Studies of Heads 1510 - 1561

This etching called "Studies of Heads" was created by an anonymous artist on an unknown date. It’s an assembly of animal head studies which tells us a lot about the culture that produced it. In the absence of a known artist and date, we can look to the image itself. Animal studies like this were extremely common in academic art of seventeenth-century Europe. Royal academies and their official drawing manuals codified a way of seeing and representing the natural world. The aim was to train the artist to see the universal ideal behind each individual example. Animal studies allowed artists to understand the underlying anatomy of different species. This knowledge was prized for history painting, which was considered the highest genre. To understand this work better, we can study the history of academic training and the market for prints. Art history is more than just connoisseurship. It’s a window into the social conditions that shape how we see the world.