>>5929678There are still essential characteristics that define the form of what training with Bargue is from previous training. One is that students learned from copying working drawings from masters along with the finished works. This might seem a small detail, but from there it informs the student how to view and describe the model. This is still different from a training that is specifically designed for students. They also learned from examples of watching masters start a painting from sketch to the finished piece. The part about the garzone posing is often more about the assistant posing for a specific purpose, namely for sketches intended for a finished work, likely by the master or another assistant painter working on the same project. I have no doubt that they sometimes took turns sketching each other but the context is different from what is often repeated. The systematic approach, of graduating from casts and then to live models is something that was more firmly formalized in later period. Drawngs of posed models that are set up for pure practice, such as the hired models we have today for life drawing sessions, unrelated to finished works or drawings with context, start to show around 17th century still was not very common. Most examples are also by artists who already had their career in art.
