CLOUET, Jean
(b. 1485/90, Bruxelles, d. 1541, Paris)

Man with a Petrarch

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Chalk drawing
Musée Condé, Chantilly

In Clouet's drawings the modelling is achieved by a system of parallel diagonal shading strokes which break off where there is a light and begin again when there is a shadow. This simple method, which gives an almost geometrical quality to the modelling, is one used by Florentine artists in the Quattrocento and brought to perfection by Leonardo.