Donatello Gallery 6 and 7 1939

This is a drawing of Donatello Gallery 6 and 7, made with pencil and wash by Eggers and Higgins. I love architectural drawings, it’s like looking at something real that is also not there, something imagined made to look real, like a dream. Here, the washes are so pale that the pencil work is still visible, like scaffolding on the surface of a painting, or even on a building itself. The lines that the artist made are precise and considered, but the subtle bleeding of the wash around these edges gives the whole image a kind of haunting quality, like a faded memory. Look at the figures at the front of each gallery, they’re so small and precise, like chess pieces, or placeholders for things that are yet to come. Drawings like this remind me that art making is really about all the different layers of time, space, and intention, all happening at once. Like Piranesi, Eggers and Higgins show us the glory of ruins, even before they have been built.