Category: Old Master Drawing Copies

Works of art copied from Old Master drawings

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Graphite Drawing After Michelangelo Buonarroti

Standing Male Nude Seen From Behind After Michelangelo

The drawing above is a copy of a work entitled ‘Standing Male Back Nude’ by Michelangelo Buonarroti. The original is housed in the Albertina Museum in Vienna. Michelangelo’s drawing was done in brown pen over black chalk. I drew mine in graphite pencil over another layer of graphite pencil. I have copied drawings from Michelangelo before and perhaps I’ve even talked about him. But I mean it is Michelangelo, so I guess we can always talk about him some more.
The following information comes from Wikipedia. Actually, the German version of Wikipedia that was then translated into English using the built-in translator feature on my browser. I guess I could just go to the English version of Wikipedia or translate the Italian Wikipedia page but this method is more fun and exciting and if you’ve read the rest of my blogs you will see that fun and exciting and me go hand in hand. Moving on, the German wikipedia page says Michelangelo came from a middle class family in Florence, Italy and that their family was distinguished. The family was distinguished, not Florence. Although you could say the city of Florence is quite distinguished. But the article states that his family was distinguished. However, it doesn’t say what exactly makes the family distinguished. It does say his father worked for a year as a city bailiff in Caprese. So I guess that is enough to make a family distinguishing.
Michelangelo had always wanted to become an artist even though his father was against it. When he was thirteen he convinced his father to let him study art. So he became an apprentice in the workshop of Domenico Ghirlandaio where he learned to paint on fresco. So let’s get this straight, Michelangelo knew as a child what he wanted to do the rest of his life. And not only that, he was also able at the age of 13 to convince his father to let him do it. I’m going to let that sink in and call it a day. More to come later…

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Pen and Ink Drawing After Rembrandt van Rijn

Man Sitting on the Ground After Rembrandt

Next up we have a copy of an etching done by Rembrandt van Rijn of a man sitting on the ground. I drew my copy with a pen called “inkjoy” which is made by the really great folks at the Papermate company. Unfortunately, this particular pen is not that great for drawing. However, whenever I have a bad day at work I like to come home and grab my “inkjoy” pen and all my troubles start to melt away. In these tough times it’s nice to know that the outstanding people at papermate are fighting for our “joy”. The “inkjoy” pen is available at Walgreens or anywhere fine art supplies are sold. I basically copied that from my Instagram account because I’d like to think I’m kind of an expert when it comes to myself. And there is no Wikipedia page on me. Believe me I have searched. When you type in ‘Brad Luthin’ at Wikipedia, a prompt comes up saying did you mean ‘brand luther’. If you click on ‘brand luther’ it takes you to a page saying that the page does not exist. So I googled Brand Luther and there is a book entitled ‘Brand Luther‘ which is about Martin Luther who started the Protestant Reformation. Martin Luther used the power of publishing to promote his ideas. And wouldn’t you know it I used to work in publishing. I designed newspaper advertisements. Martin Luther also gave us the Lutheran church. Growing up there was a Lutheran church in our neighborhood and it was listed in the phonebook next to our family name ‘Luthin’ and people would sometimes call and ask if we were the Lutheran church. I know that’s not much of a story but it is true and this is a Free blog with no ads (yet). At this point, you’re probably asking yourself what is the point of all this. That is a great question. My answer would be nowhere, because this post went nowhere. Enjoy the rest of your day!

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Prismacolor® Pencil Drawing After Charles Le Brun

Drawing of Prometheus Bound After Charles Le Brun

Right above this text you should see a copy of a drawing by Charles Le Brun. The original was done in Sanguine with some white added. Sanguine is a chalk with a reddish-brown color that resembles dried blood. If you want to buy some for drawing you can find it at better art supplies stores everywhere. Just ask for Sanguine chalk for drawing. I have found that this is more effective than asking for something that looks like dried blood. Sanguine or Sanguigna in Italian or Sanguis in Latin has been around for centuries. There was also some white added to Le Brun’s drawing. It didn’t say what kind of white so you are on your own. I drew my copy using Black and white Prismacolor pencils on gray toned paper. The subject of the drawing is Prometheus Bound. Which is a Greek play written by Aeschylus sometime between 479 bc and 424 bc. This tragedy is about the Titan Prometheus who disobeys Zeus by giving fire to mankind. Apparently, Zeus did not believe man deserved fire but Prometheus thought man would need fire to stay warm, cook food and ultimately over cook that same food. Zeus punished Prometheus by tying him up with chains and then let an eagle eat his liver. The liver would grow back every night and then the eagle would then eat the liver again. So there are two things we can learn from this story. First of all, only eagles are willing to eat liver and secondly you should never do anything that benefits mankind.
Let’s talk about Charles Le Brun. According to Wikipedia, he was baptized in Paris, France on February 24, 1619 and died on February 12, 1690. He was a painter, an art theorist, an art school director and a physiognomist. You probably are unsure what a painter does. He paints. You are probably even more confused about what a physiognomist is. Apparently, and this is according to Wikipedia, it is someone who judges a persons character by their appearance. I’m going to leave it there.

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Graphite Drawing After Rembrandt

Nude Woman on a Stool After Rembrandt

This next blog post is a drawing of a female nude sitting on a stool copied from a work by Rembrandt. Also known as Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn, Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn, Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn, Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rhijn Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rhijn, Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn, Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn, Rembrandt van Rijn. Thank you to the Art Institute of Chicago for not only housing the drawing we are referring to but for also providing us the variations of his name just in case we didn’t recognize the name Rembrandt. I was totally confused when I saw the drawing was done by someone named Rembrandt. I always called him Haremszoon or simply Harmensz. I think most people make that simple mistake.

I always called him Haremszoon or simply Harmensz.

As I mentioned before, the original drawing is on display at the Art Institute of Chicago. Which if I remember correctly is some kind of art institute that is located in or around the Chicago metropolitan area. Sometimes instead of just regurgitating some information I haphazardly found on the web, I like to express my own knowledge about art and the world around myself and the world around art which would be I would guess the same world. If you have ever been to the Art Institute in Chicago and had the time or inclination to visit the drawing department you might have seen it. At the time of this post however it is not on view so you will have to wait. Sometimes it is out on loan to a major museum in a major city. If you live in a small town like Margate, Florida then it is highly unlikely that you will see this drawing. If fact it is highly unlikely that you will see any major work of art. If you want to see lots of bad copies of old master drawings then just stop by my place.

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Graphite Drawing After Domenichino

Pencil drawing of a Foot after Domenichino

The next drawing on my old master copy marathon is a graphite pencil drawing of a foot. If it does not look like a foot then I have failed unless I wanted to confuse you then I succeeded. If I was trying to confuse you about what the drawing was but you could tell it was a foot then I have failed. My drawing is a copy of a work done in chalk by the 17th century Italian Master Domenico Zampieri or as he was known, Domenichino. Domenichino means little Domenico because, according to my well researched research he was a small guy. Yet he was a giant when it comes to 17th century painting. From the 17th through the 19th centuries, he was considered one of the greatest painters of all time, second only to Raphael. Domenichino studied art in Bologna under Annibale Carracci and became Carracci’s favorite student and assistant.

Domenico Zampieri, I feel strange calling him Domenichino, maybe he didn’t like that nickname. Moving on, Domenico was an excellent draftsman who carefully studied nature as well as ancient sculpture and then idealized his forms making them nearly flawless. He also created idealized landscapes that later influenced the great landscape painters such as Claude Lorrain and Nicolas Poussin. Domenichino was also a talented musician and architect. He was also incredibly well read. He believed art is a type of poetry. Some of his greatest work is at The Church of St. Louis of the French which is a Roman Catholic church in Rome, and also the The Last Communion of Saint Jerome altarpiece which can be found in the Vatican. Later in his life he was bullied by younger and perhaps jealous artists and he is believed to have committed suicide because of it.

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Graphite Pencil Drawing After Peter Paul Rubens

Graphite Drawing after Peter Paul Rubens

My next offering is a copy of drawing done by the Flemish master Peter Paul Rubens sometime between 1617-18. The Victoria and Albert Museum where the drawing is displayed describes his work as a study of a nude man that is in a recumbent position and then trying to raise himself up and that seems to confirm what we see. But wait there’s more. There are also two studies of legs, that are in a kneeling position. The original drawing was done in black chalk with touches of white. I drew my copy with various graphite pencils. Actually just two different pencils, I just don’t remember which ones they were. One was light and the other dark. There are drawing pencil sets with several different types of pencils but I personally find it difficult to keep track of when to use each one so I usually only use two. I hope you had as much fun reading about pencils as I have writing about them. Just in case you can have too much of a good thing, let’s move on.

The original drawing was a study for the painting “Miracles of St. Francis Xavier”, which is a large altarpiece that is on display at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. The subject in the drawing is not St. Francis but some ‘regular joe’ that is raising from his grave or perhaps he is being healed from the bubonic plague. Maybe he died of the plague and then St. Francis Xavier brought him back from the dead or he was still alive and want to sit up to see what all the commotion was about. Different websites have different ideas about what is actually going on with that pale fellow. But one thing we do now it that he is a man who is in the presence of St. Francis Xavier and that is something in and of itself.

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Graphite Drawing After Jacopo Pontormo

Graphite drawing after Jacopo Pontormo of female legs

Pictured above is a copy of a study of legs by Jacopo Pontormo. I drew mine in graphite pencil on Strathmore paper while the original by Pontormo was done in red chalk. I had mentioned earlier that I do not care for the scratchiness of chalk and I believed I talked about Jacopo Pontormo. Just in case you didn’t know about Pontormo, he was born in 1494 in Empoli, Italy. He was taught by numerous great painters including Leonardo da Vinci and became an important artist in the Sixteenth century. He help develop the expressive style of Mannerism. His work also became a big influence on the later Baroque style, influencing artists like his own student, Bronzino. Pontormo was also greatly admired by other artists at the time. Michelangelo Buonarroti happen to see a painting that Pontormo had done he said “This young man [age 19] will be such an artist, based on what can be seen, that if he lives and continues on, he will exalt this art to the heavens.” High praise indeed. This quote was taken from the “Lives of the Artists” written by Giorgio Vasari. He goes on to write about Jacopo Pontormo’s character. He states that Pontormo was a quite unique person. He was so afraid of death that he didn’t even want to hear it discussed. Varasi also states that he would run away from having any contact with dead bodies but is that really that unique or different. Perhaps in 16th century Italy people loved to hang around dead bodies. Apparently Pontormo would also avoid crowds and kept to himself. He also put so much thought into his work that some days he would just stand and think without painting anything. However he was able to create anything he put his mind to.

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Graphite Drawing After Michelangelo

Michelangelo Copy of a Man Looking Back

The next old master copy is of a black chalk drawing by Michelangelo Buonarroti. However, there is some doubts about whether it was actually drawn by Michelangelo himself. The drawing is a study for the central part of a fresco of the ‘Battle of Cascina’. Unfortunately, the work was never realized which I guess means it was never started or perhaps it was started and never finished. In the book I copied the drawing, it says it was done in black chalk. The British museum, where it is on display, states that it was done in pen and brown ink, brown and gray wash, and then heightened with white over leadpoint and stylus. It also states that the white is somewhat discolored. So either the book titled “Anatomy Lessons From the Great Masters: 100 Great Figure Drawings” is being overly simplistic or the British museum is being very British. It is really hard to say. Wait a second, I think I found out what the confusion is about. The drawing at the British Museum says the it was an experiment with different mediums that didn’t work out very well. It goes on to say that Michelangelo created other studies of the same subject in black chalk. I know what your thinking. I am writing about the wrong drawing. And you would be correct in your thinking. But in all fairness it does look very similar to the one I copied. Nonetheless, I made my copy with a pencil or to be more exact, a few different types of pencils. Moving on. The fresco was to celebrate the ‘Battle of Cascina’ and was to be displayed on a wall in the Great Council’s Florentine Room of the Palazzo Vecchio. Leonardo da Vinci was suppose to paint another work on the other side of the room to celebrate the ‘Battle of Anghiari’ which was another victory for the Florentine army. Leonardo’s painting was done with an experimental method that failed and was unable to be salvaged. Speaking of salvaged, I am unable to salvage this poorly written blog post.

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Graphite Drawing After Raphael

Graphite Drawing After Raphael of Aeneas and Anchises

The above pencil drawing is copied after a drawing in red chalk by Raphael. Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino. Although his friends and the rest of humanity refer to him as just plain old Raphael. He created the work as a study for The Fire in the Borgo fresco at the Apostolic Palace in Vatican City.Created around 1514, the subject is of the Greek Mythological characters Aeneas and Anchises. Many artists have created works based on these two guys. But what is the just who are Aeneas and Anchises? Let’s find out! I added an exclamation point for excitement.

They were both mortals which mean they could die at any moment, just like us. I like to start on a high note. Aneneas was the main character of the Aeneid, an epic poem by Virgil that was written sometime between 29 and 19 BC. Which means there’s a good chance Jesus was forced by the Romans to read it in school. During a horrific attack on the City of Troy, Aeneas survived. He had great respect for the gods, but not Jesus, since he wasn’t born yet. Aeneas was a tough fighter and leader but showed great compassion and was prone to bouts of depression. The Aeneid is about Aneneas’ journey from Troy to Italy and since the poem is very long, a lot of things happen along the way. What about Anchises, you say? I’m glad you asked. Anchises is the father of Aeneas. He represents the traditions and culture of the Trojan people. Anchises dies on the way to Italy. I hope I didn’t spoil the story but you did have thousands of years to read it so that is really on you. Anchises becomes a ghost that helps his son, Aeneas continue on his journey. The subject of the drawing is taken from the part of the story when Aeneas in carrying his father Anchises to safety when the Borgo Vecchio in Rome was burning. The original drawing by Raphael Sanzio is now located in the Albertina Museum in Vienna.