Also known as the Berlin sketchbook, this small volume contains 48 pages with drawings on either side. The pages contain superb sketches including portraits, city views, perspective exercises and studies of animals. They provide an extraordinary insight into the way a sixteenth-century workshop operated. Many of them relate directly to paintings and woodcuts by Jacob Cornelisz.
The sketchbook is on display in a showcase at Amsterdam Museum, and is therefore only open at one page at a time. Since all the drawings in the book are worth seeing, a digital copy of the entire book has been made especially for the exhibition.
It is therefore possible to leaf through the sketchbook on screen in the exhibition and to view close-ups of the drawings. What makes this so fascinating is the view it provides behind the scenes at Jacob’s workshop: What did the sketches for the woodcuts look like? How did he manage to achieve correct perspective? And which studies did he use for his masterpieces?
The digital sketchbook also enables a comparison between Jacob’s preparatory drawings and his finished paintings. So does anyone know where to find the owl, the ship or the man hidden in the sketchbook in the paintings of Jacob Cornelisz?