Leonardo – Dürer
Renaissance Master Drawings on Colored Ground
From 7 March 2025
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ALBERTINA, VIENNA
In his famed painting treatise of ca. 1400, the Libro dell’Arte, Cennini held drawing in light and dark hues to be »the entrance and gateway to painting.« On tinted paper, it was often possible to work toward darker as well as lighter hues with breathtaking virtuosity. In this way, artists and their audiences succeeded in accessing entirely new aesthetic experiences. Master drawings such as Leonardo’s Head studies and Dürer’s Praying Hands paved the way for the recognition of drawing as an artistic genre equal to painting and still number among the most famous works of the Renaissance.
This exhibition of the ALBERTINA combines selected drawings from the museum’s own holdings with highcaliber loans from international collections to present an overview of this technique’s development, which was ultimately consummated by Leonardo da Vinci and Albrecht Dürer.
On view from 7 March until 9 June 2025 at the ALBERTINA Museum in Vienna.
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Albrecht Dürer: Head of the angel playing a lute (Detail from „Rosenkranzfest“), 1506
Brush in gray and black, gray wash, heightened with opaque white, on blue paper
(The ALBERTINA Museum, Vienna © The ALBERTINA Museum, Vienna)
Antonio Pisano, referred to as Pisanello: Allegory of the Luxuria (recto), Around 1426
Pen and brown ink, traces of metalpoint or black chalk on reddened paper
(The ALBERTINA Museum, Vienna © The ALBERTINA Museum, Vienna)
Hans Baldung Grien (Schwäbisch Gmünd 1484/85–1545 Straßburg): New Year's greetings with three witches, 1514
Pen and brush in black and white opaque paint on brown primed paper
(The ALBERTINA Museum, Vienna © The ALBERTINA Museum, Vienna)
Leonardo da Vinci: Half-figure of an apostle, 1493-1495
Silverpoint, brown pen, on blue primed paper
(The ALBERTINA Museum, Vienna © The ALBERTINA Museum, Vienna)
Leonardo da Vinci: Standing male nude, 1503–1506
1503–1506, Red chalk, pen and brown ink on red prepared paper Windsor Castle, London, RCIN 912594
(© Royal Collection Enterprises Limited 2024 | Royal Collection Trust)
Oberrheinischer Meister: Sample sheet with evangelist symbols, various animals and wild man, around 1430-1440
Brush in white on black primed paper
(Frankfurt am Main, Städel Museum, Inv. 638 Z © Städel Museum, Frankfurt am Main)
Raffael: Study of the Bridgewater Madonna (recto), around 1506–1507
Metalpoint and pen on brownish primed paper
(The ALBERTINA Museum, Vienna © The ALBERTINA Museum, Vienna)
Brush in gray and black, gray wash, heightened with opaque white, on blue paper (The ALBERTINA Museum, Vienna © The ALBERTINA Museum, Vienna)
Pen and brown ink, traces of metalpoint or black chalk on reddened paper (The ALBERTINA Museum, Vienna © The ALBERTINA Museum, Vienna)
Pen and brush in black and white opaque paint on brown primed paper (The ALBERTINA Museum, Vienna © The ALBERTINA Museum, Vienna)
Silverpoint, brown pen, on blue primed paper (The ALBERTINA Museum, Vienna © The ALBERTINA Museum, Vienna)
1503–1506, Red chalk, pen and brown ink on red prepared paper Windsor Castle, London, RCIN 912594 (© Royal Collection Enterprises Limited 2024 | Royal Collection Trust)
Brush in white on black primed paper (Frankfurt am Main, Städel Museum, Inv. 638 Z © Städel Museum, Frankfurt am Main)
Metalpoint and pen on brownish primed paper (The ALBERTINA Museum, Vienna © The ALBERTINA Museum, Vienna)