Encyclopedia of Early Modern History Online

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Life drawing
(1,100 words)

1. Definition

Life drawing is making a pictorial study of the living model, a practice found from the early 15th century in artists’ studios and institutionalized more than a century later at academies of arts. The Italian term accademia seems first to have become aligned with the discipline of life drawing in the late 16th century [11. 85]. Accompanying the written sources, which deal primarily with the study of male models (e.g. Giorgio Vasari, Filippo Baldinucci, Giovanni Battista Passeri), is …

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Sölch, Brigitte, “Life drawing”, in: Encyclopedia of Early Modern History Online, Editors of the English edition: Graeme Dunphy, Andrew Gow. Original German Edition: Enzyklopädie der Neuzeit. Im Auftrag des Kulturwissenschaftlichen Instituts (Essen) und in Verbindung mit den Fachherausgebern herausgegeben von Friedrich Jaeger. Copyright © J.B. Metzlersche Verlagsbuchhandlung und Carl Ernst Poeschel Verlag GmbH 2005–2012. Consulted online on 24 March 2023 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/2352-0272_emho_COM_024192>
First published online: 2015
First print edition: 20190801



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