Drawing in silver and gold: from Leonardo to Jaspar Johns

Wonderful exhibition at the British Museum focusing on silverpoint drawings.

Name a Renaissance artist from either the North or the South of Europe and they were here! The show starts with a Botticelli from Vasari’s own scrap book of drawings and amazingly it just got even better from there! In the Italian section there were Lippi’s, the wonderful Da Vinci picture of hands, a lovely study of a monkey by Pisanello, a Gozzoli, a Ghirlandaio head of a man and drawing from the circle of Raphael.

Looking north there was a Roger Van de Weyden and I’d never consciously seen a drawing by him or his studio.  I loved a picture by Petrus Christus picture of a man with a falcon with fantastic detailed fur and a lovely sense of the interior space of the room.

I liked the pictures by Goltzius who seemed to use the technique for his most person pictures such as portraits of his family. My favourite picture was his of a sleeping dog which was probably his pet! As you may have realised I am a sucker for a picture of a dog!

The latter section was interesting too which talked about a revival in the technique in the 20th century with a lovely self portrait of Nevinson and of course the Jasper John’s mentioned I the title of the show.

Review
Times

 

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