Studie naar een model in wijde mantel 1590 - 1610

Matteo Rosselli made this red chalk drawing, Study of a Model in a Wide Mantle, in Florence sometime in the early 17th century. Rosselli ran a busy studio, and drawings like this served an important pedagogical function. Italian art academies institutionalized the practice of drawing from life. The all-male student body was trained in the importance of accurately representing the human form, and they did so by working from nude and draped models. Rosselli’s drawing thus represents a key aspect of the social and institutional history of art: artistic training. Rosselli was employed by the Medici court, where he decorated palaces with large-scale fresco cycles. Drawings like this, then, would have helped him prepare for such commissions, and can give us insights into the culture of courtly life in Florence. As historians, we might want to examine student drawings from the period to understand how the academy shaped artistic styles. Or we could look at inventories of the Medici collections to understand the kinds of projects that Rosselli was employed to complete.