"The book opens with a brief history of earlier drawings and a discussion of the various artistic problems which drawings could help to resolve.

Through the works of the major fifteenth-century draughtsmen - Pisanello, Jacopo Bellini, Pollaiuolo, Ghirlandaio, Carpaccio and Leonardo da Vinci - Francis Ames-Lewis then explores new types of drawing evolved during the century: the free sketch contrasting with the frozen control of the model-book, the exploratory study of the nude, the preparatory compositional sketch and the cartoon.

He considers the problems and possibilities of different techniques and investigates studio practice and the relation of the drawing to the final work of art." "This incisive introduction to the subject of early Renaissance drawings throws fresh light on one of the great centuries of Italian art, and by reflection illuminates further the activities of the masters of the High Renaissance."--BOOK JACKET.