Study for the Resurrection
c. 1574
Medium
Pen and brown ink with brush and brown wash, heightened with lead white, with later addition in graphite at center, on blue laid paper, laid down on ivory laid paper
Dimensions
10.9 × 17.8 cm (4 5/16 × 7 1/16 in.)
Classification
ink with wash
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
82547
Rights
Public Domain
Art Historical Context
Santi di Tito’s *Study for the Resurrection* (c. 1574) offers an intimate glimpse into the working process of a leading Florentine painter of the late Renaissance. Active in the decades after the Council of Trent, Santi helped steer Florentine art away from the elegant distortions of Mannerism toward clearer, more devotional narratives suited to Counter-Reformation ideals. This small sheet—measuring just 10.9 by 17.8 cm—records his early ideas for a larger Resurrection composition, most likely destined for an altarpiece or chapel fresco. Executed in pen and brown ink with brush-applied wash and delicate touches of lead white on blue paper, the drawing demonstrates the artist’s command of light and volume. The cool blue ground provides a mid-tone against which the warm ink lines and white highlights create a convincing sense of three-dimensional form and dramatic illumination. Such layered techniques allowed Santi to test the placement of figures and the fall of light before committing to paint. Today housed in the Art Institute of Chicago’s Prints and Drawings collection, the study reveals how Renaissance masters refined sacred stories through humble materials, ensuring that the final image would speak directly and movingly to worshippers.
About the Artist
Santi di Tito · 1536–1602
Italian painter. Comment on works: Portraits; Religious