Enfilade

Guido Reni, Allegory of Learning (Seated Woman Holding a Tablet and Compass, alongside a Winged Putto), detail, ca. 1600–40, etching, Bartsch XVIII.289.16 (Athens: Georgia Museum of Art).

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Now on view at the Frost Art Museum in Miami:

Allegories for Learning:
16th- to 18th-Century Italian Works on Paper from the Georgia Museum of Art
Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum, Florida International University, Miami, 10 June — 10 September 2023

Curated by Nelda Damiano

Drawing became valued as an independent art form in Europe around the end of the 14th century. In studios and academies, apprentices repeatedly copied prints and drawings to improve their observational skills and hone their technique. With increased proficiency came more challenging exercises, such as using plaster casts and live models for arts instruction. This exhibition of works on paper illuminates how a drawing’s appearance reflects its geographical origin and the hand of an artist. The work’s formal qualities—media, support, variation of the lines—can point to a specific region in Italy. The location then makes it easier to narrow the list of contenders for authorship. This attribution process illustrates how influential artists who primarily lived in cultural centers, such as Florence, Bologna, and Venice, shaped generations of pupils and followers throughout Italy and beyond. Drawing played a central role in the creative process, the transmittal of ideas, and the spread of artistic styles. The works included here reinforce the power of drawings as a rich and varied medium. The exhibition is curated by Nelda Damiano, the Pierre Daura Curator of European Art at the Georgia Museum of Art in Athens.