Dated about 1508, this drawing can be considered among the earliest pure landscape studies in European art. Confining himself to the use of pen and ink, Fra Bartolomeo employed a great variety of strokes, from dots to dashes to hatches, in order to convey the textures and details of the Tuscan landscape. Fra Bartolomeo also used the void of the paper to great effect in expressing the expansiveness of his subject. Like other similar landscape studies by him, this sheet appears to have been drawn directly from nature. A few such drawings were used in the backgrounds of paintings. This drawing is one of a group kept until recently in an album compiled about 1730 by the Florentine art historian Niccolò Gabburri (1675–1742) which included landscape studies now in the Museum's collection (nos. 1975.1.270 and 57.65).
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Artwork Details
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Title:Landscape (Wooded Approach to a Town)
Artist:Fra Bartolomeo (Bartolomeo di Paolo del Fattorino) (Italian, Florence 1473–1517 Florence)
Date:ca. 1508
Medium:Pen and brown ink
Dimensions:8 7/16 x 11 1/2 in. (21.4 x 29.2 cm)
Classification:Drawings
Credit Line:Bequest of Walter C. Baker, 1971
Accession Number:1972.118.239
Fra Paolino da Pistoia (Italian); Suor Plautilla Nelli; Convent of Saint Catherine, Florence; Cavaliere Francesco Maria Niccolò Gabburri (Italian); William Kent (British); Private Collection, Ireland; Sotheby's, London, Nov. 20, 1957, no. 26; Walter C. Baker (American), New York
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Italian Renaissance Drawings from New York Collections," November 9, 1965–January 9, 1966.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Leonardo da Vinci and His Followers in the Collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art," March 5–June 7, 1981.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "15th and 16th Century Italian Drawings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art," February 16–April 17, 1983.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Drawings and Prints: Selections from the Permanent Collection," February 8–May 3, 1999.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Drawings and Prints: Selections from the Permanent Collection," October 25, 2016–January 30, 2017.
"Fra Bartolomeo Landscapes." Burlington Magazine. vol. 99, London, November, 1957, fig. no. p. 9, vol. 99, p. 9, ill.
Wynne R.H. Jeudwine "Fine Works on the Market: An Album of Landscape Drawings by Fra Bartolomeo." Apollo Magazine. vol. 66, November, 1957, pp. 132-135.
John Fleming "Mr. Kent, Art Dealer and the Fra Bartolomeo Drawings." Connoisseur. vol. 141, Connoisseur, New York, June, 1958, vol, 141, p. 227.
Ruth Wedgwood Kennedy "A Landscape Drawing by Fra Bartolomeo." in Smith College Museum of Art Bulletin. no. 38, 1959, cat. no. no. 39, pp. 1-12.
Bernard Berenson, Luisa Vertova I disegni dei pittori fiorentini. 3 vols., Revised and enlarged. Milan, 1961, cat. no. 433 F**, p. 71 (vol. II).
Jacob Bean, Felice Stampfle Drawings from New York Collections, Vol. I: The Italian Renaissance. Exh. cat. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1965, p. 34, no. 34, ill.
Joseph Meder - translated and revised by Winslow Ames The Mastery of Drawing. 2 vols., New York, 1978, fig. no. fig. 55, vol. 2, p. 51, ill.
Leonardo da Vinci and His Followers in the Collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art Exh. (no catalogue): March 5 - June 7. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1981.
Jacob Bean, Lawrence Turčić 15th and 16th Century Italian Drawings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1982, cat. no. 26, fig. no. 26, p. 40, ill.
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The Met's collection of drawings and prints—one of the most comprehensive and distinguished of its kind in the world—began with a gift of 670 works from Cornelius Vanderbilt, a Museum trustee, in 1880.
