Research project The matter of drawing. Copies and tracings in 18th-century architectural practice and design
Research project in Art history that examines sketches as working material in architecture during the first half of the 18th century.
Project description
The production of survey drawings after ancient and modern buildings and copies after the master's own projects was at the basis of architects' education long before the establishment of art academies. This practice helped young apprentices improving drawing skills and provided them with a collection of paper models that could be used later in their professional activity. The aim of the project is to investigate the role of copies as medium of architectural design during the first half of the eighteenth century. The specific object of the study are the drawings collections of two Swedish architects of the period, Carl Hårleman and Carl Johan Cronstedt, preserved in the Nationalmuseum in Stockholm. Beginning with a close examination of the material qualities of the drawings (paper, medium, technique) and of the traces of the drawing tools (pen, stylus, compass, etc.), the endeavour is to shed light on the techniques used by the Swedish architects to execute copies (of other architects' designs and of their own designs) and to understand the instrumental role of the copy in producing new designs.
In particular, two exceptionally well-preserved groups of drawings on translucent paper (all together c. 700 sheets), in Swedish called kalker after the French calque, will provide the material for the study of tracings as design tools. The process is similar to that employed by modern architects, consisting in laying a sheet of transparent paper upon another to study and develop alternative solutions for a design.
By charting the Nationalmuseum's calques, an almost unknown source to the history of European eighteenth-century architecture, the project shares the aim of recent international research to address matters of materiality in the study of artistic practices and contributes to the study of the educational training, professional roles and working practices developed by the Superintendence of the public works (Överintendentsämbetet), the main Swedish architectural workshop.
Project members
Project managers
Anna Bortolozzi
Senior lecturer, associate professor
