Measured Drawing of a Horse Facing Left (recto)

Andrea del Verrocchio

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This drawing is a remarkable example of the Renaissance preoccupation with ideal proportions, as seen in the Vitruvian Man by Leonardo da Vinci, Verrocchio’s most famous pupil. Verrocchio began this drawing by making a semi-stylized outline of the subject. He then further schematized the body by dividing it up and inscribing it with detailed measurements. The precision of the measurements supports the idea that this study was related to the bronze equestrian statue for Bartolomeo Colleoni— a commission Verrocchio won in a competition announced by the Republic of Venice in 1479 and was awarded in 1483.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.

Metropolitan Museum of Art