Tenth Annual Master Drawings Symposium

On February 3 rd MASTER DRAWINGS held its annual symposium for the tenth year
during MDNY 2026, showcasing the brightest young scholars in the field. The journal recognizes
the best articles by authors under 40 years by awarding them the Ricciardi prize. Winners are
provided with an opportunity to present their findings in front of drawings enthusiasts.

This year’s winner was Giovanni Lusi, author of “Behind Abstraction: Cy Twombly and Leonardo
da Vinci's Drawings.” Lusi, a Ph.D. student at the Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa, brilliantly
presented the intense relationship Twombly had with the drawings and notebooks of Leonardo,
notably during the early phase of his career. Lusi’s research reveals the remarkable role the
dialogue with the Renaissance master had on the invention of Twombly’s pictorial language.

The symposium also featured 2025 prize runner-up Femke Speelberg, who discussed her
fascinating analysis of a rare, monumental design for a sacrament house attributed to the Late-
Gothic German architect Lorenz Lechler. In focusing on Lechler’s design, and its immediate
context, Speelberg, Curator of Historic Ornament, Design, and Architecture at the Metropolitan
Museum of Art, illuminated the little understood but fundamental role of drawing in the design
practice of Gothic artists and craftsmen across a range of disciplines.

Thank you to our hosts, The Drawing Foundation in association with Master Drawings New York
2026, and additional thanks to the Tavolozza Foundation, whose generous support made the
event possible. We are also grateful to The Cy Twombly Foundation for the illuminating images.
If you weren’t able to join us, we welcome you to watch the recording.

https://thedrawingfoundation.org/event/drawings-week-2026-mdj-symposium/