Baccio Bandinelli in his studio holding a statuette of Venus, students sketching from a model by candlelight

Baccio Bandinelli in his studio holding a statuette of Venus, students sketching from a model by candlelight

Agostino Veneziano (Agostino dei Musi)

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

According to the inscription, this dramatic interior night scene depicts young art students at the Belvedere art academy in Rome. The school was run by the Florentine sculptor Baccio Bandinelli, famous for his drawings of the human figure. He is represented here wearing a fur-collared coat and holding a statuette of Venus. Before the founding of the first official art academy in 1563, artists traditionally received their training through apprenticeships in a master’s workshop like this one.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Baccio Bandinelli in his studio holding a statuette of Venus, students sketching from a model by candlelightBaccio Bandinelli in his studio holding a statuette of Venus, students sketching from a model by candlelightBaccio Bandinelli in his studio holding a statuette of Venus, students sketching from a model by candlelightBaccio Bandinelli in his studio holding a statuette of Venus, students sketching from a model by candlelightBaccio Bandinelli in his studio holding a statuette of Venus, students sketching from a model by candlelight

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.