Examples of Old Master metalpoint drawings found on the ‘Web.
Let us know if you’ve found a good example during your Web travels, and we’ll add the link here.
A Cautionary Note regarding online images:
Many sites, with or without permission, duplicate fine art drawings from images printed in books or magazines. Educational institutions hosting scholarly Web projects on art and artists also do this.Printed sources for reproduction of drawings are not accurate; all marks upon the drawing surface have been translated into dots. Even worse, ink color choices, and sometimes deliberate decisions for two-color or three-color printing, turn the reproduction into little more than an approximation of the work’s actual colors. Additional limitations are created when the images are digitized and formatted for browsers; how much this affects the end results depends on the technician. Even accurate slides made from original works of art will suffer from the digitization and formatting process.
Viewers of fine art images found on the web should know that no site other than the artwork’s owning museum should be considered authoritative as far as color is concerned.
Not even coffee table artbooks should be completely trusted. To be absolutely certain of all visible aspects of a work of art, you must view the original. I just gave you an excellent excuse for a trip to Europe!
- Leonardo da Vinci
- Bust of a Warrior in Profile, British Museum (various titling)
- Study of Woman’s Hands, The Royal Collection
- Half Figure of an Apostle, WikiMedia file
- Raphael
- Head and Shoulders of a Young Woman, and others, British Museum
Rogier van der Weyden
- Portrait of a Young Woman, and others, British Museum
Hendrik Goltzius
- Self-Portrait, British Museum
Albrecht Durer
- Several self portraits on this Art History professor’s study page.
Jan van Eyck
- Study for Portrait of Cardinal Albergati, WikiMedia/Google Art Project
- Saint Barbara, WikiMedia
Dirk Bouts
- Portrait of a Man, WikiMedia
Filippino Lippi
- Male Nude, British Museum
Raffaellino del Garbo
- Studies for Christ Rising from the Tomb and Hand Studies, British Museum
Jean Fouquet
- Portrait of an Ecclesiastic, Metropolitan Museum of Art
Lorenzo di Credi
- Head of a Youth, WikiMedia
Hans Holbein
- Portrait of the Artist’s Sons, Hermitage Museum
Otto Dix
- Old Woman, Seated, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
- Joseph Stella
- Flower Study, National Gallery of Art
- August Mosca
- Model and Artist, MutualArt
- Thomas Willmer Dewing
- Head of a Woman, National Gallery of Art