Diego Rivera: The Italian Sketchbook - Mary-Anne Martin

As part of Master Drawings New York 2013, Mary-Anne Martin Fine Art presents Diego Rivera: The Italian Sketchbook, 1920-21

At the conclusion of the Mexican Revolution in 1920, José Vasconcelos, the new Secretary of Public Education, devised a plan to promote the ideals of the revolutionary government through an ambitious program of mural painting. Diego Rivera was asked to head the movement, and accepted on the condition that that he could first tour Italy in order to study first hand the fresco paintings of the Renaissance. Traveling in Italy, Rivera sketched as he viewed the frescoes and paintings of artists such as Giotto, Uccello, Mantegna, and Tintoretto, making handwritten notes in several languages directly on his drawings. He was keenly interested in the relationship between painting and architecture, later putting his observations to brilliant use in the murals that he painted. In translating the formal ideas and techniques of the Renaissance painters to his mural projects in Mexico and the United States, Rivera provided the historical link between the Italian Renaissance and Twentieth Century Muralism in the Americas.

Works on View

Pencil sketch of apples and foliage with written notes — *Sketch after Tintoretto's 'Fragment of Sala dell'Albergo ceiling decoration'*, 1920-21

Pencil study of a Renaissance painting with notes — *Sketch after Bonsignori's 'La Madonna con il Bambino*, 1920-21

Sketch of a church altar with extensive notes — *Sketch of unidentified Madonna with notes and date of 1487*, 1920-21

Loose sketches of frescos with notes — *Sketch after a work by Giovanni Caroto*, 1920-21

Pencil sketch of a Renaissance painting with extensive notes — *Sketch after Stefano di Zevio's 'Madonna with St. Catherine in a Rose Garden*, 1920-21

Pencil sketch of a Renaissance painting with notes — *Sketch after Tintoretto's 'Three Graces and Mercury,' 1578*, 1920-21

Sketch studying interior perspective with notes — *Sketch after Mantegna's 'Baptism of Hermogenes'*, 1920-21

Sketch of a classical building facade with notes — *Sketch after a work by Titian*, 1920-21

Pencil sketch of statues in a church — *Sketch of an unidentified church interior*, 1920-21

Simple pen sketch of a bearded man — *Sketch after 'The Apostle Peter' from the 'Procession of the Apostles'*, 1920-21

Simple pen sketch of a woman's face and shoulders — *Sketch of a woman (recto)*, 1920-21

Simple pen sketch of a woman seated at a table — *Figure at a table (verso)*, 1920-21

Simple pen sketch of a landscape with hills — *Italian Landscape*, 1920-21

Simple pen sketch of a landscape with a church — *Italian Landscape*, 1920-21

Loose pen sketch of landscape with a city on a hill — *Italian Landscape*, 1920-21

Pencil sketch of a woman wearing a cloche hat — *Sketch of a woman with hat*, 1920-21

Pencil sketch of two women's heads wearing fashionable hats — *Two sketches of women*, 1920-21

Simple, loose crayon sketch of two heads — *Sketch of two heads*, 1920-21

Sketch of a man with color notations, 1920-21