From Finiguerra to Botticelli : The Early Italian workshops of the Renaissance

Exhibition at the Louvre of early Renaissance drawings and incunabula from the collection of Baron Edmond de Rothschild.


I found this an confusing exhibition but this wasn’t helped by the fact we came in from the wrong end and did it backwards! The idea was to show how printing developed in Italy and how this was influenced by drawing. However the exhibition was dominated by a fantastic model book bringing together wonderful architectural fantasies and pictures by the Master of the Soane Album.


The printing elements began with the wonderful “Battle of the Naked Men” by the Pollaiolo brothers and continued with a room of small early etchings. There were also some lovely drawings such as a boy in turban by Gozzoli and Gaddi’s drawings for his frescos at St Croce but they didn’t seem to fit with the theme.

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