A Further look at Palma’s draughtsmanship

Another subtopic to consider in Palma’s art is the place and purpose that drawing held in his practice. David Rosand first explored how drawing was an instrument of artistic reform. As the leading artist in Venice, Palma saw the practice of drawing, and its championing in regions outside of the Veneto, as the apparatus by which he could forge ahead new paths for Venetian art, which by and large had been steeped in the traditions of colorito painting.

Such a narrative weighs heavily the influence of larger artistic waves in Central Italy as having framed Palma’s drawing practice. The great disegno movement had gained cultural ground in Palma’s moment through the rise of the artistic academy. Institutions such as Vasari’s Accademia delle Arti del Disegno in Florence, and later Federico Zuccaro’s Academy of St. Luke made great cultural headway by codifying the great achievements of the great generation of the Early Cinquecento masters in Central Italy into an intellectual practice that elevated the status of the artist himself. To them, disegno as essential to not only the production of beautiful painting, but also as proof of the poetic eminence of the artist himself.

To me, however he frame of this construct seems to focus at Palma’s relationship with drawing more from a sociological context, rather than how he actually practiced it. Palma’ enthusiasm towards drawing does seem tied to wider cultural ambitions for Venetian art, and his reputation as a leader and innovator. We need not be reminded of how conscientious he was of his place in Venetian art history in his later years, by which his aforementioned monument at San Giovanni and Paolo is a testament. We know of other efforts that demonstrate the connection between the practice drawing and his Palma’s captainship of a new artistic wave in Venice; such as his plans towards establishing an artistic academy in Venice (perhaps with Domenico Tintoretto), or his collaboration with the printmaker Odoardo Fialetti to produce a series of drawing manuals, which laid down a systematic teaching of drawing to younger artists and amateurs in Venice.

Disegno, however, in so far as it can be seen as the act of imagining and designing a composition was a practice that resonated much more profoundly in Palma’s art than solely for its didactic values. We only need to look at the vasty variety of works on paper by Palma to understand this. The sheer variety of graphics that Palma produced and mediums that he worked for one seems to contain a lot of different motivations and purposes. A cursory search online of Palma's drawings online seems evidence of a boundless imagination and enthusiasm for the preparatory sketch.

I’ve pulled a few images that have particularly caught my attention, from studies of large scale scenes in ink and wash, to more closely cropped naturalistic figure studies in chalk, to others that incorporate multiple media such as grisaille and brown wash, to passing sketches of familiar figures within his circle.

Tap left and right arrows on keyboard to scroll between images

Differences in mediums produce different optical effects

-linear , ink based works lend themselves towards capturing the particularities of the human expression

-the usage of a sort of greyish on chalk lends itself towards a more monumental effect/ that of contorted physical anatomy

-what exact effect does this grey midtone poduce , why is he employing this?

-finally other works display a sheer force of imagination: what appears to be a dozing Saint Gerome surrounded by other saints, as if they have come to him in some sort of dream?

-A very counter reformative image of what appears to be a limp Christ emerging from the chalice given in communion; a group of angels almost assisting him as if he were coming out of a bath. That that bath could be the wine, symobolice itself drives home the significance of the very liquid that one drinks during communion. Genius!

-aside from considering the particulars of the subjects drawings themselves

-Palma's ink and chalk studies..what role do they play in his oeuvre? Actual useful studies?

again such concerns should perhaps be The question of the preparatory sketch and its place in Venetian art

-Palma’s  incessant drafstamantship and the search for a new identity and style

-functioniong of style of pen for certain types of works

-pen ink for understanding movement

the expansion and evolution drawing style was perhaps never anchored towrads one style and based more on the exigencies of what a particular project called for: comparision of different techniques: chalk was better for the articulation of anatomy / volume and surface, Romanist heroic anatomy:  perhaps switched to pen/ink for more complex compositions about highlighting differences in light and shadow / compositions that involved many intertwined figures

The experimentation and imagination going here in this collection of works suggests to me Palma’s understanding of disegno’s manifold possibilities, not only as an instrument of training of artists, and understanding of figural relationships, but an outlet of graphic experimentation and creative release for an artist, to say nothing of it as an object of beauty in itself.

Rosand, for his part, singles out particular examples of the artist’s failures as a draughtsman, as evidence of his larger inability to perhaps act as a leading role model of a draughtsmanship by which future generations of Venetian artists. In his important article on the “Crisis of the Venetian Tradition”, Rosand cites Palma’s infamous set of awkward pen studies of human anatomy, based on the iconic designs of Andrea Vesalius. The ungraceful lines and disproportion these designs (particularly in the articulation of the forearms and legs, appear to be the evidence of an underwhelming hand. But should we really think of Palma as a bad draughtsman based on this one drawing, or a few others alone?

To me this seems like pulling out selective evidence. To be sure, Rosand justifiably portends such anatomical studies to being essential and integral to the Tusco-Roman traditions. Here, understanding the inner workings of the human form was the essential mechanism by which to both faithfully produce it in a naturalistic sense, and exaggerate it in a Manneristic sense. It was the gospel by which the Zuccaro and Vasari grounded their academies and aesthetic philosophies. Hence, according to such logic, Palma’s inability to lead a generational revolution in Venetian drawing practice and artistic academy at the same level of import and esteem was largely due to his own incapabilities in conveying the human form.

Perhaps the bigger questions would be:

-maybe anatomy was super important and reverberated as the official purpose of it within academic circles

-but palma found alternative paths to explore

Palma’s lack of talent with some of Palma up against some of the great progress in anatomical Given however, the vast amount of graphic media that Palma produced, ranging not only from more linear based studies of

I doubt that Rosand’s narrative is inaccurate in this sense, however I wonder if this is the only way by which we can look at Palma’s enormous graphic output.

-A closer look at the work’s on paper of and his search for new directions in the Venetian “art process” in the late Cinquecento 
-I am not so sure as to yet particularly evaluate what constitutes “good drawing in the Venetian sense”

-Palma for sure was incessant, but furthermore he doesnt seem to be particularly anchored to one type of drawing style

-as we can see below: here is

-vastly different styles interpretations of myths/ and their styles

-Palma's interest in drawings 
-perhaps a closer systematic study is here due to pull apart what exactly palma was up to in diffferent ventures into design