Head of a Satyr, 1596, by Giuseppe Cesari, called Cavaliere d’Arpino, Black and red chalk on paper, 7 1/2 x 6 inches, Collection of Robert Loper.

WILLIAMSTOWN, MA.- A magnificent group of rarely seen and unpublished sixteenth- through eighteenth-century Italian drawings will be highlighted in Drawn to Drama: Italian Works on Paper, 1500-1800, an exhibition on view the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute on view through January 4, 2009. Selected from the Clark's impressive collection of Old Master drawings and the private collection of Robert Loper, Drawn to Drama will offer a unique opportunity to view this special group of Italian drawings that are dramatic in subject, composition, and execution. Sixty-five drawings including those by Giorgio Vasari, Guercino, Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione, Salvator Rosa, Luca Giordano, and Giovanni Battista Tiepolo are featured in the exhibition.

"The Clark is pleased to be exhibiting for the first time the Robert Loper Collection along with a large selection of our own Old Master drawings," said Clark director Michael Conforti. "It is an exciting opportunity to bring these important works to the public in an exhibition that reveals the artistic process of sixteenth- through eighteenth-century Italian artists."

Drawn to Drama contains a wide range of works, from small rapid sketches to larger and elaborately finished drawings, all focusing on the human figure. The exhibition explores how Italian artists of the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries used the body as the primary expressive vehicle in depicting scenes from classical history, mythology, and the Bible. These artists were particularly adept at using facial expression, gesture, and posture to convey miraculous, visionary, and dramatic events in a compelling way.

A group of ten drawings by two of the greatest draftsmen of eighteenth-century Venice, Giovanni Battista Tiepolo and his son Domenico Tiepolo, are a highlight of the exhibition. These rarely exhibited drawings from the Clark's collection have not been shown as a group for several decades. Acquired by Clark founder Sterling Clark in the first decades of the twentieth century, they are in particularly pristine condition and therefore demonstrate the two artists' mastery of pen, ink, and wash technique that is the hallmark of their style. Giovanni Battista's handling of ink wash is especially broad and fluid, while that of Domenico is more descriptive and detailed. The exhibition provides a fascinating opportunity to compare directly the two artists' abilities.

The Clark's collection of Old Master (pre-nineteenth-century) drawings was begun in the 1910s by Sterling Clark, who acquired significant drawings by Albrecht Dürer, Peter Paul Rubens, Antoine Watteau, and many others. Between the opening of the Clark in 1955 and recent years, older drawings have been acquired on occasion through both gift and purchase. The collection was greatly enhanced by the acquisition of thirty Italian, Dutch, Flemish, and French drawings from the Steiner Collection in 2003. More recently, in 2007, a suite of sixteen drawings by the great seventeenth-century French landscape artist Claude Lorrain was acquired from the estate of noted collector Peter Sharp. The Clark's world-famous collection of nineteenth-century drawings was further enriched in 2007 when the Clark acquired the Manton Collection, which included numerous drawings by J.M.W. Turner, John Constable, Thomas Gainsborough, and many other leading British artists.

Half of the drawings featured in the exhibition are from the private collection of Robert Loper. In March 2004, Mr. Loper was listed by Art and Antiques as one of the "100 Top Collectors" in America. His collection of Italian Old Master drawings is significant and largely unknown to the public as it has never been published or exhibited. The drawings exhibited in Drawn to Drama are among the finest in his collection and represent the breadth and quality of its contents.

The expressive potential of body language and type is evident in Standing Male Nude by Francesco Fontebasso, from the Loper Collection. In the drawing, a very muscular model faces away from the viewer, yet his pose, leaning back and twisted to one side, implies without the use of facial expression that he is reacting strongly to an event unseen by the viewer. In another work from the Loper Collection, Luca Cattapane's Adoration of the Shepherds, a series of gestures combine to direct the viewer's attention to the drawing's subjects, Mary and Jesus. The gestures are subtle-one shepherd with his hands joined in prayer, another raising his hat in respect, Joseph's outspread arms offering protection to Mary and Jesus-yet effective in directing the viewer's attention to mother and infant.

Pietro Malombra, Italian, 1556–1618, The Finding of the True Cross, c. 1595, Pen and brown ink with brown wash over black chalk with white heightening on blue paper. Collection of Robert Loper

According to tradition, the three crosses on which Christ and two thieves were crucified were discovered in Jerusalem in 326 by Saint Helen. She stands with her attendants on the right, wearing a crown. On the left, a dead man miraculously returns to life after being placed on the cross on which Christ was crucified. Witnesses look on in amazement as the revived man struggles to rise.

Ubaldo Gandolfi, Italian, 1728–1781, The Entombment of Christ, c. 1750, Pen and brown ink with brown wash on paper. Collection of Robert Loper

The Virgin Mary leans forward, her arms opened wide. This gesture invites the spectator to behold the recumbent figure of her dead son. By placing the Virgin's arms just above Christ's body, Gandolfi makes her gesture even more expressive: Mary seems to be about to wrap Jesus's body in a tender maternal embrace.

Paolo de' Matteis, Italian, 1662–1728, The Choice of Hercules, 1712. Pen and brown ink with gray wash and white heightening on blue paper. Collection of Robert Loper

The young Hercules was asked to choose between a life of virtue and a life of pleasure, each represented here by allegorical figures. The figure of Pleasure, reclining seductively on the ground, points to herself and rests her hand on Hercules' club—offering him immediate gratification. Virtue, wearing a laurel crown, points into the distance—toward the fame and immortality that await the hero after a life of hardship and toil.

Perino del Vaga, Italian, 1501–1547, Studies of Horses, c. 1530–35. Pen and brown ink on paper. Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts*

Horses rearing and in motion were often included in Renaissance battle scenes. Perino's horses circle each other as if they are ready to launch an attack. The artist's lively pen strokes suggest the grace and energy of the animals and his own remarkable knowledge of horse anatomy.

Johann Paul Schor, Austrian, active in Italy, 1615–1674, Saturn Devouring His Children, c. 1635–40. Pen and brown ink with brown wash and white heightening on paper. Collection of Robert Loper

Saturn devours his children in order to prevent them from someday overthrowing him as prophesied. Schor downplays the violence of the subject, celebrating the Roman god's connection to the harvest instead: Saturn holds his traditional attribute, the scythe—used for mowing hay and reaping grain—while his cherubic children carry branches of fruit and a bundle of wheat.

Giuseppe Cades, Italian, 1750–1799, The Coronation of the Virgin, c. 1790–99, Pen and brown ink on paper. Collection of Robert Loper

Cades depicts the moment just before the Virgin Mary is crowned Queen of Heaven. His loose, flowing lines establish the overall poses of the figures, leaving the details of the hands, feet, and fingers undefined. Although this drawing is not connected to a known painting, coronations were a popular subject for ceiling paintings.

Domenico Piola, Italian, 1627–1703, The Adoration of the Shepherds, c. 1680s /90s. Pen and brown ink with brown wash over black chalk on paper. Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts

The woman on the left moves aside as a young shepherd rushes up to the stable to see the newborn Christ. He touches her with one outstretched hand in passing. Even the dog seems surprised at the young man's haste, cocking its head and peering at the new arrival with curiosity.

Andrea del Sarto, Italian, 1486–1530, Study of Drapery, 1510–1513, Black chalk on paper. Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts

Andrea del Sarto's study is a good example of Leonardo's advice to his fellow artists: "Draperies that clothe figures should show that they cover living figures. Show the attitude and motion of such a figure with simple, enveloping folds, and avoid the confusion of many folds, especially over protruding parts of the body, so that these may be apparent."

Francesco Fontebasso, Italian, 1707–1769, Standing Male Nude, c. 1735–40, Pen and brown ink on paper, 14 3/4 x 10 1/2 inches. Collection of Robert Loper

Nebuchadnezzar Returning from the Wilderness to His Palace, c. 1770—90, Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo, Pen and brown ink with brown wash over black chalk on paper, 19 3/8 x 15 1/8 inches