Draperistudie til venstre halvdel af en kvindelig halvfigur og en gentagelse af draperiet omkring hendes nakke 1616 - 1686

Carlo Dolci made this study in sanguine chalk of drapery, around the mid-seventeenth century. Dolci was a Florentine painter known for his meticulous and highly finished works, particularly devotional images. Here, we see a fragment of a woman’s upper body and arm, carefully delineated by a mass of folds. Drapery studies like this one were an essential part of academic training in painting during the Baroque period. Artists paid careful attention to the way fabric fell and gathered, as a way to give their figures volume and movement. This mode of teaching art grew out of the academies that arose in the major art centers of Europe, that established formal rules for the making of art. The level of detail in this study gives us insight into the time, patience, and skill required of artists who wanted to succeed in this system. By consulting the records of academies, guild regulations, and workshop inventories, historians can show how art was embedded in its institutions. In this way, we can understand not just what art looks like, but how it acquired meaning as a social practice.