With two names like that, do you really need to know more? The Albertina traces the rise of drawing as an art form in the Renaissance.
- Masterpiece drawings on coloured backgrounds
- Names like da Vinci, Raphael, Pisanello, Titian & Dürer
- Around 146 works
- Really quite fantastic
- Runs Mar 7 – Jun 9, 2025
- Book Albertina tickets* in advance
- See also:
Master drawings
(Leonardo da Vinci, Half-figure of an apostle, 1493-1495, silverpoint, brown pen, on blue primed paper, The ALBERTINA Museum, Vienna © The ALBERTINA Museum, Vienna)
When you consider the awe and adulation inspired by Da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man or Michelangelo’s studies for the Sistine chapel, it’s hard to imagine people once saw drawing as a preparatory tool for paintings and sculptures, rather than art in its own right.
Step forward the Renaissance, which turned drawing into a genuine genre, helped by artists diversifying into coloured paper: the medium opened new opportunities for expressing light, dark and contrast.
Great artists of the time seized those opportunities with two ink and chalk-stained hands, producing works that now count as highlights of that rich era of European art history.
The Leonardo – Dürer: Master Drawings on Colored Ground exhibition traces the chronology of that particular drawing approach north and south of the Alps, illustrated with suitable examples.
(Antonio Pisano, referred to as Pisanello, Allegory of the Luxuria (recto), around 1426, pen and brown ink, traces of metalpoint or black chalk on reddened paper, The ALBERTINA Museum, Vienna © The ALBERTINA Museum, Vienna)
Of course, the phrase “illustrated with suitable examples” hides works of magnificence whose impact has echoed down the centuries.
All begins innocently enough with the likes of Pisanello (c.1395- 1455), known, for example, for the Codex Vallardi drawings held by the Louvre. Pisanello (Antonio Pisano) proved one of the earliest artists to create drawings as autonomous works.
The exhibition then takes us through to the names intimately associated with renaissance mastery, like Dürer (with 26 works on display), da Vinci (ditto) and Raphael. Indeed, this may well be the most comprehensive display of da Vinci works ever seen in the German-speaking museal world.
Some of Dürer’s most famous drawings used coloured backgrounds. His c.1507 Praying Hands has such timeless resonance that you even find it on Andy Warhol’s gravestone. Dürer drew it on blue-tinted paper.
(Albrecht Dürer, Head of the angel playing a lute (detail from “Rosenkranzfest”), 1506, brush in gray and black, gray wash, heightened with opaque white, on blue paper, The ALBERTINA Museum, Vienna © The ALBERTINA Museum, Vienna)
I recall first seeing that particular renaissance work at the 2019/2020 Albrecht Dürer exhibition and standing in frozen awe in front of it. Though, to be fair, a few other Dürer drawings and watercolours produced the same response.
Praying Hands features in the Leonardo – Dürer exhibition, too. I stood awestruck, once again. And by placing Dürer’s work alongside those of others, you soon grasp just how unbelievably good he was.
Some works seem to slap you in the face, standing out through their breathtaking mastery…like Dürer’s 1506 Head of an Angel.
The art on display covers a range of techniques, allowing you to admire the creativity and skill of the many artists featured. Rather nicely, where some drawings genuinely served as preparatory studies, you often find a small copy of the eventual painting, too.
(Raphael, Study for the Bridgewater Madonna (recto), c. 1506–1507, 26.2 × 19.3 cm, metalpoint and pen on brow primed paper; The ALBERTINA Museum, Vienna © Photo: The ALBERTINA Museum, Vienna)
And, of course, I cannot deny the thrill of seeing the name Leonardo da Vinci appear on a label. And the greater thrill of finding yourself in a room full of his works. We get to see, for example, his sketch for a flying machine, drapery studies, horse studies, nudes, and more.
It feels almost overwhelming to realise that over 500 years ago, da Vinci stood in front of that same piece of coloured paper. Where you now hold a smartphone, he held a pen…poised for another stroke of genius.
As well as sourcing works from the Albertina’s own prestigious collection, the exhibition features loans from such institutions as the Uffizi Galleries, the aforementioned Louvre, the British Museum, and New York’s Metropolitan Museum. And from King Charles III.
Dates, tickets & tips
Admire the excellence of the master drawings from March 7th to June 9th, 2025. An entrance ticket from or for the Albertina includes the exhibition.
(Booking service provided by Tiqets.com*, who I am an affiliate of)
Leonardo – Dürer forms one third of a trio of superlative exhibitions for the Viennese spring / summer. The other two are:
- Arcimboldo – Bassano – Bruegel at the Kunsthistorisches Museum, which looks at renaissance representations of time, seasons and nature in the context of the era. Dürer and da Vinci both feature, too
- Klimt: Pigment & Pixel at Lower Belvedere, which explores Klimt’s painting techniques but also uses AI to create reconstructions of what the lost Faculty Paintings might have looked like
Incidentally, da Vinci’s famous Vitruvian Man used white paper (I think) and rarely leaves its home at the Gallerie dell’ Accademia di Venezia anyway. It pops out in 2025 at the Gallerie’s own Modern Bodies spring/summer exhibition.
How to get to the drawings
Follow the travel tips on my Albertina overview page. The museum is very central on the edge of the old town.
Address: Albertinaplatz 1, 1010 Vienna