Painter's Studio

What first catches your eye in this dim painter's studio is a brightly lit pile of classical sculptures. The light falls upon a sculpture of a muscular discus thrower immediately behind it. These are plaster casts of antique sculptures. The youth in yellow on the left is busy drawing one of the sculptures. The boy to the left of the standing sculpture is drawing from a bust on the table in front of him. Drawing from examples was a fixed part of a painter's trainingStudio practiceFrom the 15th century painters maintained large studios with numerous pupils who doubled as assistants. Pupils would prepare the panels or canvases, pulverise the pigments and prepare the paint on the master's palette. Meanwhile, they learned the skills they would need, with the emphasis on the human form. They would start by practicing small parts of the body from books of examples - noses, eyes, hands and feet - later copying larger prints and paintings. Having mastered these techniques pupils would begin drawing from copies of classical statues. Advanced pupils would draw models. By the time they had completed their education they would be helping the master with the real work in the studio by painting peripheral parts of the composition, such as the background. This remained the practice in artists studios until the 19th century. in the seventeenth century. The studio was painted by Michael Sweerts in around 1650.