Paper short abstract:

The copy of prints, drawings and paintings of great master´s was a current exercise in the apprenticeship of artists and played a crucial role in the learning process of the first art academies in Europe. This paper present’s some nineteenth century Portuguese academic drawings that reveal the exercise of drawing after prints of works of great master’s.

Paper long abstract:

The Faculty of fine arts of Lisbon, heir of the former Academy of fine arts of Lisbon, founded in the nineteenth century, holds a valuable academic drawing collection dated between 1830 and 1935 that witnesses the patterns of taste and the methods followed in teaching drawing.

Prints after paintings of great Master’s like Raphael, Guido Reni, Charles Lebrun and many other artists comprised the first steps in the process of learning drawing at the former Academy of fine Arts of Lisbon. The copy of these prints followed a rigorous methodology where it was important in first to register the contour of the figures, the scale and finally the light, the shades and the chiaroscuro effects. The process of copying prints helped the students to familiarize themselves with the works of the great master’s and constituted the previous.