"Art Class" Why does the professor mention the drawing of Marie Antoinette?

Narrator: Listen to part of a lecture in an art class. The professor is discussing drawing.
Professor:
Drawing is a very basic art form. It’s appealing because it can be used to make a very quick record of
the ideas that an artist may be envisioning, so, a drawing can serve as a visual aid for the artist to
remember a certain moment of inspiration and maybe use it for a more detailed work later on. Okay,
usually such sketches allow the artist to visualize the proportions and the shapes without much attention
to details so these images can be used by painters, architects, sculptors—any artist really. And large
renderings, sketches of parts of the whole.., these can be helpful in the creative process when a... a
huge image might be more difficult to conceive of in its entirety. Or, a sketch of just one face in a crowd
can allow the artist to... focus on creating just that part of the image. So, in many artists’ studios,
countless drawings are strewn about as the final painting or sculpture takes form. And this gives us insight
into the creative process, as well the opportunity to see changes from the images at the beginning in the
images of the finished work. It’s rare, in fact, for an artist to use permanent materials to begin a piece of
art. And some painters, for example, even sketch onto the surface of the canvas before applying the
pigments. Now, architects are especially prone to sketches because, of course, their buildings are so  Q13
large that an image in smaller scale is necessary to the imagination and impiementation of such  Q14
projects, So, uh, these studies become the basis for future works. And again, this is very interesting as a
record of the creative process. Okay so far?
   Okay, drawing has several other functions besides as a temporary reference. For centuries, artists  Q12
have used drawing as a traditional method of education. By copying the great works, especially of the
Old Masters, aspiring artists could learn a lot about proportion, how to capture light and shadow and...
and so forth. In fact, some artists who later achieve recognition, still continue to use this practice to hone
their skills or... or simply to pay homage to another artist, as is often the case when a work of art
originally created in another medium like a sculpture.., when it’s recreated in the form of a drawing. Many
examples of drawings of Michelangelo’s sculptures were re-created by well-known artists. One that comes to mind is the Study of Michelangelo’s Bound Slave by Edgar Degas. The original by
Michelangelo was a marble sculpture that was, oh, about seven feet in height, but the small drawing was made
in a sketchpad. In any case, the study is also considered a masterpiece, on a small scale, of course.
   So... what additional purposes might be served by the medium of drawing? Well, let’s remember  Q12
that photography is a relatively new art form, so prior to the use of photographs to record historical
events, a quick drawing by an artist was about the only way to preserve a real-time visual account of an
important moment. Although a more permanent visual impression might be rendered later, it would be
based on memory and not on the artist’s actual observation. Probab y the most often c ted example of a  Q15
sketch that preserved an historical record would be the small drawing of Marie Antoinette as she was
taken to the guillotine in a cart through the streets of Paris. Jacques-Louis David sketched this famous
drawing on a piece of paper about the size of the palm of his hand. And the artist, the artist reporter, is
still important even in modern times, when photography isn’t possible, for example, when judges won’t
permit cameras in the courtroom.
   Okay, to review, we’ve talked about three functions for drawing—as a visual aid for the artist to  Q17
complete a future work, as a method of education for aspiring artists or even practiced artists, and as a way
to report an event. But the sketchbook has... other possibilities. Sometimes a drawing is the final
execution of the art. Picasso produced hundreds of drawings in, well, every conceivable medium, but
especially in pencil and crayon. I find it very interesting that Picasso did so much of this kind of work...
drawing, I mean, in his last years. Some critics have argued that he was just laughing at the art world,
which was willing to pay outrageous sums for anything with his name on it, and clearly, a drawing can
be executed in a short period of time. But others, other critics, they feel as I do that Picasso was  Q16
drawing because it was so basic, and because it wasso spontaneous and so much fun. And also, think about
how difficult it really is to produce a quick drawing with a few lines and, uh, no opportunity to... to
recreate the original, either by painting it out or remodeling the clay or changing the building materials, or...
or any of the other methods for revision of a finished artistic work that artists have at their disposal.
So, what I’m saying is that drawing when it’s elevated to a finished piece, it must be done with
confidence and it must show a high degree of creativity and mastery of the art form. In a way, it harkens back
to the beginnings of art itself, when some unknown artist must have stuck a finger in the earth to draw
an image or... maybe he picked up a stone and made a drawing on the wall of a cave.
   Okay, so, as a first assignment, I want you to make a couple of sketches yourself. I’m not going to
grade them. This isn’t a studio art class. I just want you to use a few basic strokes to capture an image.
You can do the first one in pencil, crayon, ink, chalk, or even charcoal... whatever you like. Then, I
want you to sketch the same image in a different medium. So, if you do a face in pencil, I want you to do
the same face but in chalk or crayon. Bring them to class next week and we’ll continue our discussion of
drawing, but we’ll talk more about the materials artists use to produce drawings, and, uh, we’ll refer to
your sketches as examples.