Vitruvian Fine Art Studio

It is well known that medieval scribes used a metallic stylus for marking ruling guides in preparing hand-script texts, and by the fifteenth century, Italian merchants used metalpoint booklets for writing and record keeping. The use of metalpoint in art emerged from these commercial origins. With very fine lines, the unequivocal linear beauty and the limited but suggestive shading metalpoint provides satisfied many of the artistic requirements of the master draughtsmen during the Renaissance. The one catch: these elegant and subtle lines are not easily erased.

This course approaches silverpoint drawing from its initial preparation of paper ground and size, to its delicate application technique. Demonstrations will reveal the tools needed for this traditional drawing practice, a favorite of Leonardo, Botticelli, and Dürer to name a few. To begin, students will learn to prepare paper with rabbit skin glue and powdered pigments, and then learn how to draw with a sharpened piece of sterling silver wire to capture a single pose with the model.