1586
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
Flowering Bush above an Eroded Bank is a 1586 by Federico Barocci, a Renaissance work, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.
You see a small, quick sketch of a bush growing over a crumbling dirt cliff. Barocci didn’t try to paint a whole scene—just a slice of nature. He used chalk, ink, and paint together, which was unusual then. The loose lines make the bush feel alive, like it’s still growing. Look up *sfumato* to see how other artists softened edges the same way.
Federico Barocci, who worked in Urbino, made landscape sketches for use in his paintings and as independent studies. The artist’s multimedia approach—combining chalks, ink washes, and opaque paints—was novel at the time but would become standard practice for landscape artists working in later centuries. Novel, as well, was his interest in excerpts of the natural world rather than fully realized scenes. Here, the artist drew an eroded bank with a few bold lines in black chalk, then used a brush to layer brown and white ink washes, capturing the untamed clump of earth with remarkable naturalism.
This drawing is believed to have once been in the collection of two brothers who were considered the premier academic painters in 19th-century Rome.
Read the full account in the museum source.
Federico Barocci (also written Barozzi) (c. 1535 – 30 September 1612) was an Italian Renaissance painter and printmaker. His original name was Federico Fiori, and he was nicknamed Il Baroccio. His work was highly…
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