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Landscape (Wooded Approach to a Town)

ca. 1508
Not on view
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).

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • 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
  • Object Number: 1972.118.239
  • Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints

More Artwork

More Artwork
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Mother and Child, Figures Fighting (Study for the Rape of Dinah?), Fra Bartolomeo (Bartolomeo di Paolo del Fattorino) Italian, Red chalk with traces of black chalk
Mother and Child, Figures Fighting (Study for the Rape of Dinah?)
Fra Bartolomeo (Bartolomeo di Paolo del Fattorino)
1515–17
Drapery Study for a Standing Male Figure in Profile Facing Left, Fra Bartolomeo (Bartolomeo di Paolo del Fattorino) Italian, Black chalk, highlighted with white chalk, on tan paper
Drapery Study for a Standing Male Figure in Profile Facing Left
Fra Bartolomeo (Bartolomeo di Paolo del Fattorino)
1512–17
The Annunciation (recto); Faint View of Buildings (verso), Fra Bartolomeo (Bartolomeo di Paolo del Fattorino) Italian, Pen and brown ink (kneeling angel at left), faint black chalk (the hardly legible standing figure of the Virgin at right) (recto); faint view of buildings in pen and brown ink (verso)
The Annunciation (recto); Faint View of Buildings (verso)
Fra Bartolomeo (Bartolomeo di Paolo del Fattorino)
1472–1517
A Small Town on the Crest of a Slope, Fra Bartolomeo (Bartolomeo di Paolo del Fattorino) Italian, Pen and brown ink
A Small Town on the Crest of a Slope
Fra Bartolomeo (Bartolomeo di Paolo del Fattorino)
1504–07
Study of Drapery over the Knees of a Seated Figure, Fra Bartolomeo (Bartolomeo di Paolo del Fattorino) (?) Italian, Black chalk, highlighted with white; squared in black chalk
Study of Drapery over the Knees of a Seated Figure
Fra Bartolomeo (Bartolomeo di Paolo del Fattorino)
1472–1517

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