Ashmolean’s Horse and Rider Falling, show us an artist for whom the practice was essential. His rival Tintoretto (1518-1594) left over 100 works on paper, lively studies of movement and the effects of light conveyed in long, sweeping strokes. North of the Alps we see outstanding works by followers of Dürer and Van Eyck such as Lucas Leyden (1494-1533) and Hans Holbein the Younger (ca. 1497-1543). The drawings of Pieter Bruegel the Elder (ca. 1525-1569) are in a class of their own, conjuring up the social, political and religious turmoil that beset the Netherlands over the course of the 16th century.