Lequeu used drawing to interrogate the ancient canon of beauty, epitomized in this sheet by a venerated Roman marble bust thought to represent ideal human proportions. He divided the head into its component parts as if it comprised masonry blocks; beneath, he placed an array of the draftsman’s tools.
Jean-Jacques Lequeu (1757–1826)
Frontispiece to New Method, 1792
Pen and black ink, gray wash
Bibliothèque nationale de France, Departement des Estampes et de la photographie