A selection of 70 drawings from a collection that remained intact in its transition to the Prado are on exhibit outside Spain for the first time in From Michelangelo to Annibale Carracci. A variety of factors influenced the diversity of Italian drawing in this significant period, including the increasing availability of paper, the rise of patronage, and a renewed interest in the perfection of the human body as a subject demanding the best the artist had to give. Regional styles and general subjects are briefly given background in the exhibition proper, but its real delight is in the diversity of drawing in both manner and handling, each one expressive of its own individual vigor, and overall, the vitality of the age. The drawings are selections from the 3,000-work Brun-Fernandez-Dúran collection, begun in the 1800s by engraver to the Spanish court, Isidoro Brun (1819-1895) and donated to the Prado in the 1930s. Four sketches by Michaelangelo are included. Exhibit annotation is modest, but a fully-annotated, scholarly catalog by art historian Nicholas Turner accompanies and is available in the Block's gift shop. At the Block Museum through April 5, 2009.

Image: Bartolomeo Passerotti (1529-92), Male Head, pen and brown ink. Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid.