Claire Van Cleave

Raphael Sanzio (1483-1520) was a member of the elite group of Italian Renaissance masters which also included his prominent rivals Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo. Born in Urbino where his father was court artist, he moved to Florence as a young man and there established his reputation by painting a series of Virgin and Child compositions. Four years later he was summoned to Rome by Pope Julius II to decorate his private apartments in the Vatican. His meteoric rise at the papal court inflamed the jealousy of Michelangelo, whose style Raphael was able to adopt and then make his own. For the next eighteen years Raphael was indispensable to Julius and his successor Leo X - not only as a painter, but also as a designer of tapestries, architect of St Peter's and even procurer of antiquities, dominating the arts in Rome until his untimely death on his 37th birthday. Raphael had an exceptional artistic eye and a gift for absorbing the styles of other artists and adapting them to his own means and purposes. Draughtsmanship was the foundation of his immensely successful career, and the British Museum holds an excellent collection of his drawings. Beginning with an introduction to the life of the artist, this beautifully illustrated book presents a chronological selection of Raphael's drawings including early figure studies, demonstrating his astonishing mastery of naturalistic movement. It then explores his working methods and shows how he incorporated the influences of his famous peers into his own inimitable style. The development of Raphael's ideas through his drawings gives insight into the mind and method of a fascinating and much-admired artist.

The brilliance of Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) was unprecedented in his own lifetime and has never been exceeded. The universality of his genius is extraordinary: he was a painter, sculptor, musician, architect, engineer, inventor, scientist, anatomist and mathematician. Even today he is rarely out of the news, and fascination with this Renaissance master and his work has never been greater. Leonardo famously left behind only a very small number of completed projects, but his surviving drawings, sketches and notebooks give an extraordinary insight into the workings of his mind and the enormous scope of his interests. Through drawing Leonardo attempted to record and understand the world around him, transmitting knowledge more accurately and concisely with images than would be possible with words. Beginning with an introduction to the life of the artist, this beautifully illustrated gift book presents a chronological selection of priceless drawings by Leonardo along with other beautiful works thought to be by his students and other members of his circle. These demonstrate his astonishing mastery of technique and how he communicated this to the artists who followed him. Leonardo's working methods and his wide range of interests are also explored, leading credence to the notion that the true nature of Leonardo's intentions can only be known through his remarkable drawings.

This book features masterpieces of Italian Renaissance drawings from the British Museum, the Louvre and other French public collections in Lille, Rennes and Montpellier. Beginning with an examination of drawing as part of the creative process, showing how it reveals the artist’s mind at work, it explains the materials and techniques used in Renaissance drawings. It also considers how drawings were used, how they changed stylistically through the period and how they varied in different regions of Italy. It concludes with a brief look at connoisseurship and collecting. The main body of the book showcases 120 of the finest drawings by more than 40 Italian Renaissance masters, accompanied by a brief biography and introduction to the drawings of each artist.