Leonardo – Dürer Renaissance Master Drawings on Colored Ground

Antonio Pisano, called Pisanello, Allegory of the Luxuria (verso), ca. 1425–1430, Albertina Museum, Vienna. © Photo: The ALBERTINA Museum, Vienna)

The Albertina Museum is dedicating its spring 2025 exhibition to the most important masters of the art of drawing. Leonardo - Dürer. Renaissance Master Drawings on Colored Ground is the major inaugural exhibition of Director General Ralph Gleis and at the same time the world's first detailed museum show in this field: and the most comprehensive presentation of Leonardo in the German-speaking world to date. From an art-historical perspective, the exhibition is also a premiere: the subject is considered in a pioneering way across regions between Italy and the North.

For the first time, developments in Italy and the north are seen in a reciprocal context: While drawings on colored paper in Italy played their role more as sketches and studies in the artistic work process, north of the Alps they were valued as independent works of art in miniature. In German-speaking countries in particular, drawings on colored paper were used for detailed depictions of religious or mythological themes.

In this exhibition 26 drawings by Albrecht Dürer meet as many works by Leonardo da Vinci. In addition to works by Leonardo and Dürer, the exhibition presents top-class works by Raphael, Titian, Albrecht Altdorfer, Hans Baldung Grien, Hans Holbein the Elder and other outstanding Renaissance masters. The starting point for the extensive show is the museum's own collection: around two thirds of the masterpieces on display come from the ALBERTINA Museum.

Master drawings such as Leonardo's Apostles or Dürer's Praying Hands paved the way for the recognition of the art of drawing as an artistic genre on a par with painting and are still among the most famous works of the Renaissance and the centerpieces of the ALBERTINA Museum's graphic art collection.

The exhibition offers a unique opportunity to discover this virtuoso technique with top-class works from the museum's own collection as well as important international loans from the Royal Collection Trust Windsor Castle, the Louvre, the Metropolitan Museum New York, the Uffizi in Florence, the Kupferstichkabinett Berlin, the British Museum and numerous other international collections.