Marco Mansi

Portraying Landscape in Drawing Books c. 1500-1600: Defining a Tuscan Tradition

Supervisors: Dr Guido Rebecchini and Dr Ketty Gottardo    Advisor: Dr Scott Nethersole

Funded by The Tavolozza Foundation

My research examines landscape drawings by sixteenth-century Florentine artists. The depiction of the natural world became a field for artistic experimentation in Florence early in the Renaissance, particularly through drawings.

During the sixteenth century, Florentine artists ventured into the countryside with sketchbooks to capture the natural world from life or drew it in their studios, relying on imagination and various sources. Yet, despite this wealth of material, critical discourse on Florentine disegno has rarely focused on this category of works on paper.

Through a series of case studies, my project traces the continuity linking landscape drawings throughout sixteenth-century Florence, uncovering local draughtsmen’s interest in this subject matter and the varied functions of their drawing books.