The one thing you need for printing is paper. And that’s just what you got in the 15th and 16th centuries when the advent of printing brought a dramatic increase in its production. Almost as a byproduct of the new technology, artists found themselves with a lot of relatively cheap paper and you know what they did? They drew on it. Obviously, they used sketches as preparation for paintings but they also had, almost for the first time, a medium for drawing for fun, for outbursts of creativity.
There are, in this splendid exhibition any number of drawings squared off to be scaled up for transfer to a painting, but there are also some sheets where artists have simply drawn for the joy of it. A famous sheet of Leonardo da Vinci’s is here with lions, cats … and a little dragon. He simply couldn’t help himself.
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