Drawing on the old masters
Archived article from Nov 18, 2002
By Amy Vames
Every Friday, 11 undergraduates majoring in art history leave the Rutgers campus and travel by train to Manhattan, then head over to the Morgan Library on East 36th Street. There they enter an opulent world of Gilded Age elegance, home to one of the finest collections of rare books, drawings and manuscripts anywhere.
The library, designed by Charles McKim at the turn of the 20th century for financier J. Pierpont Morgan, has been called one of the seven wonders of the Edwardian World. Today, in addition to serving as a center for scholarly research, the library exhibits items from its vast collection of illuminated, literary and historical manuscripts; early printed books, including three Gutenberg Bibles; and old master drawings and prints.
The Rutgers students are taking a new course offered by the art history department, "Old Master Drawings: Connoisseurship and Conservation." And because the Morgan Library is the repository of a major collection of old master drawings, these Rutgers students have an extraordinary opportunity for firsthand study of masterpieces by such artists as Rembrandt, Düat;rer, Rubens and Gainsborough, to name a few.
"The students in the class work with the actual drawings," said Jennifer Tonkovich, assistant curator for drawings and prints at the Morgan and the instructor for the course. "They learn how to look at the drawings and how to handle them." A drawing is any work on paper, as opposed to canvas or other surface. Common media include watercolor, pen and ink, and black and red chalks. The drawings studied in the class are typically unframed but matted. Using microscopes and special lights, the students examine works in a way that would be impossible in most other art history courses.
The course focuses on works from the 16th through the 18th centuries. While numerous artists and styles of drawing are covered, each student is assigned one artist to study in depth and write papers about.
The course was proposed by Tonkovich, who received her doctorate in art history from Rutgers this past spring, when the Morgan Library was looking for ways to expand its educational mission. She developed the class with Tod Marder, chair of the art history department, who obtained financial support from the Faculty of Arts and Sciences dean's office and the Rutgers College honors program to pay the students' travel expenses. Marder said the course is the first of its kind in the art history department. "The nature and quality of these drawings is beyond the reach of most art history students," he added. "The course is a great example of what Rutgers can do by virtue of its proximity to New York City."
Susan Bucks, a senior art history major at University College, said she took the course to learn more about what it's like to work at a museum. Having hands-on experience with the drawings "is very exciting and not something you expect to do in a college course. It's made me more excited about working in the field, which is very competitive. Taking this course can only be an asset."
In addition to studying the master drawings, the students learn what it takes to be a museum curator and how works are conserved. The class meets in the library's Thaw Conservation Center, a new state-of-the-art facility devoted to the conservation and technical study of drawings and literary, historical and music manuscripts. The center is spacious and airy, with an abundance of natural light. Sleek, richly hued wood cabinets holding drawings and prints line the walls, and work stations featuring high-powered microscopes and ultraviolet and infrared lights dot the center's hub.
Tonkovich, who interned at the library while attending Rutgers, says the great range and depth of works held by the Morgan provide the students with an understanding of the significance of drawings in the art history world. "Most students don't study drawings, but they are an important part of an artist's expression," she said. "These drawings are truly works of art and are no less important than paintings."
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