Examples of Old Masters metalpoint drawings found online

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 portraitson 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