"Why does a beautiful sketch please us more than a handsome painting? Because there is more life and less shape... The sketch appeals to us so strongly perhaps only because, being indeterminate, it leaves more freedom to our imagination..."

mused Denis Diderot, in the mid-eighteenth century, on the interest that connoisseurs took in bozzetti and modelli.

"Voûte du Gesù",
par Giambattista Gaulli, dit "Il Baciccio"

Indeed, the move from the preparatory practice of drawing to that of the bozzetto and the modello is more a matter of the exploring the expressive values of this stage in the creative process than a purely technical approach defining "the first idea".

Private collectors took a very early interest in bozzetti and modelli, which have the intrinsic qualities due to the immediacy of their "invention". Remarkable collections were put together in the 17th and 18th centuries by Cardinals Scipio Borghese, Francesco Barberini and Leopold de'Medicis. The second half of the 20th century was distinguished by those of collectors such as Fabrizio and Fiammetta Lemme and Maurizio Fagiolo dell'Arte.

"Le Triomphe du Nom de Jésus" (bozzetto),
par Giambattista Gaulli, dit "Il Baciccio"