The sixteenth century was a key period for the development of drawing in Europe. The wide range of drawing types, the variety of regional and individual styles, and the importance which artists
gave to this medium meant that this was an important time for the development of the technique. Painters learned that drawing was not just a practical exercise for the purposes of study but
also that it allowed them great freedom in expressing their imaginations and individual artistic personalities.
Originally published in Spanish to accompany an exhibition held at the Prado in 2005, this lavishly illustrated catalog features works that have been selected to explain the intrinsic
importance of the medium of drawing. Prior to their exhibition at the Prado, the sixteenth-century Italian works presented here were mostly unknown, for they had never previously been studied
as a group. Assembled by Pedro Fernandez Duran, this remarkable collection of drawings, built up from old European collections in the seventeenth to nineteeneth centuries, was donated to the
Prado in 1931.
