The RF 1475–1556
Louvre Album
is universally regarded as a corpus of drawings that was executed by the Venetian painter Jacopo Bellini. The album’s trajectory prior to coming into the possession of the Bellini family is elucidated in the present book. Based on Norberto Gramaccini’s interpretation, it was the Paduan painter Francesco Squarcione who was the mastermind and financier behind the drawings. The preparatory work had actually been delegated to his most gifted pupils, among them Andrea Mantegna, Jacopo Bellini´s future son-in-law. The drawing’s topics —anatomy, perspective, archeology, mythology, contemporary chronicles, and zoology —were part of the teaching program of an art academy established by Squarcione in the 1440s, famous in its day, which provided crucial impulses for the training of artists in the modern era.