Giovanni Battista Franco

Giovanni Battista Franco kept a room full of broken plaster casts—bits of gods and heroes he’d haul out at night to sketch by candlelight when the official models went home. He once drew a single Bacchic frieze so tightly packed with drunken dancers that the sheet looked like a crowded tavern wall. In the corner you can still see the smudged edge where his chalk hand must have slipped after the fourth glass of wine. Look up “A Bacchic frieze; below, two studies of classical ornament” and you’ll find the whole messy party preserved on paper.