2. Filippino Lippi

Filippino Lippi fixed these three young men in metalpoint, then applied white bodycolour to the first lines – although without following them precisely. The white highlights are not only there to indicate light, they also contribute to the construction of the drawing. The result is a kind of blurring that renders the image mobile and fluid, reinforc­ing the suspended poses of these figures who appear to be communicating with each other. Yet Lippi executed the sketches from a single model, observed from different an­gles and in different positions. This work belongs to a large group of similar studies of garzoni which may have been part of a model book. Following a practice inherited from the Middle Ages, these model books were both a repertoire of motifs for the painter and a medium for transmitting them within the workshop.