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Palmette and acanthus ornaments from the baptistery of San Giovanni in Laterano, pen testing marks

This sheet is so revealing because it documents a part of workshop practice otherwise rarely glimpsed at. Here we have a record of the draughtsman checking his drawing implement’s thickness before embarking on the actual drawing. The stick of red chalk was sharpened by hand – sharpeners as we know them did not yet exist. The tip could be sharpened through the abrasion of the flat sides on the scrap paper to form a point. This explains the repeated long straight strokes and looped lines.

Artwork information

  • Artist

    Nicolas François Daniel Lhuillier (c. 1736–1793) or copy after Lhuillier (?), Group 6

  • Place and date

    Rome, between 1755 and 1768 (?)

  • Dimensions (sheet)

    335 x 374 mm

  • Inventory number

    IX 5159-35-32-1v

Keywords

    GND terms

    Version history

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