Studies of a Camel and Two Hedgehogs

Jacopo Ligozzi was a court painter to Francesco I, Grand Duke of Tuscany, and three successive Medici Grand Dukes, as well as superintendent of the Medici collections at Florence. For Francesco I and Ulisse Aldrovrandi, the celebrated Bolognese naturalist, Ligozzi created a series of exquisite drawings of rare plants and exotic animals, to which this sheet bears a relation.

Here the artist masterfully draws a stately camel, seen from below, using deep shading on its underbelly and neck, allowing the sheet to serve as highlighting. Underneath the camel's head and neck appears, faintly, a second larger study of a camel's head, very lightly drawn in black chalk. The hedgehog, appropriately, is seen from above, and here too the sheet itself serves to give texture to the animal's thick coat. Although later in life Ligozzi created large paintings, he worked often in miniature, in both oil and gouache, reveling in details of texture, color, and shading.