Male Figure Study 16th-17th century

This drawing of a male figure was made with pen and brown ink by Palma il Giovane, sometime around 1600. It’s a study, a sketch, and a preparation for a larger, more finished work. Venice, where Palma lived and worked, was a mercantile republic, an oligarchy of rich families who competed to commission the most impressive displays of wealth and taste. The art world was intensely competitive and artists relied on workshops to produce art on demand. In a workshop context, drawings were crucial. They allowed artists to plan out their compositions, explore variations on a theme, and delegate tasks to assistants. In this drawing we can see Palma working out the pose and musculature of a male figure, perhaps for a painting of a biblical or mythological scene. To understand more, we might look at Palma’s other drawings, paintings, and the art market in Venice at the turn of the 17th century. The meaning of this drawing resides not just in the image itself, but in the social and institutional context in which it was made.