DRAWING. — In summary, it may be defined as the graphic requirement of an artist, which manifests itself both on sheets of paper (in the technique proper to it) and in any work of figurative art (in which it may be included as a more or less accentuated interest or intention of the artist).
With regard to antiquity, Pliny has handed down a definition of the drawing line, alluding to the art of Parrhasius (Nat. hist., XXXV, 67-69), where he attributes expressive, i.e., subjective, value to the concept of drawing, which in the 15th century, however, assumes the geometric meaning of outline or circumscription of the object (L. B. Alberti, Piero della Francesca). But there is a second interpretation of the concept of drawing, typically Florentine, which goes back to Cennino Cennini (end of the 14th century), in which drawing is considered the foundation of the arts (precisely called “arts of drawing”). The theme is developed during the 16th century (Vasari, Armenino, etc.) up to Federico Zuccari (1607), who distinguishes in a dualistic manner the “internal drawing” (the inner and conceptual image of the form) from the “external drawing” (the outer and sensible image). While this distinction acknowledges the drawing foundation implicit in individual works of art, it then subordinates the value of drawings to the superior technical quality of the finished work (painting, sculpture, building).
The criticism of the 18th century (Mariette, Richardson, Dezallier d’Argensville) and that of the Romantic and modern periods have surpassed this conception, attributing to drawing, and particularly to the sketch or study (whose value had in any case been recognized by Leonardo), an independent significance.