Virgin of the Immaculate Conception Standing on Clouds 1695 - 1705

Pedro Duque Cornejo created this drawing of the Virgin with pen and brown ink, and with touches of gray wash, sometime before his death in 1757. As you can see, he sketched with a rapid, light touch. He built up tone and volume through hatching and cross-hatching, creating a sense of depth and shadow that defines the Virgin's form. The softness of the wash gives a delicate, ethereal quality to the clouds beneath her feet. It is likely that this drawing was not intended as a final work, but as a study, perhaps for a larger painting or sculpture. Drawings like this were essential tools for artists in Cornejo's time, allowing them to experiment with composition, light, and shadow before committing to a final design. The loose, expressive lines and the subtle variations in tone reveal the artist's hand at work, capturing a moment of creative exploration. They also point to the hierarchies within art production at the time, with drawing ranked lower than painting or sculpture. Drawings, however, are vital to the creation of artworks, playing a key role in the division of intellectual and manual labor.