Drawing with Friends: European Artists in Rome in the Seventeenth Century

Victor Hundsbuckler (Louvre, Paris)

The collection of Roman drawings of the seventeenth century at the Louvre museum is one of the most important and beautiful collections in the world. The preparation of a collection catalogue of such a whole ensemble entailed first a need to define a logical subdivision and to lay out a series of coherent volumes rather than a single, stand-alone book. The first volume will be devoted to the drawings by Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598–1680) and his circle and by Pietro da Cortona (1596–1669) and his circle. The preparation of this collection catalogue will also be accompanied by a three-year cycle of lectures and seminars at the Ecole du Louvre, open both to students and to free listeners. This program makes it possible to place the practice of Roman draughtsmen, i.e., those who were “born in Rome” as defined in the Louvre nomenclature established by Frédéric Reiset (1815–1891) in the nineteenth century, within that broader practice of artists of all countries who came to train and work in Rome throughout the seventeenth century.