Drawing after Raphael
Conte on Paper

I’ve always admired the drawings of Renaissance masters: Leonardo and Raphael especially. Some years ago after I had been studying anatomy for quite awhile, mostly on my own (schools seem to barely touch upon the subject), I wanted to somehow observe more deeply the effects of Raphael’s hand as he drew one of his beautiful red chalk drawings. I wanted to learn something about how he managed to capture the essence of the human form — he simplified, yet nothing was missing.

In this attempt, I used paper cut to a much larger size than Raphael used. This helped me to focus more closely, yet at the same time pull away from Raphael’s drawing. i wanted to understand, not merely copy.