Leonardo–Dürer: Renaissance Master Drawings on Colored Ground

The Albertina in Vienna is home to one of the largest and most important collections of Old Master drawings and prints in the world. The museum is combining selections from its own holdings with international loans to create this exhibition, which traces the origins and development of drawing on tinted paper, which allowed draughtsmen to create more vivid and unusual contrasts of light and tone (7 March–9 June). The show starts in the early 15th century – when the Italian painter Cennino Cennini described the technique as a ‘gateway to painting’ – and ends in the early 16th century with works by Leonardo and Dürer, two of the greatest exponents of coloured ground drawing and the artists who, this show contends, helped establish the process as a genre in its own right. Works by less well-known names are also on show, such as Hans Baldung Grien, a student of Dürer, with his evocative study of three witches on brown paper from 1514.

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Find out more from the Albertina’s website

New Year’s greetings with three witches (1514), Hans Baldung Grien. Albertina Museum, Vienna

Head of the angel playing a lute (1506), Albrecht Dürer. Albertina Museum, Vienna

Allegory of the Luxuria (c 1426; recto), Pisanello. Albertina Museum, Vienna

Half-figure of an apostle (1493–95), Leonardo. Albertina Museum, Vienna