Seated Youth and Sketch of Legs n.d.

This is a chalk drawing of a seated youth with a sketch of legs, made by someone in the circle of Domenichino. Drawings like this were typically made in preparation for larger paintings. Art academies were growing in prominence at this time, and a lot of emphasis was placed on life drawing as an essential means for creating art in the dominant classical style. Artists would create drawings of live models in the studio, closely observing the play of light and shadow in order to create a sense of three-dimensionality. In the Italian baroque period when this drawing was made, there was increasing demand for paintings that emphasized drama and emotion. This meant that artists needed to master the skill of depicting the human body in motion, and drawings such as this would have been crucial. To better understand this drawing, one could research the histories of art academies in Italy and look at instruction manuals to determine the standard practices of the time. These kinds of social institutions shaped the production of art.