The biggest exhibition of Italian Renaissance drawings to be staged for decades is about to open at the King’s Gallery, Buckingham Palace. But when it comes to the Royal Collection’s latest show, it’s not size that matters, nor the fact that many of the era’s most celebrated names — Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and Raphael among them — will be represented. Rather it’s the extraordinary range of techniques and the expressive variety of styles to be discovered.
More than 80 different artists are included. So you can fall in love with the sinuous lyricism of Raphael’s The Three Graces, but also find Fra Angelico taking a fellow monk for his model in a 1450 drawing (the earliest piece in this exhibition) in which he