Discover the secrets of the Renaissance at Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen's Depot

The Renaissance drawings are a prominent part of Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen's collection and, after a period of research, are being shown to the public again in an interactive exhibition. From 23 November, Secrets of Italian drawings will be on show in Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen's Depot. It includes works in chalk or ink by Fra Bartolommeo, Palma Giovane, Jacopo Tintoretto and many more Italian masters. The special thing is that visitors can get to work themselves!

In the spirit of the work building - which is the Depot par excellence - visitors examine the various drawings in detail. How can you tell that an artist was left-handed or right-handed? How do you detect that something is a forgery? How do you distinguish cities and regions? What are the different methods of working? How can you tell that Tintoretto absolutely coincides with Venice and that Fra Bartolommeo belongs nowhere but Florence?

The exhibition shows that the country as we know it today did not actually exist during the Renaissance. The boot formed a patchwork of different regions, each with its own governance and identity. The Renaissance - roughly 1400 to 1600 - was a period in which man harked back to classical antiquity. Its impact on art was that of a landslide; the Renaissance turned the development of art on its head. All this is reflected in the drawing work on display at the Depot.