Borstbeeld van een zich vooroverbuigende jonge vrouw 1730 - 1770

Francesco Zuccarelli made this red chalk drawing of a young woman in the 18th century. It’s a study, really, of a particular pose, with the figure leaning forward and looking down. In Zuccarelli’s time, the Italian peninsula was no longer the center of art that it had been. The Royal Academy in London and the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris now dictated much of the artistic taste in Europe. Zuccarelli spent significant time in London, and his work catered to British tastes for Italianate landscapes. Back in Italy, he would become president of the Venetian Academy. Academies taught young artists how to draw the human figure, but also what the figure was for. Should artists focus on realism, or idealization? Should they study classical forms, or natural ones? Surviving drawings like this allow us to glimpse into the artist’s studio and understand how art was being taught and made. Historians rely on drawings as primary source documents, using them to piece together the social and institutional contexts that have shaped art for centuries.