Study of a Winged Male, from the series Paradigmata graphices variorum artificum

Intended as a compendium of drawings by major Italian artists, de Bisschop’s Paradigmata was a highly influential publication that disseminated knowledge of Renaissance draftsmanship among Dutch admirers of Italian art. Each engraving replicates a drawing by an Italian master, in this case the Cavaliere d’Arpino, who may have made the preparatory study for a painting depicting the Archangel Michael or the myth of Icarus. According to the pedagogic practices of the 16th and 17th centuries, these figure drawings would have been created from a live model and then adjusted in a manner appropriate to the work for which they were intended. Bisschop’s engravings ensured that subsequent generations of artists and collectors would have access to such studies as models for future imagery.