Dr. David Drogin

About Dr. David Drogin

Dr. David Drogin has been a professor in the History of Art Department at SUNY’s Fashion Institute of Technology since 2004 and has previously taught at Wesleyan University, Harvard and Yale. A specialist in Italian Renaissance art, he received his M.A. and Ph.D. from Harvard University.

Quarrying marble - Carrara, Toscana, Italia — Cracks, picks, polish—and teeth. Sounds like dentistry, but the pearly whites here are blocks of Carrara marble.

A-level: Quarrying and carving marble

Albrecht Dürer's woodcuts and engravings — Have print, will travel. New technologies of mechanical reproduction allowed Dürer to circulate his artistic ideas.

A-level: Albrecht Dürer’s woodcuts and engravings

Quarrying marble - Carrara, Toscana, Italia — Cracks, picks, polish—and teeth. Sounds like dentistry, but the pearly whites here are blocks of Carrara marble.

Quarrying and carving marble

Cellini Perseus with the head of Medusa-thumb — Forget mythology—Cellini makes his skill the subject. Defying skeptics, he cast this upright bronze without flaw.

Benvenuto Cellini, Perseus with the Head of ...

Albrecht Dürer's woodcuts and engravings — Have print, will travel. New technologies of mechanical reproduction allowed Dürer to circulate his artistic ideas.

Albrecht Dürer’s woodcuts and engravings

Quarrying marble - Carrara, Toscana, Italia — […]

Quarrying and carving marble

Leonardo da Vinci, Letter to the Duke of Milan - detail of map of Tuscany — We now think of Leonardo as a great painter, but his résumé included mapmaker, engineer, and military strategist.

Leonardo, Letter to the Duke of Milan

Andrea Mantegna, Camera Picta (Camera degli Sposi), frescos in the ducal palace in Mantua, 1465-74 - detail — Head’s up—that plant’s about to fall! These Roman emperors may seem grave, but there’s plenty to smile at here.

Andrea Mantegna, Camera Picta (Camera degli Sposi)

Fra Fillippo Lippi, Portrait of a Man and Woman at a Casement, tempera on wood, c. 1440 (Metropolitan Museum of Art) — Who said beauty is skin deep? In the Renaissance, good looks and pale skin signalled interior virtue and purity.

Fra Fillippo Lippi, Portrait of a Man ...

Giovanni Pisano, Slaughter of the Innocents (detail) — Does that muscular nude look familiar? Figures from classical antiquity make a reappearance.

Nicola Pisano, Pulpit, Pisa Baptistery, and Giovanni ...

Andrea Pisano, Reliefs for the Campanile in Florence, c. 1336 - detail — Biblical stories, zodiac signs, and scenes of local industry share real estate on the bottom of this bell tower.

Andrea Pisano, Reliefs for the Florence Campanile

Rogier van der Weyden, Deposition-thumb — You can taste the tears... Rogier captures grieving bodies with meticulousness and compositional rhythm.

Rogier van der Weyden, Deposition

Guercino, St. Luke Displaying a Painting of the Virgin- detail — In this defense of images, St. Luke turns his back on the written word to focus on painting

Guercino, St. Luke Displaying a Painting of ...

Petrus Christus, Portrait of a Carthusian, 1446 (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York) — Why the fly? With this detail, the painter shows off his skill, celebrates life—and fools both nature and viewer.

Petrus Christus, Portrait of a Carthusian

Bronzino, Portrait of a Young Man - detail — The hard, porcelain-like faces of Bronzino’s young men aren’t the only masks in these paintings.

Bronzino and the Mannerist Portrait