Chapter 9: Why Do Artists Draw?

Now that we’ve learned the basics of the visual arts, we will continue by understanding the various MEDIA - The means of making art.

In the Dutch Baroque Links to an external site. painter Jan Vermeer Links to an external site.’s work Allegory of Painting we see various media on display. Allegory Links to an external site.: Physical manifestation of an abstract idea/concept.

We see a well-dressed middle class man sitting at his easel and painting over a drawing on canvas. The young model in front of him wears a laurel wreath, holds a book and trumpet, and book. These attributes are associated with Clio, the Greek muse of history. Therefore she is the allegory of history and the artist is inspired by her (i.e. by history).

The entire left side of the painting is filled with a beautify tapestry curtain that has been pulled back to reveal the scene. The beautiful colors and patterns of the textile are highlighted with modeling of light (chiaroscuro).

On the table near the model (Clio/history) is a large stone mask. The piece is a work of sculpture and a mask is symbolic of artifice/ the artificial. Perhaps Vermeer is acknowledging the illusion of the scene, after all it’s not real, it’s just paint on the canvas.

Against the far back wall is a huge graphic print of The Netherlands (The country in which Vermeer lives). Many people of The Netherlands, aka The Dutch Republic, at this time decorated their houses with large maps and or views/scenes from their country. It was a point of national pride because they had only recently won their independence when they defeated their foreign overlords, The Spanish Empire.

Hanging the figures is a big brass chandelier (with no candles…so… it offers no light). The brilliancy of the metalwork appears to glow from the light shining through the window behind the curtain.

So in one artwork we see many forms of medium: painting, drawing, textiles, sculpture, graphic arts, and metalwork. What do you think is Vermeer’s statement or meaning behind this artwork? What is he saying about his work and his profession?

For today’s lecture, we are going to look more closely at 2 of the media exhibited by Vermeer: drawing and printmaking.

Why do artists draw? Well…they draw to record, to practice, and to express.

Drawing is fundamental to the human experience on a very basic level. (Think of cave paintings!)

First, we’ll consider the issue: to record.

In the design for Leonardo da Vinci Links to an external site.’s Vitruvian Man we see a record, a diagram, a documentation of his concept for the ideal proportions of man.

Second, the function of drawing is to practice.

An example is the High Links to an external site.Italian Renaissance Links to an external site. painter Raphael Links to an external site., The Alba Madonna Links to an external site.(c. 1511).

In this circular painting, Raphael shows us an intimate moment between the beautiful young Virgin Mary, her baby son Jesus, and the toddler St. John the Baptist. The holy figures are sitting in an Italian Tuscan landscape. (What kind of perspective is he using in the background?)

We are fortunate enough to have one of his studies for this painting! The preserved drawing is of a young man in the same position that the Virgin Mary will take in the final artwork. In the drawing we see how Raphael was “mapping out” or composing his figure.

On the reverse side of the page with see a drawing of a more complete composition for the piece with the young man now transformed into the female figure and with the incorporation of the two others. The circle drawn around the three bodies indicates his consideration of the round panel and his design to create harmony between the sharp/angular figures and the circular space.

Third, the function of drawing is to express.

The French artist Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres Links to an external site. (pronounced “Ang”) was a celebrated painter and draftsman. He completed many portraits of people with loose and expressive drawings.

Here is one of his numerous portraits done in this style, Nicolo Paganini (1819). Paganini Links to an external site. is a famous violinist and in this drawing, Ingres captures the skill, energy, and gesture of the musician with his strokes to create a sense of movement and freedom of line. The loose gestures of the drawing around the edges of the figure are in contrast to the fine and smooth details of the face which create an overall energetic balance of Paganini.

A second work displaying the expressive quality of drawing is James Carroll Beckwith Links to an external site.’s Portrait of Minnie Clark (c.1890).

Clark, a legendary artist’s model and close friend of Beckwith and here he captures Minnie’s graceful beauty and direct gaze by rendering her facial features in greater detail than the sketchy forms of her dress and the setting.