ABSTRACT
As is all too well known, in his biography of Federico Barocci, Giovan Pietro Bellori gave a vivid account of his subject's poisoning as a young artist in Rome. Two facts are incontrovertible: Barocci was a prolific draughtsman and he retained a very considerable number of the drawings he made during his impressively long career. That he cannot have kept everything seems equally clear, and not just when it came to cartoons or head studies in oil. It makes obvious sense that any assessment of Barocci's "Studio" should seek to compare his drawings legacy with what is known of those of his precursors and contemporaries. Predictably enough, the general survival rates for Italian Renaissance drawings are extremely low, even allowing for the fact that over time-and especially after 1500 or so-it seems clear that artists executed increasing numbers of them.
