The relationship between disegno (drawing or design) and Venetian art has historically been a problematic one. Giorgio Vasari’s notion that painters from Venice and the Veneto were mainly focused on colore and not trained in or accustomed to drawing became a commonplace in the literature on Venetian art. The title of this book, Venetian Disegno, would for him imply an unacceptable paradox. This view can no longer be sustained in light of modern scholarship, and it is clear that drawing played a crucial role in the education and the artistic practice of artists from Venice and the Veneto region. From the fifteenth onwards, drawing was a vital form of expression in Venice. With contributions by 23 leading scholars and curators, Venetian Disegno offers a fresh perspective on Venetian art, illustrating the importance of disegno and the study of drawings for artistic practices in the lagoon city.
Organised by Irene Brooke, Lecturer in Renaissance Art, The Courtauld; Ketty Gottardo, Martin Halusa Senior Curator of Drawings, The Courtauld; Guido Rebecchini, Professor of Sixteenth-Century Southern European Art, The Courtauld.
Dr. Maria Aresin is a specialist in the field of Venetian drawing. She earned a PhD from the University of Frankfurt. Since 2020-21 she has been assistant curator of the catalogue of Venetian drawings at the Staatliche Graphische Sammlung in Munich. In 2022 she was Head of Prints and Drawings at the Landesmuseum Mainz. Since May 2023 she has been curator for works on paper (15th to 18th centuries) at the Kupferstichkabinett of the Kunsthalle Bremen.
Dr. Paul Holberton has published extensively on the art of the Venetian Renaissance and runs Paul Holberton Publishing which is recognised internationally as one of the finest publishers of books on art. His most recent scholarly work, A History of Arcadia, is a long-awaited study of the pastoral genre in textual and visual sources from the classical though the early modern period.
