Fragments
CHAPTER 5: Conceived in parts
Chapters
Artists often worked in parts when planning large pictorial projects such as altarpieces and ceiling paintings. They sketched their ideas for important passages on a reduced scale in order to articulate their compositions and to show them to their clients for approval. These parts would be eventually incorporated in the final design. Successful motifs and figure types were often repeated in different paintings.
Image credit:
Giovanni Ambrogio Bevilacqua
Saint Jerome, circa 1495-1500 (detail)
Tempera with gold leaf on wood panel
The Blanton Museum of Art, The University of Texas at Austin
The Suida-Manning Collection