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.
Professor Catherine Whistler, Keeper of Western Art, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.