The purpose of this volume is to introduce the reader to the pleasure of looking at master drawings. Through forty-five spectacular works of art, each shown in full and with an enlarged detail, the book simulates the experience of looking at a drawing through a magnifying glass: we can see the techniques and materials used and get close to the artist's creativity. They are roughly ordered by date and were chosen for inclusion because, in addition to yielding beautiful details, they encompass a wide variety of media and techniques. Accompanying short texts highlight particular aspects of each work; italicized technical terms are explained in an accessible and informative glossary at the back. Works by some of the greatest masters of the craft--Leonardo da Vinci, Dürer, Raphael, Rembrandt, Ingres, Goya, Seurat, and Van Gogh--are included. The reader will gain insights into why artists made drawings, how they used the media available to them--including red chalk, watercolor, pen and ink, and pastel--and their techniques, such as hatching, stumping, squaring, and heightening. This beautiful and unpretentious book will have a wide appeal and will be especially invaluable for art students, practicing artists, and those who study art and art history.

The Philadelphia Museum of Art is fortunate to have a collection of Italian drawings that encompasses a broad sweep of Italy's art history, ranging from Renaissance and Baroque to Futurist and contemporary works by such famed artists as Parmigianino, Francesco Salviati, Guercino, Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione, Pompeo Batoni, and Amedeo Modigliani. With this publication, eighty of these drawings are provided with commentary, complete scholarly analysis, and biographies of the artists by the renowned scholar Mimi Cazort. The volume opens with an illustrated essay by Ann Percy, the Museum's Curator of Drawings, who offers the first full account of the people and events that shaped the formation of this exceptional but little-published collection.

Issued in connection with an exhibition held March 24-June 9, 2013, National Gallery of Art, Washington.

More than 100 masterworks from the collection, all in full color, each with a text about the artist and drawing as well as full documentation. 105 colour illustrations

This newest volume in Hudson Hills Press's acclaimed series about leading collections of master drawings presents sixty-eight great sheets, all reproduced in full-color, including many versos, from one of the finest college museums in America.

This beautiful and important book highlights the collection of European drawings at the Yale University Art Gallery, one of America's premier university museums. From intimate studies to exquisite finished compositions, this selection of works documents the history of European drawing practices beginning with late-medieval model books and progressing to the verge of the modern period. The accompanying text--written by a team of scholars--offers a unique introduction to various critical and technical aspects of the study of master drawings, brought to life through drawings from a range of national schools and in a variety of media. Among the drawings examined in this handsomely produced volume are an animated pen and ink sketch by Giulio Romano, a pastoral landscape by Claude Lorrain, a forceful and humorous caricature by Guercino, a scene from the epic poem Orlando Furioso by Jean-Honoré Fragonard, and a delicate portrait by Edgar Degas.