Getty Museum

Seated Young Man

Date

about 1515

Medium

Metalpoint, heightened with white gouache,, on light pinkish brown prepared paper

Culture

Italian

Department

Drawings

Institution

Getty Museum

The voluminous swathe of fabric arranged over the young man's left shoulder is the main focus of this drawing. The youth's pose--seated on a barely visible stool and raising a leg on which his hidden arm rests--serves only to display the unknown artist's mastery of drapery. Perhaps done simply as a drapery study, the drawing may also be a preparatory study for a painting. The metalpoint technique required paper prepared with a ground so that the metal stylus would leave a mark. The harder ground would wear down the stylus's tip as it was being moved across the surface, leaving a silver, gray, or soft brown line. Here the unknown artist exploited the aesthetic potential of the ground, tinting it light pink to beautifully complement the silvery metalpoint lines.

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